Bonnie's MILNE Family
The Milnes of Torphins
Reading from left to right
Alexander, David, George,Robert, James Anderson Milne & Jane McCombie Milne
photo taken at 'North Footie Farm" Torphins ABD 1891
This is the line which I particularly wanted to trace, being my Father's, but unfortunately many of the line emigrated between the 1861 and 1871 UK Census and, with such a commom name, it has been extremely hard to follow this through.
I know that my Grandfather's brother, Robert MILNE, went over to Canada not long before WW1, but I have been unable to find him after that.
George Milne, the son of Robert MILNE and Anne REID, and his wife Isabella HENDERSON lost both of their sons to the USA as from a monumental inscription in Dyce, ABD, I found that David MILNE (born 1861, Edinburgh)and his brother Alexander ( born 1863 Strachan, KCD) both emigrated to the USA. David settled in Ogden, Utah after going to New York where he had a son David A MILNE in 1888, and Alexander settled in Bixby, South Dakota in the Black Hills area.This town no longer exists.
To date, I only have theories on anything beyond the 1760s on this family, any wonder, as I have found them under the spellings…MILL, MILNE, MILLN, MILN, all in the one family! It wasn’t till I actually visited Torphins on my 5 yearly pilgrimage, that I realized why this happened, as the local dialect actually sounds like MILL. On knocking at a Milne door (at one of the many farms my family were found on in the census), I was faced with a man who had a really broad Aberdonian accent who told me that he too was a MILL, despite the fact that I kept shaking my head and saying, NO, I mean M-I-L-N-E!!!!!! Here I was thinking I was pretty good on accents and couldn’t even understand this man from the very same town as my predecessors and possibly even a distant cousin!!
I picked up my 4th great grandfather ROBERT MILNE being christened in 1764 in the wee town of TORPHINS which is near the larger town of Kincardine O’Neil in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. I also found an older brother Abraham in 1762. Of their parents, Robert Milne and Ann Shaw, I found no marriage and, there were so many Robert Milnes born around that area and time slot, that it was virtually impossible to prove which one was the correct Robert.
The family seemed to shift around to different farms, probably as their family increased and names like ‘North Footie’, ‘South Footie’, ‘Mid Belty’, ‘Cocardie’, 'Annerslie’ and ‘Waulkmill’, pop up in the records. Also, it was noted, that whilst they appear to have been farmers in the summer months, they were master carpenters in the winter.
By the time that 1820 arrived, I couldn't find anything on the IGI for them, which really surprised me as my Robert was shown on most of the OPRs officiating at christenings, marriages and deaths, probably the local lay preacher. I found that there was an upheaval in the Church at this stage and, obviously my family did not remain with the Established Church, so, the only place I could find them was in the Census, unfortunately, by the time 1841 came, some of the family had * flown the coop*!
From there on, things like the advent of a railway line in the area, soon finds the family spreading out over Aberdeenshire and later even to the greener pastures of England and, as far a field as other countries. So, if you think that one of your family might fit in with some of my names and dates, please let me know so we can work together on it, as I would really love to find some of my *long lost cousins*.
We had a wonderful trip around the world from May-August 2005 and had a lot of fun in NRH Edinburgh looking for my MILNE family. Between that and a swapping research with a lady in Scotland, I have finally started to find some of the female sides from both Robert and Abraham's sides. I hope you will take time to peruse these surnames (from Aberdeenshire) and, if any of them are familiar, please don't hesitate to contact me.
Abraham's side: BROWN-COOPER-CRAIGMILE-DONALD-FRASER-FULLERTON-FYFE-McALLAN-MERCHANT-SHARP-SIMPSON-SNOWIE-WEIR.
Robert's side: BERRY-BRAND-DOWERS-DUNCAN-ESSON-FRASER-JESSIMAN-KENNEDY-LINDSAY-NICOL-REED-REID-SANGSTER-STUART-WALKER-WOOD.
Please write to me - Bonnie
Milne Family Surnames
All the Surnames which are in my Milne Family tree.
Individuals in the Milne Families
Page Updated 2nd June 2006