By now I'm sure everyone has noticed the advertising showing up on nearly every page of the site provided by Google. This is something I set up a few weeks ago and recently expanded to more pages to help cover hosting costs of this site. The way this works is we get a few pennies of revenue everytime a page with an ad is loaded. We get even more revenue if someone actually clicks on one of the ads.

Everyone can help contribute to our cause by simply visiting the site every day and clicking on a few ads to ensure we have steady stream of hits and clicks. This may not add up to a lot of money but our goal is to cover just the hosting costs of about $20/month initially. Anythng more will go towards the restoration project. So please spread the word to your familiy and friends to visit and click!

The draft minutes from our restoration project held yesterday (May 13th 2006) have been written. I have tried to send copies by direct e-mail to everyone both registered on this site, as well as on our e-mail list. Most people are on both this Forum List and our original e-mail list, however there are a few on one list - but not on the other list. And a couple of e-mails have been returned.

General info etc. is usually posted here in the forum but every month or so, we send a direct e-mail since we feel that the information is either important enough and/or may contain confidential info. that we do not want to publish in a public way and prefer to reserve it for people that we know are definitely descendants and/or friends of St. Columban.

At any rate, hopefully everyone interested has received a copy of these minutes. If for some reason, we missed you, and you did not receive a copy and would like one, just send me an e-mail to http://fergus@stcolumban-irish.com

Thanks

The 1851 census is now available online at the National Archives!! Here is the link
http://www.collectionscanada.ca/archivianet/1851/001005-200-e.html

Sean

Kenneth Neil has spent a lot of time and effort to investigate various alternatives on how to honour our ancestors in the Cemetery.

Mainly because his report includes some confidential information, we would prefer not to make this report public at this time.

Ken will present it to the group at our meeting scheduled for tomorrow, May 13th..... I have forwarded a copy to everyone that is likely to attend tomorrow.

However, if someone is registered on this site that we know is clearly involved as an ancestor or friend of St. Columban, and the Project, and would like to review Ken's report, please send me an e-mail to http://fergus@stcolumban-...om- I will be pleased to forward a copy to you.

In an e-mail discussion with Geralyn Barry <gbarry@proaxis.com> we have talked about the possible connectionm between some St. Columban families and the Irish settlers in Paterson - Paterson, Passaic Vounty - New Jersey. Does anyone have any family connections recorded for this area?

Hi Fergus,

Thank you for writing. I have seen your name before and have wondered if
some of the early Irish settlers in Paterson might have come down from
Canada. There are so many names in Paterson that also appear in St.
Columban - all names that appear in eastern Tipperary, Laois and
Kilkenny. The website for St. Columban is very impressive. I hope to set
up a more modest website for the Irish of Paterson, New Jersey in the
not-too-distant future. (I've been saying that for many years... but it
is actually in the more definite planning stages now.)

Do you know if any people from St. Columban later settled in Paterson or
in other particular places in the US? I was thinking especially of a
Charles A. (b. abt 1803 Ireland) and Margaret O'Neill (maiden name
unknown - or I may have it in my paper files). They were in Paterson by
the late 1820s but had children born in Vermont just before that. I have
wondered whether perhaps they had entered through Canada and migrated
down from there by way of Vermont. They later had very close
associations with the Tipperary-Laois-Kilkenny immigrants who arrived in
Paterson in the 1840s and 1850s. They achieved some local prominence as
merchants (and employers of other Irish) in the building trades and in
politics. Their son Charles Henry O'Neill was elected the first Irish
mayor of Jersey City, New Jersey around 1870. There were several
marriages between my Cavanaghs and the O'Neill families.

There were a few Irish families in Paterson in the 1850 census with
children born in Canada. Among them were Robert and Fanny McLaughlin
(both born in Ireland), who had children born in Scotland (ages 24 and
21), Lower Canada (ages 14 and 13) and New Jersey (age 11). There was
also a Healy family who had children ages 5 and 6 born in Canada. I know
nothing more about either family at the moment. But I wonder if there
could be some connection to St. Columban.

