Most of you may have received the following note by direct e-mail. But since some people are not on the direct e-mail list and a few e-mails have bounced back (Mr. Quinn & Ned), I decided to post this request here too...

Hi Everyone;

Kelley & Audrey are starting to plan for our extravaganza fundraiser for St. Columban scheduled for the end of January 2007.

Kelley had some computer problems and lost a number of e-mail addresses for our group.

The following is her request to use various parts of family histories to include in this performance.

Could you please advise her directly if it is o.k. to use excerpts of any family histories that your have provided, and/or any other interesting notes or St. Columban folklore that you might suggest be included.

This is a big project so any help that anyone can provide will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks & Best Regards,

Fergus


----- Original Message -----
From: Kelley O'rourke-Thomassin
To: Fergus V. Keyes
Cc: Anne McLaughlin ; Claude Bourguignon ; dgossage@sympatico.ca
Sent: Thursday, August 10, 2006 1:29 PM
Subject: St. Columban concert


Hi Fergus and Claude,



I still don?t have everyone?s email, so I have a favor to ask.  (Please copy me on the email)



Would you ask everyone who has submitted a family history of St. Columban if I may have permission to use excerpts to create a personal history of St. I am compiling this for Peter Gossage, one of the narrators, to draw from when he puts together a historical narration of St. Columban.  He wants to bring a personal touch by including the Irish families who lived there at the time.



David will be composing the music.



Claude, I remembered you had a priest?s (written in English for the most part I think) journal which contained notes of daily activities.....ie.  Mary came for tea, someone borrowed whatever.  May I borrow that as well?





Peter?s email is:  ?

David?s email is: dgossage@sympatico.ca



Dave, would you forward this to Peter and please and cc the above people.  I don?t have his email anymore.



Thanks,



Kelley

Here is a request for some Casey Family information....

Enjoyed my visit to the St. Columban website, just wondering if the Caseys have any connection with Co, Waterford
Sl?n go foil
Eddie


Eddie Cantwell
41 An Grian?n, Kilminion south
Dungarvan
Co, Waterford
www.abbeysidereferencearchive.blogspot.com
www.waterfordcountymuseum.org


My reply....

Hi Eddie;

Not sure about the Casey / Waterford connection but I will put your request in our discussion forum in case one of the other 30 or so researchers have this information.

Glad you liked the site...

Take Care

Fergus

We received the following request for Phelan information from Peter Gombos. I did send a quick reply to Peter but if any of you have any additional information that you can share with him, please either e-mail it directly to him and/or send to to me
Thanks

Fergus[/b]

From: "Peter Gombos"
To:
Cc:
Sent: Tuesday, August 01, 2006 2:43 PM
Subject: Ancestors in the Attic - search for Daniel Phelan


> Hello Jeff and Fergus,
>
> I found your names on the list of St. Columban Researchers on
> http://www.stcolumban-irish.com and wondered if you might be able to help
> me
> with some genealogical research on some PHELAN family genealogy.
>
> I am a researcher on an upcoming documentary television series about
> genealogy called Ancestors in the Attic, to be on History Television some
> time in November.
>
> On behalf of a woman named Erin Phelan (who hails originally from
> Montreal),
> I am researching her Phelan genealogy in Montreal, possibly St Columban,
> and
> I have hopes to search back in Kilkenny before the family emigrated. (I
> will look in the Griffith's Valuation record.)
>
> So far I've found family members in Montreal City Directories from 1850,
> and
> many listed in the transcribed marriage records in Drouin. I've also
> since
> found her g-grandfather's James Phelan's marriage registry in Coteau du
> Lac
> in 1854, and his brother Thomas' marriage in St Patrick's Basilica records
> from 1859. Both marriage records say they were from County Kilkenny.
> (James was born June 18, 1835, Thomas was born in 1836.)
>
> I think this family arrived around 1849 and ended up in Montreal -- I
> wonder
> if the family may have started out in St Columban and then moved to
> Montreal
> (I am basing this on the Coteau du Lac wedding and other experience).
>
> In particular I am looking for Daniel Phalen (father of James and Thomas),
> husband of Honora Rafter, in St Columban in or near to 1849. (He
> disappears
> from records around 1854) Could you help me find him?
>
> If you have might be willing to help me search (for a fee) or can suggest
> other genealogical contact to find Phelan ancestors, please let me know as
> soon as possible.
>
> Thank you very much.
>
> Peter
> --
> Peter Gombos
> Ancestors in the Attic
> On History Television
> Toronto, ON
> T: (416) 964-9223 ext 240
> E: peter@primitive.net
>
> About the show:
> Ancestors in the Attic takes viewers on a road trip across Canada and on a
> worldwide search for their ancestors. Part personal drama, part forensic
> investigation and part historical revelation, the series will reveal to
> Canadians in an intimate and dramatic way not only their roots, but also
> the
> diverse stories that make up their country.
> http://www.history.ca/microsites/AncestorsSearch/

Here is a copy of a quick reply that I sent

Hi Peter;

Thanks for your note about the Phelan family.

