Sarah Kinney was most likely born in early 1768 in either Maugerville, or Oromocto if her parents had taken over the land and buildings that existed from the former French occupants (see the description provided in the Studholm report of 1783) over the first winter (1767-68) before her birth.

In Bell's book [p. 78] he makes the assumption that "it is probable she (Sarah) was born in that State (Massachusetts) before her parents came to Maugerville."

The oldest child of Israel and Susannah Kinney was Deborah born on 30 Jan 1764, although not truly known where, but most likely in Danvers where they were "warned out" in March of 1764. Danvers is what was the Old Salem Village sharing a border with Middleton where Israel worked at what had become his Uncle Isaac Kenney's Iron Works and lived and was a taxpayer starting in fall of 1761-62, was not on the tax roles in 1763-64, and then again after the birth of Deborah, from all of 1765-spring period of 1767.

As there is a certain rhythm to most childbirths in families of that period of time, Israel and Susannah were no exception. So from the time of Deborah's birth in early 1764, to the rest of the children clearly born in Burton/Oromocto starting with Stephen in 1770, to only have one child Sarah in that 6 year period is improbable. Starting with Stephen that rhythm of a birth every 15/16 + months to as much as 2 + years stretch is constant right till Andrew. So if Sarah were born in Massachusetts it would have had to be from circa 1765-1767, as folk lore places Israel and Susannah leaving Middleton and Massachusetts "in the fall of 1767" and to back that up, an actual citation is found from 30th of Aug 1767 when "Israel Kenney and wife confessed their sins of fornication" before the church. Clearly they were getting their "spiritual house in order" before leaving on their journey to their new home.

So besides the birth of Sarah, there has to be at least 1-2 other birth events of children in the 6 + year stretch between Deborah and Stephen. Where those occurred and when, will help place when and where Sarah was born.

The first clue is an Early Vital Records of Middleton recorded stillborn birth/death of an unnamed "child of Israel Kenny" on 19 Aug 1765. This as you will see has to be a child born to Israel Kenney and Susannah Hood.

As anyone that has read Jeff Green's "the 4 Israel's" piece knows that 3 of these Israel's were all first cousins and peers to some degree. We now need to separate the 3 of them at this point to find out where they were and at what point in their lives they were at with their childbirths.

First let's look at who Mr. Green lists as "Israel #4", the legitimate son of Israel ("#1") We can rule Israel #4 out immediately as he and his wife Hannah Balch have a recorded marriage intention in Topsfield on 5 May 1765, and the birth of their first child named Daniel is recorded in Middleton records on "31" Nov 1765. Whether it was the 3rd of Nov or the 13th or ? remains to be seen, as there are only 30 days in Nov as we all know, a possible mistake at that time, or in the person that transcribed the old written records to make it to print. Clearly there is no way that a stillborn child in Aug could allow for a successful birth of another just 3 1/2 months later

The other Israel of this time period attributed from the greater Middleton area was Mr. Green's own "#3," the "illegitimate" son of Israel #1. This Israel married Hannah Wilkins on 18 Sep 1764 in Middleton. Certainly the time line would allow this stillborn child to be his as it was an 11 month period after marriage. However, if one takes a look at the birth spacings of his known children, they are all on the wider spread of time of 2 years apart to as much as 3+ in one case. Israel #3's first recorded child was Rebecca born in Hollis, NH almost 2 years to the day after her parent's marriage, and the next child Israel "Jr." the same time spread after the previous birth etc etc. While it would have been possible for Israel #3 to have had the stillborn child 11 months after marriage, we then move to the fact that the daughter Rebecca was born 13 months after that, a little sooner than most, but again hardly out of the question, but an extremely askew birth spacing compared to the rest of her siblings. The second and most compelling evidence of this stillborn child not belonging to Israel #3, is the fact that Israel #3 no longer lived in Middleton in 1765. He was a taxpayer in Middleton in the years of 1762 through 1764 only, next to or with his Aunt “Eliner”Perkins, his mother Rebecka’s oldest sister, and Eliner is the same woman who also had brought Israel “#3” to be baptized in Middleton and is mentioned by name in that church record. Israel #3 was no longer a taxpayer starting in the Feb 1765 tax records from that point forward and was in Hollis, NH. Israel #4 and Israel #2 were both taxpayers in the year 1765, and Israel #4 was referred to as Jr. as he was a Jr. by birth, and also younger than Israel #2 by about 6 years.

