Barbara Vassallo

23rd June 1963 - Purchase of the Land

2011-08-09T14:32:00.000-07:00

We now look at the contract dated 23rd June 1963 within which my now late grandfather Antonio bought the share of the field known as tal-Katina. It is also the source of the family tree sketch drawn by my father in the Spark.

Listed are the following, referred to as the Barbara siblings.
- Leonardo, a farmer, father of Antonio Barbara listed below, and husband to Clara Grixti, Antonio's mother
- Marianna, wife of Leonardo Camilleri, son of the late Francesco Camilleri and Concetta nee Zammit
- Francesca, widow of Giovanni Zammit
- Giovanna, wife of Policarpio Abdilla, son of the late Giuseppe Abdilla and Giovanna Rosa nee Camilleri
- Rosa, widow of Antonio Camilleri

The above are listed as being the children of the late Carmelo Barbara nd Giuseppa nee Briffa of Zurrieq.

These are the sellers, selling to the buyer, Antonio Barbara son of Leonardo Barbara and Clara nee` Grixti.

The sale is of 1/2 of 5/6 of the field known as tal-Katina, for the sum of Lm25.

The document goes on to explain how this property came to their possession: each one had 1/6 (thus the 5/6) of one half of this field (thus 1/2 of 5/6) through the inheritance from their father Carmelo Barbara (who died on the 15th of July 1942) and Giuseppa nee Briffa (who died on the 21 October 1930) with wills dated 2nd November 1920 and 8th July 1936 from the notary Francesco Farrugia.

So, let's recapitulate.

Carmelo and Giuseppa Barbara owned 1/2 of this field.
This was split between their six children, each receiving one sixth.
Antonio Barbara, son of one of these children, bought the shares of five of these children, thus getting 5/6 of 1/2 of the field, or 1/2 of 5/6 as written in the text, thus 5/12 of the whole field - almost half, except for the missing sibling's share.

In a letter written by my father's lawyer to the person to which the field was tenured, the share is written as 1/2 of 5/6 of the field, agreeing with the above.

So the fraction of 5/24 claimed in the causa mortis seems to be an incorrect calculation, itself in conflict with the stated purchase of 1/2 of 5/6 in the same document.

Two more things need to be found: who owns the other half, and who owns the missing 1/6. Who is the missing sixth sibling?

A possible source for this information will be the records of the tenures paid in the past, which will fall under our scrutiny in the coming days...

Redemption of Sufferance

2011-08-09T13:56:00.000-07:00

Before we look at the purchase of the field, a glance at the document regarding the redemption of the due mass of sufferance indicates that a payment of Lm20, so 50 times the annual fee due for the mass in sufferance of Carmelo and Carmela Mamo was paid by Antonio Barbara to the Zurrieq Parish Church. The document also states that this annual fee had been paid annually since prior the year 1900. This occured on the 1st of November 1964.

Causa Mortis : Antonio Barbara

2011-08-09T13:51:00.000-07:00

I shall start from a very recent but important document: the causa mortis (succession) document of my paternal grandfather who deceased on 7th March 2000 AD, with the document being compiled on the 5th of June 2000AD which lists my father and his surviving four siblings as their heirs. This document is important as it summarises the inheritance through my grandfather and thus provides documentation to explain how this inheritance came about. Of interest is the field known as tal-Katina, l/o Qrendi.

The document explains how Antonio, my late grandfather, owned 5/24 of this field which approximates to 20.8 % of the field, which has an area of 17,840 metres squared (so roughly, 3716.667 metres squared). It is also explained that this field, in its totality, is rented to third parties for Lm4 (EUR9.32) per year.

The document then explains how this came to be owned by Antonio: On the 23rd of June 1963 he bought one half of five sixths (1/2 of 5/6 == 5/12) whilst he was married to his wife Nicholina nee Borg. Then he subsequently redeemed from the parish church of Zurrieq the perpetual due of holy mass to the worth of 8 shillings on the 1st of November 1964.

Ok, hold it.

How did Antonio own 5/24 when he had bought 5/12? Why half? Is it because the other half belongs to his wife? I think not, as the description before this statement states that at the time of his death, Antonio owned the following which belong to the communcal acquisitions existing between him and his late wife. So the ownership of the 5/24 includes that of his wife.

Hmm...

So a look at the original document wherein the purchase was made beckons...

In the footsteps of my father and of his father...

2011-08-09T13:32:00.000-07:00

It is with a mixture of great trepidation, and of great anxiety, that I delve into that part of family history which initiated my interest in genealogy. Anxiety as, as with all genealogical research, unearthing the past, especially one's personal past, is always an exciting and rewarding experience. Trepidation as I know that my father had already gone this way, and gave up on it a couple of years back.

As briefly explained in The Spark, the passing away of my paternal grandfather landed an inheritance of part of a field in the lap of my father, who had to trace the owners and the third parties who were working the land. To explain this he had drawn out a small family tree which had spurred my interest in genealogy, as explained in that article.

I have now in my possession the details that my father received, as well as those that he uncovered over the ten years since he was trusted with its care and follow up by his four siblings. It is through inherited responsability, and through personal interest that I dare walk back into the past and read documents relating the details of such inheritance. I also have the original document from which the family tree sketched by father was extracted.

I was tempted to start a separate blog for this, but given its close links to my research and itself being an attempt to understand past documents and infer information, I beleive it still falls within the remits of this blog.

Arrival of the Two Acts!

2011-06-23T13:39:00.000-07:00

Surprises Ahoy!

