The Milburn Connection Reborn

A cover page of the original "The Milburn Conneciton" newsletter

In the mid 1980s two sisters created a wonderful newsletter called The Milburn Connection for descendants of Jeremiah Milburn and Sarah Smith.  Their love of history and enthusiasm for creating and sustaining our family history inspired me to try and bring their efforts to light again.

Although Toni Krainock passed away in 2005, I have not been able to track down Beverly Murphy.  Would love to hear whatever happened with the book they were writing.  I would also like to gain permission to republish pages of their original newsletters and add information that has come to light since then.  I only have a few of the newsletters, but they are fascinating to read.  They were the impetus for many Milburn/Millburn Family Reunions in New Brunswick as well as in Salt Lake City, Utah.

One of the features of their newsletter was the contributions of so many cousins telling the stories of their own ancestors . . . so if you are of Milburn/Millburn descent, please forward me your stories & photos for publication here!  Just send them to MidwestAncesTree at gmail dot com.

A brief introduction to our Milburn family compiled from the work of many researchers inspired by Bev & Toni and their efforts:

Jeremiah Milburn was born the 24th of June 1774 of the Black Cleugh Farm, Stanhope, Durham County, England to Robert Milburn and Elizabeth Kidd. (from The Milburn Connection Vol 1 1983 84 no. 3  page 6A).  His christening is recorded as the 4th of June 1780.

St. John's Chapel in Stanhope, Durham, England records Jeremiah's marriage to Sarah Smith, daughter of Joseph Smith and Sarah Waugh, on the 24th of December 1808.  One of the things I love about reading the old Milburn Connection newsletters is how the sisters wrote the stories of our ancestors.

Having visited the land of our ancestors the sisters took us on a walking tour of the day Robert Milburn married Elizabeth Kidd, supplemented with the pictures they had taken on their tour.  This is an excerpt from that story (always written in all CAPS, but re-typed here for readability):

From "The Milburn Connection Vol 1 1983 84 no. 3  page 7"

"Robert and Elizabeth and their wedding party walked toward the center of town.  Stankhope, from the year of 1421 has held two fairs a year, as well as a Friday market each week.  Robert and Elizabeth had planned their marriage so they could take in the festivities of the fair.  . . ."

Next:  The Robert & Elizabeth Kidd Milburn Family Tree.