birth and parents: Ellen Collins

[willowtree]

Way back in 1831 an Irish convict called Ellen Collins landed in Australia.  She became my many-greats grandmother.

She arrived on the Hooghley/Hooghly, and was married to a Henry Wyatt in 1832, to whom she had been assigned.

She may have been from Cork county.  She was in her early 20s when she arrived in Australia and there is no record of her having been married before getting on the worng side of the law.  Her conviction read "for stealing a flannel".  Some historians believe judges on occasion used this phrase when the real theft would have meant death rather than transportation. (if you read convict records an awful lot of people were running about stealing face washers and such, which jars oddly with the somewhat unwashed image handed down in Aussie history books of how the olde country was 

I have found on line a bit from the County Cavan paper in 1825, citing an Ellen Collins and two other lasses appearing before the magistrate charged with possessing notes belonging to (someone who's name I forgot to write down).  No further details found on-line at the Cavan County paper site I had found.  Ellen Collins was not an uncommon name, so it may even be a different person.

Any info at all on Collins families who may have had a daughter Elen who vanishes from the records about 1830 (it took sometimes a while in jail and in the hulks, plus the up to 9 months at sea, before people got to Australia) would be apprecaiated.  It would be unlikely to be in a family bible she was transported, but someone of that name with Irish birth between 1805-1815, and no known Irish marriage, post 1830 census or death details might be a possibility.

Thanks very much,
willow Aliento nee McDiarmid