Monday I received the SMS notification that the acts were dispatched, and today, Thursday, they arrived:
two full extracts of two birth records, for a grand total sum of EUR18.64.

These are the records of Emmanuele Giuseppe Grazio VELLA and Maria Gaetana Marianna BUSUTTIL, being the paternal grandparents of my mother-in-law.

The first surprise was that the paternal grandfather of Emmanuele VELLA was a Michele, and not a Lorenzo as per my records. I have as yet to pinpoint the exact source of my error but I do believe it to be an error from my wife's 3rd cousin who had been researching the Maltese Govt database. This means that I do not know name of the paternal grandmother.

The second surprise was that Emmanuele's father Antonio was 70 years old at the time of his birth! SEVENTY! Still going strong! And his wife Francesca, was 38 years younger than he. A big possibility that she was his second wife, and she was born in Zejtun to Felice Cardona.

A third surprise, but to a lesser degree, was that his wife was not born Marianna, but Maria Gaetana Marianna, with her given name being Maria, not Marianna. This name, by which it was known by her granddaughter, may have been more used within the house - but not officially. Her two grandfathers were Giovanni Busuttil and Giuseppe Frendo, both from Gudja.

This leaves us with SIX remaining ladies to be found from my wife's tree - just like my Decade Challenge.
Two of them are GGGrandmothers of her father, the other four GGGrandmothers of her mother.

A Second Attempt

2011-06-18T07:52:00.000-07:00

In A Second Objective I attempted to find my wife's missing elements to complete my kids' family tree up to 7 generations, and I failed miserably when I tried to find the below marriages through the Malta Public Registry online form.

The marriage of Andrea Fenech to Maria Galea
The marriage of Antonii Vella to Francesca Cardona
The marriage of Antonii Busuttil to Feliciana Frendo
Having completed my own six-generation family tree, the interest is back to a second attempt.

This time I will attempt a different strategy: I will seek the full birth-certificate of the children of the above couples (see orange boxes below), namely

Maria Anna Busuttil,
- born 4 Aug 1892 in Gudja Malta
- daughter of Antonii Busuttil and Feliciana Frendo

her husband, Emmanoel Joseph Gratio Vella,
- born, 17 Oct 1885 in Zabbar Malta
- son of Antonii Vella and Francesca Cardona

The full birth-certificate will give not only the parents of the child (so possibly correcting any spelling mistakes in the names) but also his/her grandfather's name.

This should help retreive THREE (yellow boxes below) of the EIGHT missing 6th generation ancestors of my wife.

A friend in need is a friend indeed - even if he's your cousin's friend!

2011-06-14T14:00:00.000-07:00

Mission accomplished! Delayed by six months... and through a helping hand from my cousin's friend Kevin - who I salute and thank wholeheartedly.

In Decade Milestone, I described how on the decade of my research I set myself the challenge to find the six missing great-great-great-grandmas to complete all six generations. I had found four, with only two remaining:

Mrs Micallef,

wife of Saverio Micallef and mother of Carmelo Micallef who was born abt 1854 in Rabat, Malta

Mrs Galea
wife of Fedele Galea and mother of Teresa Galea born abt 1862 in Rabat, Malta

Kevin helped me by looking up the birth records of Carmelo Micallef and Teresa Galea at the Mdina Parish Records, and surely enough, their mothers' names were listed there.

Mrs Micallef was born Theresa Camilleri whilst Mrs Galea was born Grazia Camilleri.

Now in Planning the Search for the Five , I had remarked:

INTERESTING POINT: Targets 4 and 5 would most probably have met each other, at least at their children's wedding. Questions come to mind: were they acquaintances before? were they always trying to keep up with each other? did they seek each other's company, or avoid it best they could? Sadly, no records would be able to cement these for us in their future...

Coincidentally, Targets 4 and 5 were both Camilleris. Were they even related? Cousins perhaps!

Only further research will unravel the mystery!

For now, I will cherish the complete six-generation tree, reproduced below:

A Silver Link with the Past

2011-04-26T23:08:00.000-07:00

Four years ago, less one month, in my post Laurentius Fenech Birth 1763 I transcribed the birth record of the son of Joanne Fenech and his wife Maria, to whom they gave the names Cajetanus Laurentius Annettus. His Godparents were two eminent personas at his time: Cajetanus Grima: Architect and Lawyer of Courts, and the daughter of Annetto Pullicino. Moreover, the baptism was celebrated by the Archpriest of Valletta, rather than the parish priest of Attard. There I had posed the question: what linkages was there between this family and Valletta noblemen?

Having recently discovered the Geneanum website, I discovered one possible clue: His mother Maria was born Vassallo, daughter of Mro Angelo Vassallo and Maddalena nee Magro. This link to higher class would explain such important people present at his baptism. But who was Annetto Pullicino?

Searching online there was little to be found, save for an auction listing with a Maltese Silver sugar basin by Annetto Pullicino dated 1723 which was sold by auction last year. Turns out that Sig Annetto Pullicino was a silversmith during the time of the Knights, specifically during GrandMaster Pinto's reign. This led me to a search through Valletta for some trace of his work... from the Museum of Archeaology to the Palace Armoury where the curator, the kind Robert, suggested I refer to two books by a certain Jimmy Farrugia: Domestic Silver and Ecclesiastic Silver. Off I went to the National Library next door and managed to find the Domestic Silver book. Looking at the index there were only two mentions of the name Annetto Pullicino, and were text-only and little informative. However, as there were a number of illustrations, I starting looking through the pages and, certainly enough, under the section 'Other Silver' I found this lovely mid-18th century oil lamp bearing the mark of Annetto Pullicino. EUR 0.23 got me a photocopy of it which I am reproducing hereunder.