Unfortunately I will be out of town from this Thursday for a week and will
not have time to do any in depth research but I will provide you with other
possible contacts at the end of this e-mail.

I can tell you that the Phelan family was a major family in St. Columban.
St. Columban was really founded by a Father Patrick Phelan and a Gerald
Phelan was the postmaster (as was his aunt and grandfather back to the
beginning) until the late 60's. So from the mid 1820's until at least 1960,
Phelans were in St. Columban.

To confuse matters a little, one of the first Phelan's we have in St.
Columban was a John Phelan born about 1790 likely related to Father Patrick
Phelan. (Father Phelan, by the way became a Bishop of Ottawa & Kingston and
was born in Balleyragget, Kilkenny, Ireland on Feb 1 1795 - in our records
his parents were Joseph Phelan & Catherine Brennan). This John Phelan died
in St. Columban on April 9 1862 at 72 years old. The problem is that he was
married to Mary Phelan (That's right it has been confirmed that she had the
same last name as her husband).Mary Phelan, also born in Ireland and died in
St. Columban on July 26 1874 at 76 years old which would have made her birth
around 1798.

I do have one Daniel Phelan in my records who may have been a brother of
Father (later Bishop) Patrick Phlean.

There seems to have been at least two distinct Phelan families in St.
Columban and it is hard to match the families from some of the records.

You might also note that records prior to about 1836 when St. Columban
became it's own parish, the info. for settlers in St. Columban was recorded
in Ste. Scholastique. So the birth of both your James and Thomas could have
been recorded in Ste. Scholastique.

In this reply to you, in addition to Jeff, I have copied both Claude
Bourguignon and Kelley O'Rourke. Claude is the real historian of St.
Columban and has many, many documents related to the village. And Kelley,
for the past year or so has been researching St. Columban deaths etc. as
part of our project to restore the old cemetery in St. Columban.

So, perhaps one, or all of them, can add to this quick info. that I am
sending you and, of course, after August 10th I would be pleased to check
other Phelan documents that I might have.

Take Care

Fergus Keyes

Hi Everyone;

As per this last post, we occassionally receive Spam messages generally from Russia. Jeff Legault certainly is making every effort to block this nonsense but it is always difficult. I'm not sure what these idiots gain by making stupid posts to this board but I guess that's just the way it is....

However, I want to make it absolutely clear that these messages are not being posted by our SHELIA from Toronto who has been so great at providing all kinds of information to our site.


It appears that some of these spamers somehow pick a name for the posts and then modify it to make their spam notes. In this case, it looks like they have used Shelia's name to incorporate into their spam.

As I mentioned all we can do at his point is make this activity as difficult as possible.

Thanks

Fergus

We did have a meeting tentatively scheduled for July 29th to discuss our Extravaganza Event that we hope to be able to produce in January 2007.

However, due to various scheduling difficulties etc., we have decided to postpone this meeting until late August or early September (perhaps on the Labour Day Weekend).

We'll keep you informed of the next actual date for our get-together.

Hope everyone is having anice Summer,

Take Care

Fergus

Shelia sent me this little humourous note and I suspect that these resolutions could have been made by more than one of our St. Columban ancestors      ;D


It is New Year's Eve 1852 and an ancestor sits at his desk by candlelight.
He dips his quill pen in ink and begins to write his New Year's
resolutions:

1. No man is truly well-educated unless he learns to spell his name at
least three different ways within the same document. I resolve to give
the appearance of being extremely well-educated in the coming year.

2. I resolve to see to it that all of my children will have the same
names that my ancestors have used for six generations in a row.

3. My age is no one's business but my own. I hereby resolve to never
list the same age or birth year twice on any document.

4. I resolve to have each of my children baptized in a different church
-- either in a different faith or in a different parish. Every third
child will not be baptized at all or will be baptized by an itinerant
minister who keeps no records.

5. I resolve to move to a new town, new county, or new state at least
once every 10 years -- just before those pesky enumerators come around
asking silly questions.

