Hi Everyone;

In our last e-mail we asked anyone that had any letters; postcards, or other family-St. Columban memorabilia to send it to Kelley O?Rourke.

We would really like to include as much authentic family history as possible in our January event ? and we think reading out old family letters etc. would give the whole presentation a personal touch.

So, if you have any of these items, please do send the info. to Kelley ASAP since we are now in the actual production stage?.

Thanks

Fergus

Here is a note from Shelia. Not postive that this marriage relates to the St. Columban Blanchfields (maybe someone else on the list knows) but I think it is rather likely the same Blanchfield family...

St. Patrick's, Montreal
July 10, 1861 - B490
Michael Johnston, born on the 7th of last June, son of Samuel Johnston, grocer (Protestant) and of Margaret Blanchfield, of this parish
GP: Edward Elliot and Catherine Blanchfield

FYI - In case, you didn't receive this info by direct e-mail....

Hi Everyone;

As you may be aware, Jeff Legault has designed a couple of event flyers for our January extravaganza.

Our rough plan is to start announcing the event in a public manner sometime after our next meeting on October 21st. And then follow up with a second announcement that will include a Christmas theme sometime in late November. (Jeff has also posted the Christmas theme flyer) And, then, depending on the ticket sales, we might then do one last blitz promotion in early January.

So, when you have a chance could you all view the various flyers that Jeff has designed and please send us any comments or suggestions that you might have about these flyers.

Of course, if they appear to have all the information that you think should be included, you can certainly print some out immediately and start distributing them to friends and family or anyone else that you think might be interested in attending. These flyers could also be posted at various locations (i.e. Irish societies; bars; churches etc.)

Flyers can now be downloaded by scrolling down to the  bottom of the page at the following link... I

http://www.stcolumban-irish.com/events/

As a reminder, please reserve your own tickets ASAP and before we start our big public promotion blitz toward the end of this month.

Thanks, Take Care & Happy Thanksgiving


Fergus

We were asked to add this information about a Gallagher Clan reunion in Ireland in case anyone might be interested....

The Gallagher Global Gathering 2007
A Reunion of All the Gallagher Clan.
Venue: Co. Donegal, Ireland.
Date: 8th ? 15th September 2007.

The Event.
The Gallagher Clan is holding a weeklong worldwide reunion from Saturday 8th to  Saturday 15th September 2007 centred around Letterkenny, Co Donegal, Ireland. Talks, displays etc. will be given on a number of subjects of interest to Gallaghers all over the world or to anyone with an interest in history, family history or genealogy.

The Gallagher Clan organisation was established in April 2005 to promote worldwide Gallagher heritage in its various versions. This it hopes to do by collecting information about Gallaghers worldwide, the conservation of this information and its communication to a worldwide audience. It is also intended to collect and conserve artefacts of particular Gallagher interest. The Clan organisation is a not-for-profit, cross-community, cross borders organisation, which, at the moment, is reliant on the generosity of benefactors to help finance its work. (Note: By Gallagher we mean all Gallaghers or those having variants of the name - over thirty variants at the last count.)  

The Gallagher Clan is calling all with Gallagher "connections" back to where the Gallagher line originated some 1500 years ago, i.e. Co. Donegal, Ireland. Sept. 2007 is the chosen date and this will be the first time the Clan has come together since its dispersal began after the ending of the native Gaelic system four hundred years ago in 1607. This came about after the Flight of the Earls in that year. That event will be commemorated concurrently with the global gathering of the Gallaghers.

The Gallagher Clan encompasses people of many different creeds and none. The heritage of all will be recognised and celebrated as will that of the many nations who accepted in the Gallaghers and whose communities were enriched with their coming. Ireland's loss was the gain of other nations.

The Reunion will also be a celebration of the Irish culture and history which has shaped the Gallaghers. It will also be a chance for those whose immediate roots are overseas to come back and, if not find the exact family "home", to see and experience the "roots" which formed us all.

Further information can be obtained by contacting:
The Gallagher Clan Secretary,
Lisnanees,
Woodlands,
Letterkenny,
Co. Donegal,
Ireland
Tel + 353 (0)74 91 24689 E-mail: postmaster@gallagherclan.org
Further information will also appear on our website www.gallagherclan.org as it becomes available.

Here are some notes that I took at our Descendant?s meeting held at Kelley?s home, yesterday - Saturday September 30th 2006. As usual, if someone notices that I forgot to include some point (s) please let me know?.