According to an online dictionary on oil lamps, the items hanging from the central rod are "snuffers, tweezers and estinguishers" and the emblem bearing the client's noble family's coat-of-arms served as a shade. Unfortunately I was unable to decipher the family's surname on the shade.

Whilst I will be on the lookout for more items silver items of this Master Craftsman, I wil for now cherish this find, giving me a tangible silver link to the past...

Farewell Dad

2011-04-25T13:11:00.000-07:00

A few minutes past midnight of Monday 18th April 2011, my father's respiratory system broke down, giving him trouble for one last time. Pampered by the nurses of the Intesive Therapy Unit at Mater Dei Hospital, Dad expired after spending his last fifteen days in a lethargic coma, unaware of his surroundings or state.

We visited him daily, were welcomed with an opened eye on being called by name for the first few days, but was constantly asleep thereafter. On one occasion, wearing an oxygen mask and his eyelid pulled back, he did follow me with his gaze.

But during the last week, there was no response. On Sunday the monitor showed measurements of a healthy person - the sunshine before the storm. Later that night we got the dreaded phone call. Arriving first, we were, alas, too late by twenty minutes.

The following Wednesday, a funeral service was held at St Marija Parish Church of Attard at 9:00am, well attended by relatives, friends, and colleagues of the family. Subsequently he was taken by hearse to Addolorata Cemetery where he was buried in the Police Section - where he had always wished to be buried. He was proud to belong to the Malta Police Force, where he served as a Police Sergeant for the better of the 28years of service.

He was a man of few hobbies: caring for his little yard with lots of plants and flowers and cathing up on the latest news through the local and foreign newspapers. He kept his brain busy playing Sudoku and guessing the correct answers on TV quizzes.

Rest in peace Dad: I started this genealogical adventure thanks to you, and in your memory I plan to continue this neverending journey through history. Our history.

Quandary solved(?)

2011-04-23T14:40:00.000-07:00

In Mystery Solved - Another Emerges I had come to the conclusion that there were two couples giving birth to children in Attard sharing the same father's name, surname and the mother: Lorenzo Fenech and Gratia. One of the couples was married in Attard, whilst the other had married earlier. This was initially pointed out in Quandary Explanation.

Well, Geneanum comes to the rescue!

It seems that apart from the couple marrying in 1696 in Attard, there was an earlier couple marrying in 1671 in nearby Birkirkara. This 1671 makes more sense as their first child was born in 1674. Thus, it seems, the quandary is solved, THREE years later!

The new addition to the family tree are Lorenzo FENECH, son of Gio(vanni) Paolo and Grazia, and Grazia BORG, daughter of Domenico and Domenichella. They were married in Birkirkara on 13th June 1671.

Before Bone, Algeria: Casal Bisbuti!

2011-04-03T11:45:00.000-07:00

Let me recapitulate what this story has been so far...

In "From Bona" I explained how my search for the paternal line took me across the Mediterranean Sea to Algeria looking for my GGGGrandpa...

In Bona, Algeria! I shared the discovery of CAOM and online access to summaries of the Algerian archive ...

In Tragedy and Happiness in Bona, Algeria I noted the birth of a brother to my GGGGrandpa but also his father's death just after the latter's first birthday.

In Before Bone, Algeria I explained that having found my GGGGrandpa, and thus his parents, it is now time to move on, and trace their origins - something to which no help could be sought from the Algerian records as the only detail was Malta, and not the place of origin.

This took me through various sources, including the passenger list of ships and in A Surprise at the National Archives I documented how, when looking through the Passpot Registry, I discovered that his mother had gone to Algeria with a daughter in tow. Sadly, I learnt that she had died a year after arriving...

With her age listed on her death certificate, Antonia gave me another way to finding the place of origin of her parents, and in In Search of Antonia I narrated my search for her birth records in three parishes in and around Zurrieq, but to no avail. I still had Qrendi and Kirkop to search though...

In An Uncle in Bone? and One Dead End I tell of a wild goose chase for a possible Uncle, I finish the latter with a postscript: As Giuseppe's mother is Caterina, Zejtun could be another place worth visiting...

However, even though Zejtun is a neighbouring town to my hometown Zabbar, I never found time to continue the search... until Geneanum brought it to my own screen. Searching for the marriage of a Barbara Giuseppe and Vella Rosa, I was rewarded with one entry dated 13th June 1820, twelve years prior to Antonia's birth, in ZEJTUN! Somewhere else I discovered that this place was originally also known as Casal Bisbut. I couldn't further confirm by finding Antonia's birth there as there were no records for that time period.

Looking further along on Geneanum, I was unable to trace back anymore on the Barbara line (apart from learning that Giuseppe's mother's maiden name was Gristi (Grixti)) but on his maternal Vella line, I went back a further six generations, with her GGGrandpa hailing from Zabbar.

Funny we closed the circle by returning thefamily line into Zabbar!

One issue remains to be solved here: on Geneanum, Giuseppe's mother is listed with the same name of his wife, Rosa, whilst on Giuseppe's death certificate, his mother's name is listed as Caterina (the same hint that brought me to Zejtun in the first place.)

I will still need to visit the Zejtun records, get the entry for the marriage of 13th June 1820 and, maybe, also lookup Antonia's birth record to concretise the link...