To conclude, this stillborn birth was Israel and Susannah's and the event occurred essentially 19+ months after the birth of Deborah and fits their birth spacing timelines "like a glove."

This leaves about a 4 1/2 year period remaining before the birth of Stephen in Burton/Maugerville in 1770, and only Sarah in which to find a spot.

There is next a reference including a child of Israel Kenney death event in Middleton in the commonly used/copied typewritten transcriptions of the Early Vital Records of Mass. It is listed as such: " __ child of Israel Kenny Jr. "found dead in ye bed upon the waking of ye parents" 7 Feb 1767", essentially what we would refer to today as "crib death" or SIDS.

As we know, there are now only two Israel Kenney's living in Middleton at this point as Israel #3 is living in Hollis NH. Israel #4 is truly referred to as Jr. in Middleton tax records during this period of multiple Israel's in town. However, Israel #4's 1st born child Daniel that was born in Nov 1765 survives to adulthood and is found on future town records and migrates into Salem as an adult, so this rules him out as a possibility. Israel #4's next born child is William born on 23 Jan 1768, a year beyond the "crib death", not out of the question of possibility at all for a timeline. However once again if one looks at the entire run of birth spacing for this couple, squeezing in a childbirth of an unnamed child approx 13 or fewer months after the birth of their first Daniel, and then the subsequent birth of their second child William, either 12 or fewer months later after the "crib death" would be a huge disruption to the birth timelines by this couple of on average 2 + yrs to as much as 2 yrs 5 months for their first 5 children. There is only one span under at 1 year and 10 months.

While this mathematical childbirth timeline is not absolute proof that this "crib death" isn't of a child of Israel "#4" by any stretch, the following finding does help push it over the finish line in my estimation. Upon a visual look at the original handwritten record of this event, it is clear the transcriber struggled with the slightly messy writing and overlap of some of the different notations. This original is available on Ancestry for all to see. First the actual day is the 3rd not the 7th, as one can see the difference in how the numbers are written throughout the entire page to draw reference to. The handwriting in this entire sheet was done by the same scribe as one looks at the similarity of the penmanship.

When the notation of the suffix after Israel's name is written, one can clearly see that the letters are SnR. All one has to do at that point is to find the same capital letters written in the adjacent listings of other events to see the exact similarity in shape. While I am not a hand-writing expert, I can see obvious similarities. Now the Canadian bound Israel "#2" is not a Senior yet (until about early 1772) he would have been listed as such in the written record in order to help separate him from the other Israel solely based on age difference as that was done quite frequently in Middleton records, especially a few years later in the tax records of town when there were 3 different Asa Kenney's and none of them father/son combinations, but still listed as Sr., Jr., and the 3rd.

So the "crib death" child belongs to Israel Kenney and Susannah Hood, and probably was born only a few weeks before the death equaling a 16-17 month time spread from the stillborn death. So it is highly improbable, essentially impossible, that Susannah became pregnant before or immediately after this "crib death" event so that Sarah would be born in Massachusetts before their departure in Sept or maybe Oct of 1767. Also to give the same minimum of 16 month period of childbirth and the recovery of the mother before conceiving again, this shows that Sarah would have been born in Canada no sooner than March + or - of 1768. This also explains why there were birth time line gaps in the early childbearing years of Susannah.

As I wrote previously on Richard Kimball's life timeline, Sarah and Richard probably married in 1784 in Maugerville/Burton. She would have been over the age of 16, and for that period of time and in that setting that age was quite normal, as there were also a lot of marriages that the girls were just 15.

She bore 11 children including the two girls that are currently unknown (at least to me) found in the head count of Richard and Sarah's household in the 1790 census in Bridgton Maine.

Also as previously written in Richard's timeline, Sarah's last known citation is a deed she signed with Richard in Nov. 1829 in Burton, and the first evidence of Richard's second wife Fanny "?" was on a deed from 24 Sept 1835. Unless some new citation of some kind comes to light, we may never discover the exact date and I would go so far as the say just split the difference in the two known her/not her dates and say she died circa 1832. No matter the exact year, we can more than reasonably assume that she died in Burton and would have been interred in the "Old Morrison" graveyard in the same general area as her parents, Israel and Susannah, and her brothers Israel Jr. and Elijah.

Information provided by Cousin Jerry Kuntz (Anonymous), a Kinney cousin descended from two sons of Israel, John and Asa.