The Skelly family from St. Columban to the states:

Thanks to Bob Breen for generously sharing this information with me! ?Happy New Year!

Obituary of Elizabeth Skelly Breen (born in St. Columban to Michael Skelly and Judith O'Brien). ?Her husband, Thomas, was also from St. Columban. ?

Thomas Breen & Mary Keogh (Kehoe) are ?Thomas Breen's grandparents. Thomas' parents are Michael Breen and Ellen Shea. Thomas actually went by his middle name. He was born and baptized in St. Columban as Columban Thomas Breen, born 17 February 1868, he was baptized on 19 February 1868. Thomas died on 7 April 1954 in the Douglas County Hospital in Superior, Wisconsin. Thomas and Elizabeth (Skelly) are buried in Calvery Cemetery in Superior, Douglas County, Wisconsin. Elizabeth died in her home at 1617 Hammond Avenue, Superior, Wisconsin on the 8th of May 1927. Their cemetery plot is E-2-9.

More St. Columban descendents:  Obituary of Owen Skelly.

The Herald Review, Grand Rapids, Michigan
Obiturary:  8-14-2002

Owen Jerome 'Bud' Skelly Sr., 90, Cohasset, died Aug. 13, 2002, after a short illness.

He was born Jan. 23, 1912, in Cohasset, to Owen E. and Agnes M. Skelly. Brothers James, John and Owen E. Skelly were pioneer loggers, farmers and business owners in the Cohasset area. He joined the Army in 1941 and was assigned to several training bases in the United States prior to being sent to the European Theater. He served with Battery C, 243rd Field Artillery Battalion, 10th Tank Destroyer Division in Germany where he was wounded and awarded a Purple Heart. He married Helen Syrjamaki of Chisholm in Los Angeles, Calif., in 1944. He returned to Cohasset in 1948, working as a logger, farmer and iron miner and building an apartment building on the site of the Skelly Hotel. He was a longtime activist in state and local DFL politics and a member of St. Augustine's Catholic Church, DAV and the 50 Plus Club in Cohasset. He will be remembers for his story-telling ability, gracious manners and technical competency.

He is survived by his Helen, his wife of 58 years; two daughters, Gerry McGrane, Minneapolis, and Brenda Berglund, St. Louis Park; five sons, Owen (Jeanne) Skelly, Chicago, Ill., Garrett (Mercy) Skelly, Orange, Calif., Ed (Linda) Skelly, St. Louis Park, Dave (Carole) Skelly, Forest, Va., and Vern (Stephanie) Skelly, Grand Rapids; 18 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren; and a sister, Eleanor Fleming, Palmetto, Fla.

Memorial are preferred to St. Augustine's Catholic Church, Cohasset.

Services: Saturday, Aug. 17, at 11 a.m. at St. Augustine's Catholic Church, Cohasset, with the Rev. Bruce Engen officiating.

Burial: Wildwood Cemetery, Cohasset.

Arrangements by Rowe Funeral Home, Grand Rapids.

St. Columban connection:

Owen's father, Owen (Eugene) Skelly was born in St. Columban, Quebec, on March 20, 1869, to Michael Skelly and Judith O'Brien.  Michael and Judith had eight children, John (1857), James (1863), Elizabeth (1865), Patrick (1867), Owen (1869), Edward (1871), Bridget (1873), Mary Ann (1875).  After their mother Judith died, Michael married Ann Wells.  Owen and his brothers and sisters relocated to the states (Michigan).  

Michael Skelly had eight more children with Ann Wells, five of whom lived to adulthood.  Maggie (1884), Mary Louisa (1887), Katie (1889), Ann (1892), Joseph ( 1893), Mark (1895), Agnes (1896), Annie Evelyn (1899) (my grandmother).  (the majority are all buried in the St. Columban cemetery).  


Just a note, Mary Louisa' daughter, Eileen Skelly Gauthier just celebrated her 94th birthday!


Should you require more information, please feel free to contact me:

kelley.orourke@videotron.ca

Be sure to tune in tonight to Ancestors in the Attic on the history channel at 6:30 (EST). A while back I submitted a story about my Great Grandfather Matthew Whelan, a former St Columban resident.

He worked as a blacksmith on Parliament Hill during it's original construction particulary on the iron doors leading into the Library of Parliament. The story will unfold on the show about the library and how my grandfather may have played a small role in saving it from the great fire of 1916. That's the family legend.

If you miss tonight's episode it will air again on Dec 26th at 8:p.m.

More about the show here:

http://www.history.ca/ontv/titledetails.aspx?titleid=110783

As some of you may know, The Montreal Irish Show was on CJAD Radio every Saturday. Recently, the show has been moved to a PodCast only and can be heard from anywhere in the world on your computer (assuming that you have speakers etc. as part of your system). To listen to this December 15th broadcast, you can go to the following link

THE IRISH SHOW ON CJAD

The December 15th show is now up and ready to listen at

http://www.cjad.com/Irish...st

- Father John Walsh talks about Xmas
- Ambassador Kelly speaks of his visit in Montreal
- Our Celtic Tigers series continues with Andrew Wyllie and Nexus Santa
- We spoke with the director of the play TRAD
- Jolyon Ditton promotes the Queen Selection Evening
- Sports, News and the Community Calendar are also in tow!