Geneanum

2011-04-03T11:02:00.000-07:00

Spurred by the new contact below, I went to check the Malta Genealogy Forum for any updates, as I had not looked here for ages.

A post by Josyanne Massa, an on-line acquaintance of mineon the subject for over 7 years caught my eyes: new free web site for Maltese Marriages. I was aware that Josyanne had been working on a website on the matter and this was extremely good news to me.

Instantly I went on the website, http://www.geneanum.com/ , had some false clicks around the site as I missed the baptism, marriage, etc links on the right hand side, but finally made some trial queries to get a feel of the engine. Then I started looking up some details on my mother's Vassallo side and added up some six new couples to my ancestors on that line.

Then I remembered my 2010 challenge, the Decade Milestone, and tried to look up my last two target ancestors, but they were too early for the records.

Just as I was going to switch off and head to sleep... I remembered something very important that History still owed me... the Barbaras who went off to Algeria!

Hello,Cousin!

2011-04-03T07:26:00.000-07:00

This blog gets revived thanks to a surprise email I received from a certain Jane in Australia claiming to be a cousin through a common ancestor, Eva Del Bosco.

Once confirmed, this led to a flurry of emails across the globe as we shared data on past and current acquaintances.

She too was looking for some information on an ancestor who hailed from Algiers and I led her to the online search engine that the French government has put up with all the records they had taken a copy of when they left Algeria. Unfortunately none of the records made sense in matching her search.

I've actually worked out her exact relationship with my family, and she is the 13th cousin of my father's.

It's always lovely to discover far-away relatives in far-away places!

Second Objective: Second Attempt - FAILED

2010-08-03T09:19:00.000-07:00

A friend lawyer of mine told me that although you could fail online, one might go to the Public Records and get friendlier service as they can search for you. NOOOOOT!

I went this morning, with my 4-year old trudging along, all the way from City Gate to the Evans Buildings where the Public Registry is currently being housed, to be told that without the exact date they wouldn't look for my records...

GRRRRR....

Second Objective: First Attempt - FAILED

2010-08-03T09:15:00.000-07:00

For my wife's ancestors, I tried requesting the marriage certificates online through www.certifikati.gov.mt putting in an approximate date. It has a nifty SMS service to notify you of updates - and wasn't I disappointed the next day to receive three SMSes telling me my requests have been rejected...

A Second Objective

2010-08-01T07:48:00.000-07:00

Looking across at my research up along my wife's family tree, I realise that, on her part, I only have eight missing GGGGrandparents. If I were to also find these missing individuals, I would have found all 64 of my children's GGGGGrandparents!

The missing individuals are:
- Mrs Fenech, wife of Francisci Fenech and mother of Andrea Fenech
- Mrs Galea, wife of Michaeli Galea and mother of Maria Galea, wife of the above Andrea Fenech

- Mr and Mrs Cardona, parents of Francesca Cardona, wife of Antonii Vella

- Mr and Mrs Bususttil, parents of Antonii Busuttil
- Mr and Mrs Frendo, parents of Feliciana Frendo, wife of the above Antonii Busuttil

In order to speed up the search and make best use of available resources, I made a request for the following marriages from the Maltese Government's Public Registry via their online form.

The marriage of Andrea Fenech to Maria Galea
The marriage of Antonii Vella to Francesca Cardona
The marriage of Antonii Busuttil to Feliciana Frendo

From these records, given that the information is found, I would be able to acquire the names of the parents of each spouse, and thus acquire the missing eight individuals in my wife's family tree.

As always, I'll keep you posted with any results forthcoming...

One down, two to go - Rosa Grech joins the tree

2010-08-01T05:39:00.000-07:00

Kudos to Rev Albert Buhagiar, parish priest of Siggiewi, for replying within three days to my email requesting the baptismal record of Nicholina Magri, from which details I was able to acquire the name of TARGET 3, wife of Saverio Magri.

For completeness, here is the complete correspondence:

Dear Rev Buhagiar (or assistant)

I would greatly appreciate your small assistance in helping me compiling my family tree upon which I have been working for the past 10 years.

I only desire the name of the mother of Nicolina Magri ( my great-great-grandma), born in Siggiewi in circa 1862 to Saverio Magri.

I suppose the mother's name can be acquired from the baptismal record of Nicolina Magri of 1862 in your parish records. I thank you whole-heartedly beforehand.

Your brother in Christ

Jonathan Barbara
Zabbar

to which the reply was

Dear Jonathan,

From the Parish records it resulted that Nicolina Magri was born on the 7 December 1861. her parents were Saverio and Rosa nee Grech.

I hope this satisfies your research.

Fr Albert

This leaves only two more ancestors to meet my challenge of finding all GGGGreat parents on the 10th anniversary of my commencing my genealogical research.

These two ancestors will both be investigated at the Mdina Parish records which contain all Rabat records prior to 1902.

Two down (and one), three to go!

2010-07-27T06:12:00.000-07:00

This morning I managed a quick visit to the Zebbug parish office. The office is in a street which from behind the church takes you to the Domus along the left.

The parish priest is quite young and quite strict-looking: he asked me my name upon entry and when I asked him for a couple of birth records he demanded to know the purpose. He turned friendlier when I told him that I was looking up my family in Zebbug.

The records for the 1850s are indexed by surname so we found the first two in a breeze. Then I ventured to ask for two more, in the 1820s. Here it was more difficult, but not as much as in Attard. They were indexed by father's name (and surname) per year. The results were two of the targets, one GGGGgrandmother and some doubts cast on another contemporary ancestor.

