Newly released Canadian city directories from 1819 to 1906 are now available on ancestry.com. Great way to cross reference where your ancestors lived and when and what their profession was. It's also a record of local business that were operating in those years. Something that's not always easy to find unless you visit a city archives in person.

Read about the collection here:
http://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/2010/06/25/a-new-road-home-canadian-city-and-area-directories-1819%e2%80%931906/

If you have a membership the collection is available here:
http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=1260

As an example here's my great grandfather Matthew Whelan living in montreal in 1864 as a blacksmith. He later moved to Ottawa to help build the first parliament buildings.

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I  was looking at your marriage index for the Parish of St. Scholastique.  Martin Freney is my ancestor.  I see in your index that there is a John and a Michael Freney.  I am looking to tie my ancestor, Martin, to John and/or Michael.  If you have perhaps a witness listed as Martin at John or Michael's weddings it may help me with my research.  Anything you find that will help will be much appreciated.


Thank you in advance.
 

Sharon Murray
squinnmurray@optonline.net
516-746-5943

Here is an e-mail that we received recently. There is some additional information that we will try to post elsewhere on the site:-


Hi Fergus.

For what it?s worth, I just wanted to let you know of some corrections on page 3 of your 1851 Census records.  I know they are not Irish, but they certainly are pioneers of the St Colomban area.  MILLERS & McDONALDS are from Stirling, Scotland ? Eusebe?s father is from Gerrmany and not sure about his mother (but I think that family has been in Quebec for a long while ? originally from France).  

Numbers 5 through 10 minus 9 are all surname SCHEFFER, with No. 6 being Francois (Eusebe) SCHEFFER ? he used his middle name, see Censuses.   I note that the surname was Anglicised from the German SCHIEFFER to SCHEFFER (sometimes shown as SHEFFER).    I think that Eusebe was born 24/5/1810, and his parents were Charles SCHIEFFER and Louise Lisette GELINEAU, who had a very large number of children (I see about 14) from their marriage on 10/5/1807.  Eusebe?s family moved to Montana and became prominent pioneers of that district.

Numbers 38 through 40 ? first two are correct, but 40 is actually Christian COWAN (I think her maiden surname has been corrected on the official list, and Christian was a commonly used girls? name ? and family name).  She was the sister of Elizabeth COWAN of Lachute, both of whom were from Stirling.  Two of her brothers came to Australia, one of whom is my patriarch.  Therefore, Christian MILLER was the niece of Christian McDONALD.

If you have anything in your data base about the McDONALDS which might help out a researcher from downunder, I would be very grateful.  I can?t seem to get a bead on the family apart from what I have so far in the spreadsheet ? death of the patriarch seems to be 1874 and looks like his son in 1899.  Would the author Duncan McDonald be related to the McDonalds from your area?

Because I have been  researching the Miller family and Scheiffer/Scheffer/Sheffer marrued Christian Miller,  I see you have a document headed  

ST. COLUMBAN?S RC CHURCH, DEUX MONTAGNES, QUEBEC INDEX
May 16, 2003 This list is to be used as a guideline only. Due to bad handwriting, the poor condition of the original record, our unfamiliarity with French names and the loss of clarity in the photocopying process there is no guarantee that the stated records are accurate. However, we have tried to be as accurate as possible. Sometimes we could confirm the spelling by the signatures, but even they were sometimes inconsistent.    Sometimes the name was so hard to read we put what we could see or guess at.

As you can see from above the attachment, there are several entries which can now be corrected for Eusebe and Christian (aka Christina) Scheffer (shown as Eustace and Christine in your document).  Although I can?t find a birth for Elizabeth, the ones affected are:-

       Mary 23 June 1845 (Burial)  -  Mary 10 October 1845  (Death ? hence 3.5 months?)  -  Mary   6 September 1846 (Baptism of new Mary).  Pierre (Peter)  1/10/1848 (Baptism).  Isabella 22 July 1851 (Death) .  For this one, given the date of birth of Elizabeth (don?t remember where I got                              it) is  January 1851, is it possible that Isabella is another stillborn baby mid-term?

