Hi St. Columbiners,

     Since my wife?s immigrant Forrester(s?) arrived here in Canada somewhere before 1836, and there?s virtually nuthin? much to find on the ?Ships Lists? before 1865, I?ve taken to looking through the Ships Lists passenger lists for the ?St. Lawrence Steamboat Co. Passenger Records - Part l (1819 - 1825) & Part ll (1826-1836?) < http://theshipslist.com/ships/passengerlists/1819_20index.htm > ; - a listing of ?up-the-river? passengers from Quebec City to Three Rivers, Sorel and Montreal, just to see if by chance her family name Forrester might appear in those lists. The name does in fact appear, but, just as in any, or all other forms of name registrations in the distant past, it may also be simply appearing under the guise of many other similar sounding names, i.e.- Forrister, Forester, Forister, Forster, Forest, Foster, Forrestal, all of course dependent on the education, hearing and spelling abilities of the list maker of those times.
     Once in a while, while I?m going through these lists, I come across names that I semi-recognize as names I?ve seen in various sections of the St. Columban WebSite - for example - Phelan / Whelan, Skelly, ?etc ?, and I started to wonder if perhaps there may be some St. Columban researchers who are not aware of these alternate ?ships? passenger lists? as a possible useful tool in their Montreal / St. Columban research.
     Perhaps some family researchers are not aware that, back around the years mentioned above, not all our St. Columban immigrant ancestors may have actually ?first? landed in Montreal. It is very possible, if not more than likely, that in a lot of cases they ?first? landed in Quebec City, from where they would have either traveled overland, or (again) more than likely, by riverboats up to Three Rivers, Sorel and Montreal, and then on to St. Columban.
     For example, - On July 10, 1819, a ?John Skelling? (possible? Skelly?) traveled from Sorel to Montreal in Steerage on ticket #137 on the Riverboat ?Malsham?s ? 9th trip upriver for the grand total of 0?/ 3s./9d.
Note:- Canada not only didn?t change to dollars and cents until June 10, 1857, she would even come into existence for another 48 years.

Murray Q.

     I wonder if someone can shed some light on the following topics and/or questions.

     In ?St. Columban Lot Registrations ca.1823-1837?, there is an Andrew COWAN listed for Lot # 1017 for the year 1821 and ? ,
     in the document ?St. Columban Marriages 1836 > 1936? there is a June 13, 1836 marriage of a Mary PHELAN, widow of a Thomas Culletan to a Michael FARRELL.
     Then, on Apr. 20, 1840 there is a marriage of a Gregory (l) FORR*I*STER - Widower of Mary COWAN, to a Mary WHELAN (PHELAN?) - Widow of Michael FARRELL.
     Also, - in the complimentary Blanchfield document ?Baptisms, Deaths & Marriages 1837 > 1900?, the listing for the same above Apr. 30, 1840 marriage indicates the name FORR*I*STER with an *e* instead of an *i* and that his wife?s name is ?strictly? Mary WHELAN, with no further indication as to the possibility that her surname might have in fact been PHELAN.

     Questions ???
     
     Is there a possible connection between Andrew COWAN and Mary COWAN? ?Could he have been her first husband?, a brother?, or cousin maybe?
     If the marriage of Gregory FORR*I*STER to Mary COWAN is not listed in the St. Scholastique Parish records for 1825 > 1837, does anyone have any suggestion(s) as to where to look for this marriage?
     Is the Mary PHELAN married to Michael FARRELL on June 13, 1836 the same person listed as Mary WHELAN, widow of Michael Farrell, who married Gregory (l) Forr*i*ster on Apr. 30, 1840? - i.e. - did she, or did she not, change her name from PHELAN to WHELAN between her 2nd and 3rd marriages?, or, are the two couples mentioned above - i.e. - Mary WHALEN & Michael FARRELL ?and? Mary PHALEN & Michael FARRELL actually two separate and distinct couples?
     Why would the document ?St. Columban Marriages 1836 > 1936? list the FORR*I*STER / W? (P?)HELAN marriage as Apr. ?30?, 1840, while the Blanchfield ?Baptisms, Deaths & Marriages 1837 > 1900? listing indicate it as being Apr. ?20?, 1840? How do I qualify which date is correct?
     In the above, if one list indicates marriages from ?1836 > 1936? and the other from ?1837 > 1900?, were both of these lists transcribed from the same document(s)?
     If the above two documents have in fact been transcribed from two different documents, what is the actual name(s) of, and origin of, both these documents.

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?And that's only the beginning of my troubles.

Murray Quinn

I have been communicating with Cynthia Phelan from Chicago over the last few days who has interest in the Phelan Family, as well as the Funchion connection. Here is a part of the information from our e-mail communications:-


Your web site is great- I spent several hours on it last night looking at all that is there and searching the census records. ?I found all of the ancestors I knew about and was able to find a few more generations as well.

