 collins family collins family ray mon 2222016 809 the collins family from ireland to mississippi the family of william collins  18191895  forward over the years i have been accumulating genealogy information on all branches of our families although genealogy is fun and rewarding in its own right family history goes beyond the statistics and brings all of those dates and places to life it wasn t until i started working with the biloxi historical society that i started looking at how all of our histories are overlapped and intertwined when i was looking at other biloxi family histories i noticed that i started recognizing many names in their histories some sounded familiar because i grew up with many of them some friends some cousins and many family names that i heard over the years while living in biloxi but then when i started looking closer i noticed that some of them were actually distant relatives in making the links and confirming information we have started developing and or redeveloping relationships with other people families to share information i would like to thank ray l bellande who has made all of this biloxi history possible and available to everyone without his support none of this family history information would be so easily and readily available to everyone in addition to assisting me he has gone above and beyond to actually perform research on our family and presenting me with information that was previously unknown to us he has spent many hours nurturing and mentoring me in the development of our family history  the authors  the authors are actually all of you who have provided information checked and double checked the compiled information made additions corrections and suggestions i have had the privilege and fun of trying to piece all of it together but the job is not done nor will it ever be because every day that goes by is another day of history family is a living entity life happens to constantly we achieve new goals new family members are born we all will die one day changes will always need to be made with each other s help we will have something that future generations will be able to look at and know where their family roots were planted and thrived 990 views  