Grace, You don't know where in North Carolina the Collins family came from do you? At first I thought they were descended from the early Grainger County Collins who came like my Howells and Ivys and the Holts came from Orange County, North Carolina. Before anybody asks <grin>I don't know anthing much about these Collinses except for Jane O. Collins Howell who married my 4th great grandmother Jane Howell Ivy's brother Henry Howell back in Orange County. Jane O's father was John Collins according to an early Grainger County land record..I do not know who John Collins wife was (and as far as I know nobody else does either <smile>) The Stanford Collinses came later. I looked in Chatham County on the grounds people tend to move around together. I guess these Collinses could have come from Orange County too and just came later. Gail