Thanks Fergus

Meeting Notes ? September 30th 2006


Claude Bourguignon invited two very interesting guests to attend this meeting. Genevieve Mauffette & Bill Gagnon have a great deal of experience in producing various types of events similar to the Extravaganza that we are planning. They offered a wide range of advice and suggestions that we would likely want to consider. Bill also mentioned that we should consider producing various things like a recording of the event and/or Music CD?s that we could sell as a way to raise extra money. We will definitely stay in touch with Genevieve & Bill as we move along with our planning.

Ken Neil has agreed to check with the Oscar Peterson people to clarify the requirements that will allow us to sell Beer & Wine etc. at the event. It appears at this point that we will have to arrange for a, pre or post, cocktail type event and charge some kind of flat fee to attend. So if for example, after the event, we invited anyone that was interested to join us in another room and charged something like $ 15. or $ 20.00 to attend the event, then we could provide the beer or wine within the cost to attend. It does not seem that we are allowed to actually set up a bar and sell liquor on an individual basis.

Ken Neil has also started to set up the Playbill program for the event and to attract a few advertisers. So, it would seem that Ken (without realizing it) has now taken on the title of Advertising Manager! It was also agreed that any taxes charged on the advertising would be in addition to the advertising prices quoted on the web page.

Kelley O?Rourke has started to write the dialogue that we will use as the basis for the performance.

Pattie (O?Rourke ? Kelley?s sister) has agreed to work on the actual production. She has some Theatre training and she also intends to contact the Theatre departments at Concordia (and perhaps John Abbott College) to see if they have theatre students who would like to volunteer their time to work on this project.

I will contact Jeff Legault to see if we can set up one type of a Poster Advertising sheet that we can either print or send by e-mail to start advertising the event as soon as we can.
Our next meeting is scheduled for Saturday, October 21st at 10am.

Additional note to our fellow descendants;

In the next few weeks we will start an all-out advertising publicity campaign for our Event. Initially we will emphasize what a great Christmas gift these tickets would be...Of course, we do not have any idea how many people will actually purchase tickets to this event (our capacity is a little over 500 people). However we would really not want to event to sell out quickly - and then not have any tickets available for the descendants that want to attend. So, please reserve your tickets ASAP. It is simple to make a reservation from our main web page. It is not necessary that you pay for the tickets immediately ? but we do want to make sure that we have the reservations for you and your family in place. Even if you reserve for example 10 tickets for your family and friends, and then find that you cannot actually sell them, we could just take them back and try to sell them elsewhere...And, please do use the reservation form on the web page to reserve your tickets simply so it is easier for us to track the number of tickets that have been reserved...

And on another note, the advertising in our Playbill will likely be one of the best ways to raise funds for the Restoration Project. So if you know of any company of individual that might want to advertise in the Playbill, please let Ken know as soon as possible. By about December 15th, we will have to start the actual production and printing of this Brochure. Anyone interested can certainly also reserve their advertising space on the web page.

Of course, if you have any suggestions or comments, please let me know....

Take Care

Fergus

Hi Everyone;

We received the following information and request for support from the QAHN concerning a project hat they are intitiating relating to Quebec cemeteries. Below their letter, is my reply that I made on behalf of our group. If any of you are interested, I am sure that they would also appreciate some indivdual words of support...


27 September 2006

Dear friends and colleagues,

The Quebec Anglophone Heritage Network is in the process of preparing an application for project funding from the Department of Canadian Heritage, and we would appreciate receiving a few words of support from your organization. ?As always, QAHN?s projects aim to identify and publicize heritage concerns across the province, particularly when there is a question of heritage at risk.

Our current project proposal is entitled ?Cemetery Heritage Inventory and Restoration Initiative? (CHIRI), the result of a growing sense that small cemeteries in remote parts of Quebec suffer from neglect and disrepair. ?Moreover, despite the hard work of historical societies and other dedicated groups and individuals, the history of these cemeteries and the records of those buried in them, are all too often unknown or unavailable. ?As part of a long-term effort to recognize and preserve the small cemeteries of Quebec, QAHN proposes to identify burial sites in a number of key regions and develop a resource guide for the sustained maintenance of these crucial pockets of heritage. ?

Working with local groups and individuals in the Mont?r?gie, Estrie, Laurentians and Saguenay Lac-St.Jean regions, QAHN will:

1.      Compile an inventory of historic Anglophone burial grounds, including their physical location and condition, ownership, condition and location of records, and current level of legal protection, if any.

2.      Develop a formal guide to conserving historic cemeteries, tailored especially to the needs of those in the Anglophone community who serve as volunteer cemetery trustees. ?Research will draw from work done in the United States and Ontario, and in Quebec by the Ministry of Culture and Communications which is available only in French.