Let's look at the findings.

First find was Target 1: Mrs Borg, who turned out to be Helena Mallia - mother of carmelo borg, and wife to Giuseppe Borg.

Next was Target 2: Mrs Chirchop, who turned out to be Caterina Chirchop - mother of Salvatore Chircop and wife to Giuseppe Chirchop. Some interesting facts here: Salvatore was actually Joseph Salvatore, with the latter name underlined and thus being indicated as his main name (and thus differentiating him from his father who bore the same name). Another is that Salvatore's daughter was named Caterina, after her paternal grandmother here. Last point is that the grandmother Caterina is listed as Chirchop - is that her maiden surname or just her married surname? One would have to find their marriage to find out.

Since we were on the baptism registry I decided to skip the marriage from which I would be able to find Target 3 (as the date of the marriage was unknown and would have taken more time and patience - and I knew I was stretching it) and went for another couple of baptisms on my mother's side.

First off was that of Giuseppe Zammit, son of Mariano Zammit and the subject of the search, who turned out to be a Maria Zerafa. (My wife's maiden surname was Zerafa...)

Secondly we had a search for the baptism of Angela Micallef daughter of Antonio Micallef. These names I acquired from the government's public registry. The approximate date was 1827. No answers for 1827. Next we sought 1826 and we found a certain Antonia Micallef being born to Antonio and a certain Maria Galea.

Not quite there.

So we went on to 1828, and another birth was registered for Antonio: a certain Philippa Margerita from a certain Maria Cachia.

No Angelas.

How to go about it?

Well, one way would be to go to Zebbug again and look up the baptismal record of Giuseppe's son Mariano and check out who his mother was: was it an Angela or an Antonia?

Since I have the exact date, I could try it out by email...

Anyways... with three out of my original six targets found, we're half way.

Next up is Mdina for the two I tried yesterday... leaving the grand finale for Siggiewi.

Opening hours for Siggiewi parish church, as per http://maltadiocese.org/lang/en/parishes/siggiewi/ are

Mondays 4.30 – 6.00 pm
Tuesdays 10.00 am – 12.00
Wednesdays 9.30 am – 12.00, 4.30 – 6.00 pm
Fridays 4.30 – 6.00 pm
Saturdays 9.30 – 11.00 am

Rabat Records Prior to 1902 are in Mdina Parish Records

2010-07-26T06:57:00.000-07:00

That was the reply I received on visiting the Rabat parish office earlier this morning.

At first I was hopeful as the parish priest was not in office, and the vice-parish priest was there - who happened to be an acquaintance of mine when he served his deaconship in my town. He recognised me immediately and after some pleasantries I got down to business. Only to be told that the St Paul's parish in Rabat only had records from 1902 onwards - prior to that one has to go to the Mdina parish office. He kindly checked the opening times for me, and informed me that it opens on Mon, Wed, and Fri between 4:30pm and 5:30pm.

Not a very good news for me as I'm free from family obligations (aka baby-sitting or child-minding) only in the morning - and it will mean I have to take the whole family with me in the afternoon. Luckily there's a children's playground nearby so maybe they can spend the hour there. An hour. That too is an issue... with so little time, if there will be other clients at the office, it might take me two visits... and Mdina is quite far from Zabbar... GRRR...

Four birds with one stone?

2010-07-24T06:44:00.001-07:00

In my previous post I planned the expedition into the parish records of Rabat, Malta. In doing so I made and shared with you a copy of Teresa Micallef's birth record. On putting it back I happened to look at another birth record that I have: that of Alfonso Vassallo - also from Rabat. His grandmothers are also unknown but since Alfonso is my GGgrandpa, they were not in that list of targets due this year.

But I could use the same strategy as for Teresa and find two GGGGgrandmothers. Alfonso's parents Nicola Vassallo and Evangelista (also born Vassallo) were both 36 years old on his birthday (1876) making 1840 the target date to seek out their birth records. Luckily they're both from Rabat.

I'll print a copy of the record and if I don't run out of time and the parish priest out of patience, will try to find their mothers too.

Planning the Search for the Five

2010-07-24T05:26:00.000-07:00

Summer 2010 has been here for over a month, and a merited rest should give me time to live up to my challenge: that of finding the last five GGGgrandmothers and complete the 32-individual layer at the 5th generation stage. ( See Decade Milestone).

With Target 6 found, I now focus on the other five - with supposedly just two parishes needed to be visited.: Zebbug and Rabat (both in Malta, not Gozo).

Visiting their website, I acquired the office hours of the parish, namely:

Zebbug: Tuesdays 0930-1130, Wednesdays and Fridays 1630-1800 (info here)

Rabat: All weekays (except Thursday) between 0930-1100 and 1700-1800 (info here)

Thus Monday I plan to go to Rabat with the two targets being:

Mrs Micallef,
wife of Saverio Micallef and mother of Carmelo Micallef who was born abt 1854 in Rabat, Malta

Mrs Galea
wife of Fedele Galea and mother of Teresa Galea born abt 1862 in Rabat, Malta

The plan for both is to try to find the baptismal record of their offspring which ought to have the names of both parents. But what are the risks involved? How sure am I of these clues?

The answer lies in the birth certificate of Teresa Aleta Carmela Anna Micallef - my great grandma (mother of my maternal grandfather) who is the daughter of the above Carmelo Micallef and the above Teresa Micallef nee` Galea, his wife. This certificate was received last year and has been documented in the post The Family Increases and is now reproduced here.

