Jeff Legault sent me some interesting information about a Web Site that highlights Tombstones in the Ottawa area. If you visit this site, particularly the Ottawa West section, you will find many names like Casey, Whelan etc. that are very similiar to the names of St. Columban settlers. Not sure, of course, if these individuals are related to the St. Columban settlers, but with some migration from St. Columban to the Ottawa area, it is certainly a possibility. If you would like to check it out, the site address is:-

http://www3.sympatico.ca/scott.naylor/Gr...arker1.HTM

I was at the workshop on Sat and got your web site. I was pleased and surprised how excellent it is. I went to Williams family as my mother in law was  Bridgit( Williams) Captain (b1916). George Williams (b1867),her father married Gurtrude Enlow(m1904). she was the daughter of John Enlow & Kate Delaney. This I found . My brother in law ,James Tarlton had done research on the George Williams family. We live at Lake Hughes in Mille Isles not far away. Thank you Sincerely Shirley (Dey) Captain( Mrs Sherwin Captain)
scaptain@sympatico.ca

Ken Neil and I attended the first of the Heritage Workshops yestereday (April 1st 2006). This was the 1st in a series of four similiar workshops being held at different locations in the Laurentians. We were able to get a lot of interesting documentation about the role of various Governments in protecting Heritage sites in Quebec. We also got to meet a number of other people from the area with a strong interest is saving various buildings, cemeteries etc. in the area. Unfortunately, we also found that the condition of the St. Columban Cemtery is not unique - there are a number of poorly maintained and/or ignored cemetery sites throughout the Laurentians. Below is a list of the locations and dates for the next three workshops....

Laurentian Heritage Conservation Workshops:

There will be four workshops held in April to inform and assist local community organizations, municipal officials and any interested individuals with the preservation and protection of our historic sites and buildings.

Please call (450) 226-8576 to register for your attendance at one (or more) of the four planned workshops.

1.      Saint-Andr? d?Argenteuil-Carillon (St.Andrew?s East) Saturday, April 1st, 10 a.m. at Christ Church Historical & Cultural Site, 163, route du Long Sault, Saint-Andr? d?Argenteuil [highlight](Too Late!!!)[/highlight]

2.      Pr?vost (Shawbridge), Saturday, April 8th, 10 a.m., at Shawbridge United Church Hall, 1264 rue Principale, corner of de la Station, Pr?vost (Shawbridge).

3.      Arundel, Saturday, April 22, 10 a.m., Arundel Nature Centre (Tree Farm), 96 chemin Crystal Falls, Arundel.

4.      Wentworth-Nord (Montfort), Saturday, April 29, 1 p.m., Pavillon R?cr?atif & Communautaire de Montfort (Chapelle), 160 rue Principale, Montfort.

Sponsored by the Quebec Anglophone Heritage Network (QAHN) a non-profit, non-partisan umbrella organization whose mission is to help advance knowledge of the history and culture of English-speaking communities in Quebec

Funding for the Heritage Awareness Training and Stewardship Initiative (HASTI) workshop series is provided under the federal Official-Languages Communities Program of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

We have added a few new names to our Montreal - St. Columban connection page. On the main page you click on marriages and then on Montreal connections to find this information.

These are generally Montreal Parish births; deaths or marriages that relate to St. Columban residents. Thanks to Shelia, we are starting to add new additions from the Parish of St. Anthony's in Montreal. These particular additions involve families such as [highlight]Funchion; McLaughlin; Casey; Keyes; O'Rourke etc.[/highlight] Visit this page regularly.

Hello everyone my name is Kevin Brooks and I am the great nephew of Gerald and Jessie Phelan, For many years my family went to St Columban for vaction. I am very interested in the history of the town and its citizens. I understand now why my mother was always crying when we left. If there is amything I can help with please contact me.

?Regards to everyone,
Kevin Brooks

A quick announcement to report that we were able to raise our Donation Thermometer to:
[highlight]
$ 3650[/highlight]. as of yesterday March 29 2006.

Thank you to everyone that has made a contribution, and we should get another update from The St. Patrick's Society of Montreal in the next few days.

Jeff Legault has done it again!
He has added a great new feature on the main opening page of the St. Columban site (www.stcolumban-irish.com) - [highlight]"A search engine"[/highlight]

You can find this button at the top of the page, just to the right of Published Histories. (if you don't see it at first, click on your refresh button under view at the top of your page).

As we add more and more to the site, it is sometimes hard to go back an check on something, when you can't remember where you seen it! And, sometimes at the time that something is added, and we don't have the time to read the text fully - for example, I tested this search by putting in my own family name and found a reference in some other documents that I had not noticed - and I am involved in almost everything added to the site!!!

So, this search is really easy to use - just click on the search button and punch in the key word(s) that you are looking for and Voila! there is a bunch of references...

Al Lewis of the Bytown site wrote ....


I continue to keep an eye out for connections between St. Columban's and
Ottawa. Last week I sent another connection to Claude. This was Thomas
Marshall who was married in St. Columbans to Anastasia Power in 1837. By
1844 they were here in Osgoode Township. I'm starting to think that there
was a major migration in the early 1840's when the northwest corner of
Osgoode Township was being newly settled. My Burns ancestors pioneered there
in 1844 in the same neighbourhood as the McEvoys, Marshalls, Murphys,
Blanchfields, etc. from St. Columbans, but so far, I haven't been able to
connect them to St. Columbans. Possibly some of the second generation from
St. Columbans moved to find land in Osgoode Township. Thanks to the church
records on your site, we are discovering the parents names of some of our
early settlers.

Thanks again!

... Al      

Just a quick note that Claude let me know an article about our efforts to restore the cemetery, found its way into this spring edition 2006, of ?the Magazine ?Continuit??

It is written in French & you can see a copy of this article at the following site:-

http://www.cmsq.qc.ca/continuite/108/avis3.htm

This is actually a big deal, since this is the official magazine of the:-


Conseil des monuments et sites du Qu?bec
Site Internet : http://www.cmsq.qc.ca
Courriel (E-Mail) : http://cmsq@cmsq.qc.ca

This magazine has a very, very ?large readership all over Quebec and officially protects Heritage sites within Quebec.

We hope to translate it soon and then get permission to include it on our web site at www.stcolumban-irish.com under published articles.

Jeff has just added a few more updates to our main web page at www.stcolumban-irish.com

Under the memorabilia section, he has added some old Postcards of Ottawa (Bytown) that shows scenes from the period circa 1900 - 1916

Under family histories, we now have information about The Williams family of St. Columban

And under the map area - we now made a few changes and added a couple of notes about this map as suggested by Claude. (See both the Map and the list of names)

Take Care

Fergus