And let me take this opportunity to wish all my cousins - far and wide - a very Merry Christmas and the best of Health in 2008...

Fergus

Just in case some of you are not aware, Jeff Legault set up a St. Columban Decendants group in the FACEBOOK social web site.

If you are not a member on Facebook, you can join by going to.......

http://www.facebook.com and then do a search for a group called: st columban irish

Of course, if you are already registered with facebook, you just have to add this group to your profile..

Shelia sent us this note that is likely of interest....


Notre Dame, Montreal
July 15, 1868 -  #356
Jonh Connolly of the parish of Sault Recollett, son of John Connolly and of dec. Ann Ferons of the same parish.
TO: Catherine Elliott daughter of Edward Elliott, farmer and Mary Blanchfield of
"St. Columba"
Wit: Edward Elliott

Greetings,

First,  the information here and on these sites is magnificent. It has been very helpful.

I was thrown off by a couple of things on the St Scholastique Marriage list.  It has to do with the marriage of Honora Grace, daughter of Michael  and Mary Gavin.   Shown as marrying Thomas Mitchell. son of William Mitchell and Martha Leonard

But in the Census Honora Grace is shown married to Thomas Kinsella,   and at the time of the census of 51 having a child 18 years old. Which fits the time of the marriage, but not the name...Mitchell.  Kinsella is also the name listed on the birth, death, marriage list of St. Columban. I found no Mitchells listed there. No births, deaths, etc.

Later on this same marriage list,  Susanne Kinsella  a daughter of William Kinsella and Martha Leonard is shown being married to John Quinn.   So I think Michell, and Kinsella...were a mistake of transcription of the handwritten records.  

I understand  that I am reading all transcribed lists,  so I really can't say which is wrong. But Kinsella seems  to  be a  frequent name, for births, deaths, etc.

I have no idea if you will  get this. Honora Grace is a sister of Patrick, according to your marriage list, suspected now proven. Patrick is father of Edward.   Edward Grace and wife Catherine Travers, my great great etc... ended up in Duxbury and Waterbury, Vermont, with about ten boys and one daughter.   Edward, Catherine, and many descendents including my father buried in Waterbury  Holy Cross cemetary.   I went to St Columban with my dad ten or more years ago, without knowing for sure if we were from there.  Now I know, because they had a son there, recorded with their names at his birth,  which allowed the connections to be proven.

Thank you VERY much for all the work you have done.


Robert Grace .Petersburgh, New York.

Note: There are certainly some list information that is not accurate. They have been copied a couple of times from the original documents - and each time they are copied there is the possibility of errors. Thanks for the correction...The way it was originally written - it is possible that Kineslla could actually look like Mitchell if someone was guessing the name....

Fergus

THE SAINT PATRICK?S SOCIETY
OF MONTREAL

PROUDLY PRESENTS

CHRISTMAS CONCERT 2007

An Evening of Christmas Carols

FEATURING

CHOEUR DES ENFANTS

CELTIC GRACE DANCERS

THE GREATER MONTREAL CHORUS

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2007

7:30 P.M.

Loyola High School Centre for the Performing Arts

2477 West Broadway Avenue (NDG) Montreal

Tickets:  $15.00

Call:  Sandy McDonaugh

514-697-6918

IMPORTANT

There seems to have been a glitch in the system and [size=14]all posts after October 23rd 2007 seem to have disappeared.

Jeff is trying hard to find and replace these posts. In the meantime, if you made a post after Oct. 23rd - could you please re-do your message[/size]?

For example, Joyce Green has mentioned that:-

a) There was a posting in the General Enquiries/re Dwyer-Colletin family on Oct. 28th and 3PM. ?In there they mentioned the Walsh family. and

b) I really would like to get in touch with Mildred G.Fox-Baker(Walsh family) as mentioned in the post by C.Bourguignon. ?It appears we have the same great-grandmother and I know my father had a cousin with the name Fox. ?It would mean a lot to me to contact her.

Sorry for this inconvenience - Don't you just love computers !

I am trying to trace my O'Rourke roots and find out when they arrived in Canada.
I recognize many names from St. Columban in my family tree. Phelan and Skelley to name two. If anyone has any information on the St. Columban O'Rourkes I would love to have it. ?Our ggranfather was married in Montreal
John O'Rourke b. 1867 m Catherine Lawton in 1896 in Montreal. He may have been born in St. Columban since his parents were married there.

His parents were married in St. Columban in 1857 and were Samuel O'Rourke and Catherine Phelan.

I am going to continue to browse through this amazing site. St. Columban has a wonderful history.

Thank you