We have not completed the reading of the 1870 IN census - it is not indexed, so it is searching for Merrills page by page. This Israel looks like a good candidate to get m. in 1853 - he is the right age and in the right place. We do not have record of who he m.
More details are available.
We would greatly appreciate any info you have on The Merrill surname descendants of your Israel down to the present day. We are trying to database the Merrill surname nationwide from the original immigrants right down to the present day for all the immigrant lines. So far we have over 40,000 merrill males, plus their wives and daughters in our database, but we estimate that there are well over 100,000, so we have a long way to go, and we need and appreciate all the help we can get, particularly with the later generations. We use this database strictly to try and help folks trace their Merrill roots. We write the Query column for The Merrill Newsletter published by Lil Hall.