Louise is right that Tiree & Coll were for many years included in the same parish. The minister was based in Tiree and an assistant was based in Coll. However, from what I have seen of photocopied pages or transcripts of the Tiree Parish Register of the 1700s and 1800s, I think separate registers must have been kept for Tiree and Coll. I have not come across any entries for Coll baptisms or marriages in the Tiree register. Also, statistics on population and local economy were recorded separately for Tiree & Coll. For instance, the population of Tiree was 1509 in 1755, 2416 in 1792, and 4687 in 1843; in contrast (perhaps because of a different approach to land tenure than that followed by the Duke of Argyll in Tiree?), the population of Coll remained relatively static - it was 1193 in 1755, 1041 in 1793, and 1409 in 1843. In 1843, the annual average of baptisms was 143 in Tiree and 44 in Coll; the annual average of marriages was 25 in Tiree and 6 in Coll. In 1843 the gross value of produce, of which the major commodities were potatoes, grains & pasture, was estimated at 10,609 UK pounds for Tiree and 4,419 UK pounds for Coll. These figures suggest that food production per head in Tiree was already much less (about 30% less) than that in Coll before potato blight struck in 1846, so it's no wonder our ancestors looked for a way out. _________________ Keith Dash Sydney, Australia