3.      Collaborate with local groups and government-sponsored youth-employment agencies to recruit temporary crews to begin the work of restoring and maintaining these sites.

Many older cemeteries established by English-speaking communities in Quebec are at risk, their current state of disrepair jeopardizing their integrity not only as sacred sites, but as part of Quebec?s historic and cultural landscape. Because no comprehensive, contemporary survey of these sites exists, it is currently impossible to assess their value as cultural properties or to prescribe measures that may contribute to their future conservation. ?We believe that CHIRI would play a significant role in reversing this trend, in providing better knowledge of the problem, and in establishing the means to secure this crucial aspect of our heritage.

We encourage you to send us a short letter, preferably in the form of an email, indicating your support of the CHIRI project. Please direct your email to execdir@qahn.org.

Many thanks,

Roderick MacLeod
President, Quebec Anglophone Heritage Network

And here is my reply...


Mr. Roderick MacLeod
President, Quebec Anglophone Heritage Network


Ref: Cemetery Heritage Inventory and Restoration Initiative (CHIR)


Sir;

I read with interest about your project (CHIR) and on behalf of myself, and our group dedicated to restoring the Cemetery at St. Columban, (in French, spelled St. Colomban), Quebec, we certainly would offer unqualified support for this initiative.

I would believe that our story about St. Columban would be rather common to the condition of many similar cemeteries throughout the province. In the 1820?s a number of Irish immigrants settled in St. Columban which became its own village and parish in 1835. (St. Columban is situated about 8 miles west of St. Jerome). For the next 80 years or so, it was an almost 100% Irish Catholic English speaking community. ?And these original settlers contributed to the ?gene pool? of many well know politicians; doctors; lawyers and business people. Who, in turn, became an integral part of the prosperity and success that we presently enjoy in both Quebec and Canada. However, in October of 2005, some of the descendants of these original settlers were both dismayed and angry to find that the tombstones of these original Irish settlers had been removed from the cemetery, and simply thrown into the bush behind the St. Columban Catholic Church. There they were ? broken and smashed! How they were originally damaged was likely due to either the ravages of time (most stones were more than 150 years old) or to vandalism or, perhaps to a combination of both scenarios. Regardless, we are lucky, in the sense that we have been able to organize a dynamic group of descendants who have contributed a great deal of time and effort to raising our own funds to restore these broken tombstones, in some way, to the cemetery. Our most probable approach will be to build a brick wall in the cemetery and insert the broken bits of stone directly into this wall. Details about our project and effort can be found on our web site at www.stcolumban-irish.com

However, in thinking about your project, it would be obvious to conclude that not all cemeteries will profit from the same level of dedication that is being provided by our own group for the early St. Columban residents. And therefore, what will become of all these other locations scattered throughout Quebec?

Of course, English speaking settlers populated many rural communities all around Quebec especially in the 19th and early 20th centuries. And these settlers (like our own), are as responsible as any group, in ensuring that we, the present day residents of Quebec, enjoy all the benefits of our society.

It is a shame, and almost criminal, that so many of the final resting places for these hearty pioneers have been left unattended for so long. It is simply not right!

Perhaps there is a belief that these cemetery sites are not important in the context of everything else that requires attention. However, I can?t disagree more ? these are very important historical and culture locations that simply define our history - and who we are.

So, in conclusion, if our St. Columban descendants can do anything to support your initative, please do not hesitate to contact us.

With very best regards

Fergus V. Keyes

As usual, most of you may have received this information by direct e-mail but since not everyone s on the e-mail list, I am also posting it here...

Hi Everyone;

Just a quick reminder that our next planning meeting for our January 2007 event will take place at Kelley's home in Baie D'Urfe, this Saturday, September 30th at 10am.

Of course, anyone that is able to attend & interested in taking part in this effort is welcome.

If you need directions to Kelley's and/or any other information just send me a quick e-mail.

So far, with the help of The St. Patrick's Society we have been able to reserve the Oscar Peterson hall for January 27th 2007; Jeff Legault has been able to add both Ticket & Advertising reservation forms to the web site; We can get the actual tickets printed at a small charge at the Oscar Peterson hall; and we may have a printer willing to print our program for the event at minimum costs; most of the "talent" is in place; Kelley & Claude have some suggestions for a director/producer of the event......so we are moving ahead...

And, if you have a chance, please let Kelley or me know if you will be there this Saturday.

Hope to see you there....