Many thanks for the tips contained in your information, and I hope I may have helped in a small way in correcting some of the assumptions shown in the document, and your records.  You will recall that this Scheffer family moved to Montana, although I note that Eusebe was one of a very large family (about 14) .  Let me know if you can help on any of this.

Cheers,

Ray Cowan

PS.  Can?t find the marriage which would be about 1840ish.

[size=10pt]Hello Everyone;

I just wanted to take a moment to pass on the terrific news that our Wall Project at St. Columban is now almost completely done.

Thanks to the very generous donations from descendants, and others, over the last 5 years, the walls are completed; we have enough money & will order the caps for the walls this week - to be installed soon, and the Church at St. Columban has offered us $ 500.00 toward the final landscaping around the project.

The next step will be an official unveiling of the monument. At this point the idea is to tentatively schedule the unveiling for Saturday, July 3rd 2010 around noon. This would coincide with the celebration for the 175th anniversary of St. Columban planned for this date.

So my note today is to have everyone that might be available to mark their calendars for July 3rd 2010 ? it would be great to have as many descendants as possible at the unveiling!

We will have a meeting this Saturday morning (JUNE 5th) to decide on how we want to arrange the ceremony. This meeting will likely be at Kelley O?Rourke?s home in Baie D?Urfe - and if anyone would like to attend just send me an e-mail to info@stcolumban-irish.com and I will give you the time and directions.

We will likely continue with a little more fundraising since we would like to also install some plaques in the area in honour of the individuals that we know were buried in the Cemetery but where we have never been able to locate their tombstone and, if possible, to everyone that has worked so hard to make this a reality.

Once again, thank you all - and do tentatively mark your calendars for July 3rd?.[/size]

[size=10pt]A request for our members who arre Native French speakers...[/size]

Hi

I found your email online on the St. Patrick's Society webpage. I am an
Irish student doing a PhD in French linguistics and I am just writing to see
if you can help me out. As part of my PhD I am doing a study on the French
language and have designed a short online questionnaire as part of this
study (it takes less than 10 minutes to complete). Unfortunately, I have
very few contacts in Quebec and I was wondering if it would be possible to
forward the link for my questionnaire onto any native French speakers in
your association (or to ask members to forward it on to native French
speakers). It would be so helpful if you could. Sorry to ask out of the blue
but I am trying any avenue possible and I thought Irish people in Quebec
might like to help a fellow Irish person!

Below is the link and a short explanation, if you are able to pass it on.
Thank you!
Best wishes

Liv Walsh

Je suis ?tudiante en th?se au d?partement de linguistique ? l'universit? de
Cambridge et je fais une ?tude sur la langue fran?aise, sous la forme d'un
questionnaire en ligne qui ne prend pas plus de 10 minutes ? remplir. Je
vous serais tr?s reconnaissante si vous acceptiez de remplir ce
questionnaire. Si vous avez d'autres contactes au Qu?bec qui seraient
susceptibles d'accepter de remplir le questionnaire, je vous serais
egalement tr?s reconnaissante de bien vouloir leur envoyer le lien.

Voici le lien pour le questionnaire: http://tinyurl.com/3x6uysc

Merci d'avance!
Liv Walsh

Liv Walsh
PhD Candidate

Department of Linguistics
University of Cambridge
Sidgwick Avenue
Cambridge CB3 9DA
United Kingdom

Clare College
Trinity Lane
Cambridge CB2 1TL
United Kingdom

Email: omw23@cam.ac.uk

I found an interesting St. Columban connection.  Carroll researchers know that James Carroll, son of William Carroll and Catherine Cunningham, married a Kelley.  The Wisconsin marriages database, found on Familysearch.org (the pilot site), identifies her as Sarah Kelley born in Ireland, the daughter of Patrick Kelley and Margaret Sheridan.  They were married Oct. 1, 1863 in Hudson, St. Croix, Wisconsin.  The 1870 census puts them across the river in Minnesota with a son, James, born in Iowa about 1866.  Minnesota birth records, also on Familysearch.org, show them having another son, William, born Feb. 14, 1871 in Reads Landing, Wabasha, Minnesota.  Unfortunately, I cannot find much else on any of them after this point, except for a little tidbit about James Carroll (the elder)