As can be seen, Teresa is the daughter of Carmelo Micallef who was 40 years old at the time. Forty years prior to 20th September 1894, Teresa's birthday, would be 1854 - which explains why I'll be looking at that date for Carmelo's baptismal record. Also note Carmelo's father listed as Saverio Micallef on the right column (vivo means living at the time of the record).

Also, Teresa's mother Teresa Galea was 32 at the time which would explain the 1862 approximate date for her own baptismal record. Also note mother Teresa's father listed as Fedele Galea, also living at the time.

One would be tempted to also attempt to trace the wedding record of Teresa's parents Carmelo and Teresa. If I would be allowed to search through the parish records myself, this would be doable - but if the parish priest will not allow me, then I would not be willing to test his patience in trying to scour about 15 years of marriages for their bethrothal. Why? Because, as you can see from the family picture dated 1908 seen below, Teresa (rightmost, abt 14yo at the time) was not their eldest child and thus the marriage date would be possibly much much earlier. Also, since the two were born in Rabat but were living in Dingli, they might have married in Dingli...

Also note that both parents were living in Dingli at the time, but were both born in Rabat - which explains why I'll be looking for the above two records in Rabat.

What will I take with me? I will print a copy of Teresa's birth certificate in order to explain to the parish priest my search if necessary.

INTERESTING POINT: Targets 4 and 5 would most probably have met each other, at least at their children's wedding. Questions come to mind: were they acquaintances before? were they always trying to keep up with each other? did they seek each other's company, or avoid it best they could? Sadly, no records would be able to cement these for us in their future...

It's Saturday Night - time for some Genealogy Fun

2009-09-20T10:36:00.000-07:00

Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music, please!):

1) How old is your father now, or how old would he be if he had lived? Divide this number by 4 and round the number off to a whole number. This is your "roulette number."

2) Use your pedigree charts or your family tree genealogy software program to find the person with that number in your ahnentafel. Who is that person?

3) Tell us three facts about that person with the "roulette number."

4) Write about it in a blog post on your own blog, in a Facebook note or comment, or as a comment on this blog post.

5) If you do not have a person's name for your "roulette number" then spin the wheel again - pick your mother, or yourself, a favorite aunt or cousin, or even your children!

Here's mine

My father's 62 years old (born 3 Dec 1946)
62 div 4 = 15.69 = 16

Ahnentafel position 16 occupied by my great-great-grandpa Carmelo Franciscus Marianus Barbara

Some facts:
- His nickname was "La Karm"
- He was born in Zurrieq, Malta, where his father married on his return from Bone,Algeria
- He died on the 15 Jul 1942 at 80 years of age, just one month before the Convoy of St Marija berthed in Valletta with much needed food supplies for the starving island. It must not be nice to die in such situations.

Genealogy Art

2009-09-19T09:21:00.000-07:00

Here are some genealogy-inspired art : basically its binary form and the heterosexual nature of reproduction which bears the next generation. Males are represented in blue, females in red.

The first is Banner, one that would flutter on the battle standard's lance ahead of a knightly regiment formation. In reality, one could put the emblem of his ancestors in place of each square.

Next is an inverted tree-like structure titled Invasion as it looks like an alien invasion.

This one, titled Son, looks like a solar depiction, with rays coming forth from the center - the individual whose ancestors ring around him with their parents right behind them.

This one, titled Related depicts individuals with their own aura of ancestry around them and how they share them with other individuals. Time is along the z-axis here, with the older invidiuals and their ancestors faded into the background.

Last 5 : A Visualisation

2009-09-18T08:02:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture I made to demonstrate who are the five targets I wish to reach by next year to mark the Decade Milestone.

Along the bottom are the dates of birth of that generation, fanning out in semi-circles.
I also coloured it into three: the innermost semi-circle refers to those whom I have met in person, the middle semi-circle refers to those whose records can be acquired from the Public Registry, the outer white section refers to those ancestors whose records can only be acquired from their respective parish records.

As can now be clearly seen, the original six targets where evenly split between my paternal and maternal sides. Having found my maternal grandmother's maternal grandmother, Catherine Aquilina, we stand at 3-2.

One Down, Five To Go!

2009-09-16T11:19:00.000-07:00

As I had listed in Decade Milestone , I have six great-great-great-grandmothers that I want to find by next year in time for the 10th anniversary of the beginning of my genealogical research.

I am happy to say that Target 6 has been found: Gratia Pisano from B'Kara.

Daughter of Joseph Pisani and Catherine Aquilina she was born on the 6th day of February 1854 with her given names being Gratia, Anna, Maria, Helena and her godparents being Michael and Gratia Micallef.

The archpriest of B'Kara is an acquaintance of mine (he was parish priest of my town, Zabbar) and he was kind enough to answer my request by email. Moreover, he also satisfied my second request: that of finding her parents' marriage.

Joseph Pisano son of Michael Pisano and Rosa wed Catherine Aquilina, daughter of Lawrence Aquilina and Maria Micallef, on 14th January 1805.

1805? The date looks strange... would they have a child 49 years into their marriage?? Also, I had erroneously looked up the B'Kara parish records in the years 1843 to 1845, and found no birth to a Joseph Pisano.

For now I will guess that the correct date of the marriage is 1850, not 1805 - whilst awaiting confirmation from the parish priest.