& Take Care

Fergus

Cemetery Vandalism is a real drag and so senseless! Jeff notes another cemetery that has now been vandalized in the Ottawa area. Whenever we do our resoration project, there is no question that this is one issue that we will have give serious consideration. Here is Jeff's notes about the Ottawa attack... ?:'(

This still disturbs me so much anytime I hear about this type of senseless carnage particularly when it touches my family. This is where my (Legault) grandparents and (Charron) great-grandparents are buried in Gatineau just across the river from Ottawa. I've yet to go survey the damage but will be paying a visit on the weekend so hopefully nothing was touched.

http://www.cfra.com/headlines/index.asp?cat=1&nid=43014


and in the Ottawa Citizen

http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/city/story.html?id=c1593d73-d452-45ae-aabd-c0e7705c54c7

I remember when this happened quite a number of years ago as well at Notre Dame in Ottawa and it was a very big deal in the media and the public eye. Think that was in the 70's.

--
Jeff Legault

Murray Quinn sent us this information on anew book that he has found that mgith be a "goldmine" for researchers

Hi Fergus,



           I recently came across (and borrowed) a fabulous reference book (at least I think it's fabulous) in the Morin Heights Library which I believe might prove to be a bloody goldmine of genealogical inforrnation for some St. Columban researchers (as well as Montreal researchers) whose families may go ?way back? ?to the early 1800's in Argenteuil County, Que., as well as those whose ancestors may have been from, - or later moved on to -, Prescott County in Ont.. It?s called:-                                           ? ?

?History of the Counties of Argenteuil, Quebec & Prescott, Ontario

From the Earliest Settlement to the Present

(i.e. ? in this case, ?Present? meaning 1896)

By C. (Cyrus) Thomas

(Originally) published in 1896 by John Lovell & Son, Montreal.

Facsimile edition by Global Heritage Press, Milton, Ontario 1999.

           Although this book would appear to be rather pricey at roughly $65C. from the above mentioned publisher, I find this book virtually saturated, - almost to the point of dripping -, with family names, mini biographies of many individuals, names of towns & villages which don?t exist anymore, R.C. & Protestant Church names, Priest?s & Minister?s names, the names of Militias/ Regiments, Military Officers? names, Company names, along with their founders and/or owners names, etc, etc, etc ? It even mentions names of families who were involved in raising militia troops for the 1837 Rebellion in St. Eustache.



           With regards to family names, - the list seems virtually endless. In numerous cases, there's even lists of children of individual couples. And because this history runs from the early 1800?s to 1896, in some cases, families are portrayed through two, sometimes three generations ? and with names. In many cases there are also birth, marriage and death dates mentioned.



           And all this is aside from the fact that the book also presents a very detailed, yet concise chronological general history of these two counties, along with the history of economical development of the areas, and who the individuals and families were who were important in that development.



           I know that not everyone doing their research in ?Argenteuil (and/or Prescott) County? areas is necessarily going to find mentioned of their particular famil?y(ie?s) names for sure, but, by the simple fact that my own children went to high school in Lachute, I also know for fact that many of the names mentioned in this 1896 book are family names of children who my own kids went to school with. And even if one does not find their specific family mentioned in the book, in general, I still feel it is an excellent general reference book for these two areas.

      ?Have you ever heard of this book?

Murray Quinn

      ? .....No - I have never heard of it .... Fergus

Hi Everyone;

In addition to assisting me with the Conference in Ottawa this weekend, Jeff Legault has been very busy setting up the web page with the order forms etc. for our January 2007 event.

Today, we are unveiling this effort to the friends and descendants of St. Columban.

However, there may be some minor changes to the text etc. after our meeting scheduled for this Saturday, September 30th. But you can still make your reservations immediately.

To view it simply go to our main page at www.stcolumban-irish.com and click on the new heading at the top of the opening page.

Once the text is fully approved by everyone, we will ask Anne to translate it so we can offer the forms in both English & French.

TICKETS:-

We will have to sell about 500 tickets to this event. So, it is definitely not too early to ask your friends & family etc. to book their reservations. And, remember these tickets will make great Christmas presents!

ADVERTISING:-

The best way to raise funds will be by advertising in our Program that we will give out on the night of the performance. There is also a form on the site, where people can reserve advertising space. In this case, we will likely have to close the advertising section around December 15th to allow time to design and print the Program. So, again, if you know of any company etc. that might be willing to advertise - please direct them to this page to make their space reservation ASAP.

UPDATES:-

I am sure that we will have a number of updates as we move along and, of course will inform all of you.

In the meantime, please start pushing for both ticket and advertising reservations.

And don?t hesitate to send me an e-mail if you have any questions, suggestions etc.

Thanks

Fergus