Johann Joachim Friedrick Milhan was born July 23, 1823 in Gross Wokern, Germany. This was the same village where August Heiden and Heinrich Rambow lived before coming to America in 1873 and 1874 respectively.

Johann's parents were Ernst Friedrick Johann and Sophie (Bartels) Milhan (Milhahn) .

On November 29, 1848, Johann married Marie Sophia Frederike Möller in Gross Wokern. They had five children:

1. Wilhelmina (Milhan) Rambow - Mother of Mary (Rambow) Heiden and Fredareka (Rambow) Heiden
   
2. Carl Christian Johann Frederick Martin "Fred" Milhan
   
3. Fredericka Marie Caroline Johanna Brooker
   
4. Wilhelm Friedrick Heinrich Ludwig Milhan
   
5. Christoph Carl August Ludwig Milhan

Johann died on February 20, 1868 at the age of 44. Marie who was born August 10, 1816 died in Gross Wokern on April 10, 1874 at the age of 57. She was buried the day before her daughter, Wilhelmina Rambow and her family left for Hamburg and the ship to America. They took Wilhelmina's three younger siblings, Fredericka, Wilhelm and Christoph with them on the journey. Marie was supposed to go to America also.

Bertha Mae (Heiden) Drake, the daughter of Fredareka (Rambow) Heiden and granddaughter of Wilhelmina Rambow,  wrote the following:

"When they were making plans to come, Grandma's father died. So her mother, sister and brothers were coming too. Then her mother became sick and died and was buried next to her husband. In that village there were no family plots. People were buried in the order they died so it was unusual to be buried next to another family member. So Grandma and Grandpa Rambow brought her sister and brothers (last name was Milhan) with them on the ship to America as well as their own children."

The sister and brothers mentioned in the narrative are numbers 2,3,4 & 5 on the family chart below.