Future Genealogy: leaving a history to your children

2009-09-13T03:29:00.000-07:00

No one can negate that genealogy is about family history, it's about the family. An extended family that transcends generations. It's about going back to meet the families which were instrumental in us becoming ourselves.

A major emotional aspect of genealogy is about being able to read, learn, think, about how our ancestors lived their own lives, their births, their marriages, their deaths... we can read hand-written records penned by people who lived, saw, talked to, our ancestors... how many a times did we feel like our ancestors were talking down to us across the generations? Or rather, how many times did we wish they could talk back and answer our questions? Instead, we try to search for hints and clues, newspaper reports, passport requests, memoirs, heirlooms, to try and find answers to our questions.

We cannot help facilitate this anymore than we can bring the dead back. But there's one thing we can do, make it easier for our future generations. Starting from your children. How many times did you wish to tell them a story, or explain a decision, or narrate an episode of your life? Think about old grandad telling stories to his grandchildren. But what if we will not be around when they are of age? What if we forget these episodes by the time we come to narrate them?

With these in mind, here's what I did about it: I made a couple of gmail accounts, one for each child of mine. Occasionally I write them an email, addressing them as adults, but talking about what is going on right now. Sometimes I include pictures, or attachments (such as the result of my son's first banging on the keyboard) to help the story. Now it will be my prerogative as to when to give them the password to the email account. I plan to give it to them on their 21st and 18th birthday respectively (there's a three year gap between them). Hoping that I'll still be alive by then. If not, I plan to leave hints as to the password, or leave it with a trustworthy relative.

I can send them an email from home while they are asleep, in breaks at work, from my mobile while travelling... anywhere.

I encourage you to take on this idea, and you too help your future generations know more about you.

2nd cousins on 2nd cousins

2009-09-08T03:38:00.000-07:00

The photo above shows Nathan and Jerome, second cousins, on their respective grandparents, Marthese and Paul, who are themselves second cousins. Karmenu Barbara, paternal grandfather to Nathan, and Catherine Micallef nee Barbara, maternal grandmother to Jerome, are siblings (brother and sister).

On the other hand, Marthese Barbara nee Vassallo, wife of Karmenu and paternal grandmother to Nathan is the niece of Teresa Micallef, shown on the far right in the picture below dated 1908. Her sister Grace, shown in the below photo to the left of the said Teresa, is the paternal grandmother of Paul Micallef, husband to the above Catherine, and maternal grandfather to Jerome.

Decade Milestone

2009-08-28T08:54:00.000-07:00

2010 marks the first(!) decade of my genealogical research begun as a personal Millennium Project in 2000.

To this end, I wish to reach a milestone: having found all my ancestors back to the 6th Generation: that is up to my 3GGrandparents.

I am not far off: I have only 6GGrandmas to find, so here I set the targets that I want to reach:

TARGET 1: Mrs Borg
WIFE OF: Giuseppe Borg
MOTHER OF: Carmelo Borg born abt 1857 in Zebbug, Malta
PLAN A: Baptism record of Carmelo Borg from Zebbug
PLAN B: Marriage of Carmelo Borg to Maria Carmela Abela, probably in Zebbug

TARGET 2: Mrs Chirchop
WIFE OF: Giuseppe Chirchop
MOTHER OF: Salvatore Chirchop born about 1852 in Zebbug, Malta
PLAN A: Baptism record of Salvatore Chirchop from Zebbug
PLAN B: Marriage of Salvatore Chirchop to Nicholina Magri, probably in Zebbug

TARGET 3: Mrs Magri
WIFE OF: Saverio Magri
MOTHER OF: Nicholina Magri born abt 1862 in Siggiewi, Malta
PLAN A: Baptism record of Nicholina Magri from Siggiewi
PLAN B: Marriage of Salvatore Chirchop to Nicholina Magri, before 1894, probably in Zebbug

TARGET 4: Mrs Micallef
WIFE OF: Saverio Micallef
MOTHER OF: Carmelo Micallef born abt 1854 in Rabat, Malta
PLAN A: Baptism record of Carmelo Micallef from Rabat
PLAN B: Marriage of Carmelo Micallef to Teresa Galea in Rabat, or Dingli

TARGET 5: Mrs Galea
WIFE OF: Fedele Galea
MOTHER OF: Teresa Galea born abt 1862 in Rabat, Malta
PLAN A: Baptism record of Teresa Galea from Rabat
PLAN B: Marriage of Carmelo Micallef to Teresa Galea in Rabat, or Dingli

TARGET 6: Mrs Lisano or Pisano
WIFE OF: Giuseppe Lisano
MOTHER OF: Grazia Lisano born abt 1854 in Birkirkara
PLAN A: Baptism record of Grazia Lisano from Birkirkara
PLAN B: Marriage of Mariano Zammit to Grazia Pisano in Zebbug or Birkirkara

Looking at the above targets, once can notice that I minimally need to visit three places:

Zebbug, Malta parish priest office for targets 1, 2, 3
Rabat, Malta parish priest office for targets 4 and 5
Birkirkara, Malta parish priest office for target 6

The Family Increases!

2009-08-26T14:01:00.000-07:00

The certificates have arrived - and the family tree adds 7 new additions: four 4GGrandfathers and three 3GGrandparents.

This first record is the birth certificate of Teresa Aleta Carmela Anna Micallef, my maternal grandfather's mother, on 20 Sep 1894 to Carmelo Micallef and Teresa nee Galea who were 40 and 32 years of age at the time, placing their date of birth to circa 1854 and 1862 respectively. The newcomers are Saverio Micallef and Fedele Galea, their respective fathers and my 3GGrandfathers.

