Margaret Connell age 11 arrived in Hobart on board Tasmania 2 December 1845 with her Mother Mary and brothers Patrick 7 and James 3. Her widowed mother Mary was tried in Dublin Court and they were held in Grangegorman goal before being transported. On arrival the children were placed in Queens Orphanages
In 1849 Margaret aged 15 was discharged from the Queens female orphan school to H. Huish MD Staff Assistant Surgeon to help with the care of his newborn daughter.
Sometime later she was nursemaid for Anna Maria Mather (Cotton) and it was here that she met George Cotton who was visiting his sister Anna Maria known as Maria. George insisted on getting married at once and the marriage certificate states they were married 9 July 1851 at the residence of Independent Minister the Rev F. Miller.
Francis Cotton allotted them Cressy Point farm situated on a portion of Kelvedon 3 miles from the homestead, later they rented some land on O’Conner Rivulet, then lived at Mathinna where Clement O’Connell the last of 12 children was born.
They moved further north and farmed at Upper George River on very fertile land named by Margaret as St Columba.
No record of Margaret’s death has been found, but a notice in the Examiner for George states that he died 1916 and that his wife died a few months earlvcxxcv