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Hi all,
Does anyone have anything on a COLLINS family in Wigtonshire.  An Australian contact of mine is looking for info on the parents, birth and death of the following ancestors:
Hugh Collins married Mary Anne in Wigntonshire 1840.

any help much appreciated!
cheers
willow

My many g-grandfather Alexander McDiarmid born Skye 1807 married Catherine Henderson born 1807 Argyll on November 4, 1832 at Barony Glebe Glasgow.  McDiarmid is an ancient Irish name going back to Diarmid O'Duibhe (O'Duinne), Finn MacCool's (unfortunate) compatriot, and the foster son of Mannan of the Sea (though they became a sept of the Campbells when they left Ireland, my family have handed down the story the name is Celtic Irish)

Alexander and Catherine settled on Skye, at least for the period just before they and their 3 young sons went to Canada 1844/5, initially to North Dakota, before settling in Ontario.
Their first Canadian born son Neil Armand McDiarmid became a Methodist minister (travelling) and master Freemason, so I am assuming his parents were Methodists also, or at least one of them.

We would love to know what the Armand is about, as it was handed down by Neil to his son, Frederick Armand McDiarmid (The Frederick from Neil's wife's heroic Loyalist grandfather who died at Fort Niagara fighting as part of Butler's Rangers in 1780s.)

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