Oban is not close to Paisley. Oban is on the coast and one of the ports from which you can get a ferry to Islay. Paisley is very close to Glasgow and during the 19th century full of industrial sites and the tenements to hold the population needed. Some remained there and some looked further afield and so we have to emigration to 'the colonies'. Islay was just too small to give all the families there employment and the men were encouraged to look for work on the mainland. In dribs and drabs my whole family of McDougalls relocated to the mainland. My great grandfather William, his wife and first born son later emigrating to New Zealand. His brothers, Alexander and Finlay remained in Paisley close to their parents and sister Catherine Jamieson. They were there until the 1881 Census but after the deaths of their parents, appeared to move away. Whether they too went to'the colonies' I have not found out. Their occupations were engine keeper, maltsman, steel worker, laundry worker etc. William had worked on a farm and he was a ploughman so he did well when he came to NZ and I feel sorry for those who did not emigrate. Their lives would have been quite poor. Celia.