Combine meshes at runtime without all mesh as children of mesh 0?

It looks like the CombineMeshes method will only combine mesh for children of an object. Is it possible to combine mesh for mesh that are not children of the mesh0?

http://unity3d.com/support/documentation/ScriptReference/Mesh.CombineMeshes.html

That code sample on that page just happens to do that, collecting Mesh Filters in children, but I don't see why it couldn't get MeshFilters from anywhere. Worst case you could re-parent the other objects under that one.