McCollin Family Tree

I have been researching my family tree on-and-off since the mid-1980s. I do have interests in other family names (e.g., Dring and Blanchard) but as yet I have not found time to follow these up in any great detail. One thing that has really struck me in my research is the inter-relatedness of us all. I have been able to make contact with distant relatives (both in terms of relatedness and geography) whose grandparents, or great-grandparents, were cousins and lived in the same neighbourhoods. As with many family histories, the McCollin name has much human interest to it. For some ancestors we have very little information but for others records and images survive that provide insight into their lives.

Many McCollins in the UK are inter-related and most can trace their name back to Colin McCollin (1771-1826). Colin married Martha Gillot in Sheffield Cathedral and soon afterwards moved to Kingston-upon-Hull in East Yorkshire when he was about 30 years old. Most McCollins in Hull, Yorkshire, Grantham and those originating from London, as well as elsewhere in the UK, can trace their ancestry back to Colin and Martha. Colin was a nailmaker and this tradition of metalworking was to continue in the family for at least a century. However, it is unlikely that Colin was born in Sheffield. Being one of the few in Sheffield at that time with a Scots-Irish name we can only guess what bought him there. Thus far, I have not been able to discover where he came from although there is evidence of McCollins in both Scotland and Ireland and there was undoubtedly lots of movement between the two (Thirteen McCollin families were recorded in the Barrony of Boylagh & Banagh, Donegal in the Irish Census of 1659 and land ("Turmyn's burgage, called Courtneshehye"), late of John McCollin was recorded in the County of Kerry in Ireland in 1587 (Allotments by the Undertakers in Munster. MS 631 Feb to Sep 1587 held at Lambeth Palace Library - source www.nationalarchives.gov.uk). According to the International Genealogical Index (IGI), McCollins were also present in both Ireland and Scotland during the 18th and 19th centuries.

The name McCollin is never common although there are many to be found in the USA, Canada and the West Indies. Records from the Immigrant Ship Transcribers Guild (ISTG), Ellis Island and elsewhere show that McCollins in North America originated from Scotland and Ireland, and also from Barbados in the West Indies (n.b., both black and white). There are over 200 records for McCollins dating back to the 18thC in Barbados (see www.familysearch.org ). Increasingly, resources are being made available through the internet and my latest discovery is perhaps my most shocking and most uncomfortable yet. Go to ancestry.co.uk and do a free search for 'mccollin' (you might have to sign up); one item that comes up is 'Slave Registers of former British Colonial Dependencies, 1812-1834'. There are 72 records of slaves from 1834. Their first names are given but they don't have surnames. Instead it gives the name of their 'owner': McCollin. Most were in the parish of St Joseph; a few were in the parish of St John. The inference of course is that the slave owner was white; the slaves were black, and they, or their near-ancestors, had been forcibly removed from their homes in Africa and later adopted their slave-owner's name.

One way to check whether we're related is to investigate our genetic inheritance. My Y-chromosone analysis shows that it is probably of Celtic origin (no surprise there then!). The Clan my Y-chromosone matches to is Oisin. This is a clan that originated about 40,000 years ago in the Middle East and has a high proportion today in the following peoples: Basques(90%), Scotland (80%), Poland (75%), England and Wales (73%), Iceland (70%), etc. In terms of British ancestry the reasons for this is probably because Celts originally settled Britain having immigrated up along the western seaboard of Europe and it has recently been found that a surprisingly high proportion of Celtic genes still exist in English populations since these populations were never wholly replaced in later invasions such as by Angles and Vikings, for example. If anyone out there (males obviously) wants to do a similar analysis let me know and we could check out the match on our Y-chromosone signature.

Resources

This is work-in-progress and will be updated in the coming years. If you recognise any of your ancestors, or if you spot any errors in the tree, or if you just want to make contact, do get in touch - e-mail address below. I look forward to hearing from you.

Duncan McCollin

Family tree

1901 Census

List of surnames

Photos

Sources

Births, marriages and deaths

Useful links


Latest Updates

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This page updated with reference to John McCollin 1587 9/7/08.
Fowler and McCollin Accounts 1877-78 (MS Excel file) updated 27/2/06 on Male Line 2 - which was further updated on 22/3/06.
New link to photos added on Photos page 27/2/06.
Link up with McCollins from all over the world on the Facebook McCollins Group.
You can check the archives of the McCollin Family History Discussion List at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/McCollinFamilyHistory. However, this Group is no longer running


Acknowledgements

I would like to thanks all the people too numerous to mention who have helped along the way in this research. The work is the result of over 25 years research, on and off (more off than on!).

Copyright

Please feel free to print this out, save it and/or pass it on to other interested parties. Please feel free to put in links from your site to mine - but please let me know since I may be able to reciprocate. Most of the information presented here is in the public domain, however, given the time and effort that's gone into this research my only objection would be if people tried to pass off this research as their own - a simple acknowledgement would suffice.

Contact me

If you are a McCollin, or if you have any information that you can add to this story, or if you just want to contact me, please do! I would be interested in your story and I would be especially interested if anyone has any old photographs or heirlooms from previous generations. Feel free to scan things in and send them to me. If you would like to get involved in research let me know. It would be particularly useful if you lived near (or had ready access to) Hull or London - I can suggest leads or lines of research you might like to follow up.

E-mail: duncan mccollin

Page last updated 18/11/07

Created by Duncan McCollin 1/8/01

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