And my reply:-

All the names that you mention were definitely present in St. Columban ? O?Neil (sometimes O?Neill); McLaughlin; Healy; Purcell; Farrell; Maher ?. and, there are a number of records of marriages between St. Columban and U.S. residents (most often these seem to be in the New York City area)?. so all the signs would certainly indicate that within at least some of these families there must have been some kind of connection to the individuals that you mentioned. I will check the records that I have for any indication of ?Paterson? in the files. Also I will post your note on our ?Discussion Forum? in case someone else doing research in St. Columban (about 35 people now) has a note concerning Paterson in their family histories.

Hi'
My name is Mike Stapleton and I'm an Irish Branch Stapleton researcher looking for any living descendants of the Stapleton famillies that lived in the St. Columban and Montr?al regions. I'd dearly love to share and extend my research on this family group.

God bless, sl?n go foill,

Mike Stapleton
London, Ontario

De Claude Bourguignon

Bonjour tous

Deux mauvaises nouvelles en peu de temps.

Il y a d'abord eu ? la fin du mois d'avril du vandalisme au cimeti?re de Saint-Canut qui contient  des s?pultures de familles irlandaises ayant des liens directs avec celles de Saint-Colomban et  la semaine derni?re la chapelle Bonniebrook de Saint-Colomban a ?t?  saccag?.

Voici le texte paru dans le journal L'?cho du Nord du 3 mai: (Louis-Xavier Michaud)

?? peine deux semaines  apr?s le cimeti?re  de Saint-Canut, c'est la petite chapelle  en bois rond  du club de golf  Bonniebrook  ? Saint-Colomban qui a ?t? la cible de vandales, dans la nuit  de jeudi ? vendredi.

Deux des trois vitraux repr?sentant  des images saintes  qui tr?naient au-dessus  de l'autel ont ?t? d?truits par les malfaiteurs. Ces vitraux peints ? la main ?taient de v?ritables oeuvres d'art, ayant ?t? import?s d'Italie il y a presque 80 ans.

Au moins une facette  de chacun  des 12 vitraux plus sobres qui entouraient  l'?difice a aussi ?t? bris?e. Comme si le ou les vandales avaient d?lib?r?ment choisi  de briser tout ce qui pouvait l'?tre.

L'int?rieur de la modeste chapelle, construite en 1936,  n'a pas non plus ?t? ?pargn?. Le tabernacle a ?t? bris? et une image repr?sentant J?sus au pied de l'autel a ?t? d?croch?e. Deux des petits cadres  en bois  formant un chemin de croix auraient  en outre servi ? allumer un feu dans le b?timent tout de bois construit.

?C'?tait la premi?re ann?e qu'on mettait  un cadenas sur la porte? a indiqu? Gilles Gareau, le propri?taire du  golf. ?On avaient vu des jeunes r?der cet hiver et on avait  d?cid? de barrer la porte. Mais je ne pensais pas qu'on s'en prendrait  ? la chapelle, c'?tait tellement pr?cieux.?

M. Gareau ?tait constern? quand il a vu l'ampleiur des d?g?ts. ? Un des vitraux avait d?j? ?t? bris? ? la mi-mars. C'est en entrant avec un sp?cialiste en restauration ce matin que j'ai vu  que les vandales ?taient revenus.?

Quelquefois par ?t?, M. Gareau pr?tait sa chapelle aux nouveaux mari?s d?sireux de vivre une c?r?monie intime. Avec les d?g?ts, il ne pense pas r?p?ter l'exp?rience cette ann?e. ?Je ne suis pas assur? et ?a me co?terait au moins 20 000$ pour les r?parations. C'est triste, l'endroit ?tait vraiment unique.?

Jeff Legault found a note about St. Columban from back in 1999, on a Roots Web Site. Because of copyright, we are not sure if we can actually copy and paste the note. However, we can certainly provide the web link so you can look at it yourself:-

http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/read/QUEBEC/1999-05/0927174123

Would someone be kind enough to explain why pages 2, 4, 6, plus all the odd numbered pages from 7 to 35 for the 1851 St. Columban do not appear?, "or", is the data from these pages just not available?

The Quinn

In the near future, we will be adding a new section to the web page based on a tremendous amount of work by Kelley O'Rourke & Jeff Legault.

The question is if we should make all this information open to all visitors to the site, or only to registered members?