When Joseph Daniel Miller was born on 5 September 1789, in Lincoln, North Carolina, United States, his father, John Miller, was 32 and his mother, Martha Kathrine Clay, was 26. He married Sarah Ann Smith on 24 August 1829, in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, United States. They were the parents of at least 1 daughter. He died on 29 November 1847, in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, United States, at the age of 58, and was buried in Millersville, Cape Girardeau, Missouri, United States.