On November 29, 1881 in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, James Carroll married Ann Molloy (Maloy, Malloy).  The record lists the parents of the bride and groom, so there is no doubt about the identities.  We know that Ann married Robert Breen and that they moved to Wisconsin (as did Patrick and Matthew (Mathias) Molloy her brothers) and that they divorced.  The 1870 census has them divorced but living very near each other.  We also know that Ann married Onesime Pinard in 1899 (who in that very same 1870 census is living next door to her).  Therefore, James must have died in between or the marriage was annulled.  I was very tickled to see two St. Columbans getting married to each other 1000 miles from home!

Gregory Carroll

This is still disturbing to see happening but very rare anyone gets apprehended after the act. A number of my family is buried at Notre Dame in Ottawa. Fortunately none of our family markers were touched.

OTTAWA ? An Ottawa man faces nearly 80 charges in connection with a vandalism spree at Notre Dame Cemetery two weeks ago, police say.

Almost 40 tombstones were knocked over at the St. Laurent Boulevard and Montreal Road cemetery the night of April 30, police said.

Some were merely toppled, others shattered.

Read more:
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Ottawa+charged+with+cemetery+vandalism+spree/3028394/story.html

[size=10pt]Construction on our memorial wall to our ancestors has re-started today (Thursday, May 13th 2010) in St. Columban![/size]

[size=10pt]We are now adding the bricks, and the broken tombstones, to the actual walls that we completed last year for a total cost of $ 4,500.

Thanks to Ken Neil for all his hard work and organization in this area ? finding the contractor; getting the best price; being on-hand to supervise the start of this work etc., etc.

Photos of this effort should be posted on the site soon.

We believe that with the generous donations from our group of descendants; our fundraising efforts over the last 5 years; and some help from the St. Patrick?s Society of Montreal that we have enough funds to complete this phase.

Next we need an additional $ 3,000, or so, to add the ?caps? to the wall. (Caps are concrete slabs that protect the walls against water and other environmental hazards.)

We will have to continue our efforts to raise this amount.

However, if any descendants are willing to donate, or loan, this amount of $ 3,000. to the project, we can complete most of the work now, including the ?caps?; and perhaps add a plaque to our ancestors where their stones have been lost.If you have any questions please e-mail me to info@ferguskeyes.com

Thanks everyone for your efforts to-date?[/size]

[size=10pt][size=10pt]
Important Notice about
Our Pasta Fundraiser for St. Columban
Scheduled for today ? May 2nd
At Cunningham Pub in
Ste. Anne de Bellevue[/size][/size]


[size=10pt]Our morning sitting at 11:30 went well - and then around 1pm there was a serious plumbing back-up problem in the premises - including the kitchen, forcing the management at the pub, for obvious health reasons, to close the kitchen and the Pub and cancel our 2:30 pm Pasta fundraising serving.

Unfortunately, we did not have all the information or the time to contact everyone that had ordered tickets for this later serving.

Kelley O?Rourke, and the management at Cunningham?s, will discuss setting another date when we can re-schedule the event, hopefully in the next few weeks. Of course, tickets for today?s 2:30pm sitting will be honored at this re-schedule date and time.

Both the St. Columban organizers and the management at Cunningham?s apologize for this unforeseen event.

For additional details please send an e-mail to info@stcolumban-irish.com
Or contact Kelley[/size]

[size=10pt]As an update on our fundraising efforts, we believe that with this event, and your donations,we should have the money needed to finish the basic work. However, we will still be about $ 2,000 short to have the ?Caps? made and installed on the top of the walls[/size]

We now have a link in our Links Section to Irish Canadian

http://www.irishcanadian.ca/

IrishCanadian.ca exists to inform and connect the over 14 million Canadians of Irish descent, from recent arrivals to those several generations removed. You'll find on this website news from home and abroad, conversations both profound and profane, and an opportunity to connect with and participate in Irish Canadian culture.