6. I will make every attempt to reside in counties and towns where no
vital records are maintained or where the courthouse burns down every
few years.

7. I resolve to join an obscure religious cult that does not believe in
record keeping or in participating in military service.

8. When the tax collector comes to my door, I'll loan him my pen, which
has been dipped in rapidly fading blue ink.

9. I resolve that if my beloved wife Mary should die, I will marry
another Mary.

10. I resolve not to make a will. Who needs to spend money on a lawyer?"

Here is an e-mail request for possible information that we received concerning the Joly family of St. Canut from Karen Holt...

Hi,

I found this site when I was surfing the net trying to find any information
on a family that lived in St-Canut (I think) by the name of Joly (French)
who were farmers in the late 1950s . They ran a B & B (called Joly's Farm)
beside their farm which had maybe 20 rooms or more , a dining room that
served 3 meals a day and other out buildings with more rooms . The place was
across the river from Colford Lodge (where all the grown-ups would go to
have a drink as there was no alcohol served at the B & B)

The B & B  was expropriated when Mirabel Airport was being built. I later
learned that it was either torn down or burned down. My family & I spent a
many happy summers there and I was trying to find a picture of the whole
place. I have many pictures but none were taken of the B & B from the road.

If you could locate anything about the place or anyone who knew the place, I
would really appreciate it .

Thanks,

Karen Holt
kholt@cogeco.ca

Milton, Ontario

There have been a few mentions recently about a book entitled "The Irish in Quebec" by Robert J. Grace

Jeff Legault has posted a couple of excerpts from this book that relate to St. Columban as well as information on how to order a copy.

To view this information, just click on the following link:-

[url]http://www.stcolumban-irish.com/Published-Histories/index.html[/url]

Hi Everyone;

Over the last few months, whenever I had the time, I took all the births; marriages and death information that I could find about the settlers of St. Columban up to about 1899, and have now finished including all this information in one Family Tree program.

I've included everyone that I could find, regardless of if they were directly related to my family or not.

It was a bit of a pain before, since there were, for example, at least 20 Patrick Murphy's in St. Columban. But at least now I can generally tell which Patrick Murphy was which, and who their parents were; who they were related to; a marriage, if recorded, etc.

I think that the info is generally accurate. Of course, dates of baptisms and births are sometimes changed around...Names like O'Shea or O'Rourke in different records are simply Shea or Rourke etc... And many Irish families, after the early death of, for example, a child named Mary, would name their next born girl child Mary again - so you end up with two Mary's with the same parents. It gets a little confusing.

However, I did not correct any info unless I was absolutley sure based on the parents names etc... Otherwise, I can still have two Patrick Murphys that could be the same person but if I cannot prove they are the same person by documentation, I let them stand sperately

So if any of you are looking for some specific St. Columban family info. just sent me an e-mail to fergus@stcolumban-irish.com , and I'll see what I have in my new program records...

Take Care

Fergus

Most of the Irish families that eventually ended up in St. Columban had originally attended the Recollets Church in Montreal in the 1820's. Shelia posted this information about this Church which might be of interest....

The Story of Old St. Patrick's (Montreal) by Robert Lipscombe, Rev. Leonard J. Crowley

Church of Recollets.

      In 1831, the Irish population of Montreal had greatly increased and other ?
accommodation had to be found. ?The long abondoned Church of Recollets, ?which stood at the corner of Notre Dame and St. Helen Streets, was renovated and placed at their disposal by the Sulpicians. ?The Irish called this church ?
"Regilee" and it remained their head quarters until 1847. A plaque on the wall ?of the building now occupying the site, tells us that in earlier days, the old ?
church had also accommodated the Presbyterians and the Anglicans, who shared the ?facilities with French-speaking Catholics.

      By 1841, the Irish Catholics in Montreal numbered about 6,500 and the ?Church of the Recollets was jammed to suffocation for all Sunday services. Hundreds knelt in the street, unable to gain entrance to the building. ? They appealed to the Seminary and the Fabrique of Notre Dame for a new ?church. ? Meetings were held and an intensive fund-raising campaign ?was launched. ?The long list of donations recveived during the following ?two years, gradually building up to $12,000, is a story of faith and ?sacrifice.

      And here was another post on the Montreal Irish web site on the same subject

      ...and before the Recollets Church (the Recollets were a suppressed branch of the Franciscans, amongst whom there were many internecine quarrels), the Irish congregated at Notre Dame de Bonsecours. Even in my grandmother's time (d1949), it was still a site for an annual family pilgrimage....that and the fact that my grandfather worked in Youville Sq,