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Letter received on April 12, 2006 from Jacqueline Q. Long of Ottawa
It was most interesting to read Janice Kennedy?s article about St. Columban in the Ottawa Citizen on Saturday, March 19th.
When I was growing up in Montreal, my mother, [highlight]Elaine Collins [/highlight][highlight]Quinn[/highlight] made many references to St. Columban and the church there. My mother and family friend, Judge Casey, would often converse about their St. Columban connections.
My great grandfather, [highlight]Timothy Collins[/highlight], from Skibbareen, County Cork, Ireland settled in St. Columban when he first arrived in Canada. He later moved to New York, where he married and then returned to St. Columban. He and his wife, [highlight]Elizabeth Brown[/highlight], also from Ireland, had ten children, one of which was my grandfather, [highlight]Thomas Collins [/highlight]born in 1852.
At fourteen years of age, Thomas had a sawmill that flooded when the dam broke. He then took a few wooden doors and windows from the mill and moved to Montreal and worked in the construction business. He became a successful builder in the city; exterior staircases on the duplexes that he built were a first.
Thomas lived in a number of houses on Chomedy Street and moved with his family to his larger home at 1430 Chomedy Street. ?My mother Elaine was one of his three children. She married [highlight]John Quinn of Ottawa[/highlight], (also of Irish descent).
Timothy Collins lived with his son Thomas at 1430 Chomedy until he died at age 111 and was buried at Notre Dame des Neiges Cemetery in Montreal, in 1907.
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