INTRODUCTION by E. Sue Terhune

In the late 1970's, Mary Lawrence (Burnett) Osborne sent my mother, Dorothy Jane (Burnett) Johns, a family tree book for her birthday. The book had blank forms to fill in with names, birth, marriage, and death dates, parents, children, etc. and the sisters gathered considerable amounts of information about their branch of the Burnett Family Tree. At this point, I was also bitten by the genealogy 'bug' and started helping with the research and collection of material. I never dreamed, at the time, of how many hours of my life would be spent following leads on microfilm in the Detroit Historical Library, writing to newsletters or other Burnetts across the United States and finally using the internet. It was about this time that my cousin, Dean Egner, also began doing research and we shared whatever information we found.

A travel article published in the Detroit News by James A. O. Crowe, October 8, 1978, led me in search of information about Crathes Castle (pronounced Krath-ees) near Aberdeen, Scotland which is still held by the Head of the House of Burnett in the National Trust of Scotland. With the help of my local librarian, we located the book, Scottish Castles Of The 16th and 17th Centuries, which was loaned to me by the Michigan State University Library. This wonderful book contained many pictures and valuable information about the roots of the Burnett family .

Over the years, I have been in correspondence with many people who are also researching their Burnett lines. There is one person, however, June Baldwin Bork of Apple Valley, California, to whom I am especially thankful for helping me to link our family with the rest of the tree. June has published , The Burnetts And Their Connections, an incredible three volume collection of documented information and is known in the Burnett research circles as "the authority" on our family.

Recently my cousin, Tom Osborne, was bitten by the genealogy bug and has proven to be a tremendous asset in the technical end and research phase of this endeavor. We can all thank Tom for setting up these pages and for his work on the Osborne family. Now sit back, click a few buttons,and enjoy your time travel through our pages.