I am a Phelan, whose grandfather came from St. Columban. ?He was Maurice Phelan

My grandfather was the youngest child in the family, born in 1906. ?He moved to Chicago to work for the railroads when he was a young man. ?He never took to farming and used to tell stories about the fields full of rocks. ?He did keep to a farmer's schedule, however and was always an early riser. ?He married Mary Loretto O'Brien, of Chicago in the early 1930s and they had seven children, six boys, one girl. ?(William, Mary, Maurice, Joseph, James, John Patrick, and Richard). ?My father is William. ?My grandfather eventually joined the Chicago Police force and served to retirement age. ?He did get electrocuted during a storm while on duty in the 1950s. ?He survived, but lost some of his fingers from his right hand. ? He remained active his entire life. ?After he retired he continued to work as a security guard. ?He loved to walk through the woods around his home in Palos Hills, Illinois, and did so every day. ?I am sure that contributed to his good health. ?He died at home in 1991- his car out of the garage, ready to go to church, a pork chop on the counter thawing out for dinner. ?Three of his sons are lawyers, including my father, who served as a judge for Cook County and is now retired; one was also a Chicago policeman, also retired. ?He had seventeen grandchildren, and I truly am not sure how many great grandchildren there are right now, I guess about 30- 35- I just had one of them, and I know there are a few ?on the way! ? I enjoyed looking at some of the Funchion photos on the website- I think I see a family resemblance between those men and my grandfather! ?

If you would like to communicate with Cynthia about the Phelan / Funchion families of St. Columban - you can e-mail her directly at:

cinders27@hotmail.com

[b]As most of you know, since October 2005, the big project for our St. Columban group, has been to somehow repair the local cemetery.
So many people, particularly Kelley; Ken; Jeff and Claude have done a tremendous amount of work on this effort.
So, we are pleased to announce that in the next month or so (as soon as the ground thaws in St. Columban), it appears that we will be able to start construction on the base for the walls.[/b]

We are planning to have a meeting with everyone that is interested on:

Saturday, April 11th at Kelley's House at 10:00am

If you are able to attend ? it would be great. We will discuss the final steps and, of course, would appreciate the input from as many descendants as possible.

[size=12]If you think that you can attend, and/or need directions to Kelley?s house please contact either Kelley at: http://kelley.orourke@videotron.ca, or me at http://info@stcolumban-irish.com[/size]


[b]Thanks

Fergus[/b]

Thanks to Claude & Jeff, we have a new addition to the hisotry of the Grace Family of St. Columban that can be found on the main site at:-

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

A Note from Victor Boyle of the Ancient Order of Hibernians

As most people know, August 15, 2009 marks the Centenary of the AOH Celtic Cross on Grosse Ile.

Please find attached plans for this three day celebration.  

We have reserved 4 coaches leaving Montreal for Berthier sur Mer with a same day return. Space is limited for all three packages so an early reservation is suggested.  The Island is closed to the public on August 15.  Only guests of the AOH will have access.

The work to erect the Cross took years.  The work to keep the Cross, and those that perished, forever in our thoughts has taken generations and could not have been done without you.

It is so very important that you join us for this very special occasion.    

Victor

(514) 928-7196

Attached Files

  2009.pdf (Size: 345.76 KB / Downloads: 74)

Just some update and reminder notes:-

Facebook

We also have a site on Facebook called St. Columban Irish Descendants that you can join at:-  http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group...736&ref=ts

Twitter
You can also follow us on Twitter at:-  http://twitter.com/stcolumban


St. Patrick?s Parade

My friend George McRae who runs the Point St. Charles Web Site at http://www.thepoint.ca has posted some photos & videos of the St. Patrick?s Parade 2009 at:- http://albums.phanfare.com/2345476/2009/

New Irish Site

There is a new general Irish site at: (Irish Central) at: http://www.IrishCentral.com

Irish O?Quebec

You can also see some photos of the new Irish exhibition at the McCord Museum at:-
:
http://www.kodakgallery.ca/ShareLanding....leid=en_CA


Please feel free to add any interesting information in this discussion forum....

Attached Files

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A few of us were at the opening last night of the new Irish exhibition at the McCord Museum in Montreal called ?Being Irish O?Quebec?. It is a terrific exhibition and includes a section dedicated to St. Columban. It runs until April 2010 and should not be missed. Here are the details:-

Being Irish O'Quebec
From March 20, 2009 to April 4, 2010

McCord Museum of Canadian History
690 Sherbrooke Street West
Montreal, Quebec H3A 1E9
Phone : (514) 398-7100

There is also an article about the exhibition in today?s Montreal Gazette (March 20th) on page A7 by Mike Boone which mentions St. Columban although he seems to have made a mistake thinking that the exhibition only runs until April 2009 rather than April 2010.

Just a few odds & ends?.

A couple of our group are attending the St. Patrick?s Day Luncheon in Montreal on March 17th ? if you would like to join us, you can find the full details on the St. Patrick?s Society of Montreal web site at http://www.spsmtl.com

There is an interesting organization called the Quebec Anglophone Heritage Network dedicated to preserving heritage & culture in Quebec especially at it relates to English speaking Quebecers. They have a web site at: http://www.qahn.org/ and they put out a quarterly publication that is very interesting. The cost to join, I think is $ 20.00 - but their publication alone is worth the price.

There is also a newer family pilot search record site at: http://pilot.familysearch.org/recordsear...;c=1408347. In case you haven?t seen it ? it seems to work well. Even though it says Ireland civil records at the top - under place you can put in Canada and also see records from generally Ontario at this point. (It is a pilot so sometimes it does show ?no records? on a search but if you try it a 2nd time with the same information, it does show a result)- Worth a quick look?

If any of you find some interesting sites, be sure to post the information on this page.

Thanks

Fergus

I was quite pleased to see this in today's Ottawa Citizen about cemetery vandals being caught and making some restitution in Perth, Ontario. Unfortunately no amount of money or community service will repair all of the damage they inflicted but this time justice did prevail to send a message.

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Teens+...story.html