The second record is the birth certificate of Alphonse Paolo Daniele Vincenzo Vassallo, my 2 GGrandfather along my mother's paternal line, on 12 Aug 1876 to Nichola Vassallo and Evangelista nee Vassallo who were both 36 years of age at the time, placing their date of birth to circa 1840. The newcomers are Giuseppe Vassallo and Felice Vassallo, their respective fathers and my 4GGrandfathers.

The next record is the birth certificate of Paolo Vincenzo Crocefisso Mattia Zammit, my maternal grandmother's father, on 23 Feb 1895 to Mariano Zammit and Grazia nee Lisano who were 29 and 41 years at the time, placing Grazia's date of birth to circa 1854. The newcomer is her father Giuseppe Lisano, my 3 GGrandfather.

The last record is the birth certificate of the abovementioned Mariano Zammit, with his name in full being Mariano Gioacchino Angelo Antonio Zammit. He was born on 19 Dec 1865 to Giuseppe and Angela nee Micallef who were 39 and 38 years old at the time placing their date of birth at about 1826 and 1827 respectively. The newcomers are another Mariano Zammit and Antonio Micallef, my 4GGrandfathers.

At this point I have found all my male 3GGrandfathers with only six females remaining to complete my thirty-two 3GGrandfathers.

Briffa

2009-08-24T10:05:00.001-07:00

Having reached a dead end, and with 25 minutes to spare at the Zurrieq parish records, I set to research any other records that I needed from this parish.

Having returned to Malta, Antonio Barbara married and had a son Carmelo. This Carmelo married a Josephine Briffa, whose family was also from Zurrieq. A missing record that I required was the birth date and location of her greatgrandfather Vincentius Briffa - whose est. year of birth was 1752 based on his death record which estimated his age at 75 when he died in Zurrieq on 29 Feb 1828.

I started searching from 1752 working my way to earlier dates but I found no birth record of a Vincentius Briffa, nor of any other baptisms to the parents of Vincentius: Jacobo and Maria Briffa.

Then I started searching forward and found the following siblings to Vincentius:

Joannes Baptista Micael Joachinus BAPTISED ON 25 Feb 1753
Joannes Petrus Joseph Thomas BAPTISED ON 30 Mar 1754
Michael Angelus Joseph BAPTISED ON 17 Nov 1757
Michael Arcangelus Joseph Ignatius BAPTISED ON 28 Apr 1759
Feliciana Maria Teresa BAPTISED ON 26 Feb 1763

Having married in 1771, Vincentius couldn't have been born after Feliciana so I stopped searching there.

The clock struck six and the office had to close, so I laid down my tomes and walked away, determined to return again and scrutinise more closely the year 1750 to 1753 - as in my records, the marriage of Jacobo and Maria Briffa was on 4 Oct 1750 (which I will confirm first thing next time).

P.S. Much of the data I have here was acquired by Googling "Concepta Formosa" and finding this research made by my 5th cousins in Canada: http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/AF/individual_record.asp?recid=13741148&lds=0&region=-1&regionfriendly=&frompage=99

However I do make sure to confirm there data by looking them up in the parish records.

Today I googled "Concepta Formosa" again and found another tree available freely on ancestry.com, here: http://records.ancestry.com/Andreas_Joseph_Formosa_Zurrieq_Malta_records.ashx?pid=41660891&gss=seo

From this site I gathered that Vincentius was born around June 1752, apart from the fact that he had two other brothers: Jose Giovanni Briffa born in 8 Jan 1756, and Franciscus Arcangelus Briffa born 5 Oct 1751. Did I miss them?? I'll make sure next time...

One Dead End

2009-08-24T09:50:00.000-07:00

A week ago, in my post An Uncle in Bone?, I started a bypass search through a suspected uncle, Andrea Barbara because of an Andrea Barbara dying at 60yrs of age in Bone, Algeria in 1836, the same year Antonia Barbara died there. The only knowledge of Andrea was that his wife was called Maria Farrugia.

In Zurrieq, whilst searching for Antonia Barbara, I started finding baptisms of children born to a certain Andrea Barbara and his wife Maria - so I started a family profile in order to find their marriage and their conclude whether this Andrea Barbara in Zurrieq was an uncle of my ancestor Antonio Barbara, younger brother of the late Antonia Barbara.

So far I had found eight daughters for Andrea and Maria born in Zurrieq:

Francisca Aloysia Carmela Elisabeth Catherine Colomba Barbara BAPTISED ON 27 apr 1826
Gratia Modesta Rosa Barbara BAPTISED ON12 Apr 1824
Anna Francisca Joanna Barbara BAPTISED ON 12 Feb 1821
Antonina Maria Andreana Barbara BAPTISED ON 27 Jan 1820
Catharina Maria Gratia Barbara BAPTISED ON 28 Nov 1816
Consuela Catharina Christina Barbara BAPTISED ON 4 Aug 1814
Gratia Rosa Margherita Barbara BAPTISED ON 4 Jan 1812
Francisca Horatia Antonina Barbara BAPTISED ON 7 Feb 1810

Today I continued the search and more offspring came forth:

Veneranda Horatia Maria Barbara BAPTISED ON 20 Jul 1808
Horatia Veneranda Rosa Barbara BAPTISED ON 12 Jan 1806
Josepha Veneranda Caterina Anna Barbara BAPTISED ON 28 Nov 1802

For a total of ELEVEN DAUGHTERS. I did not have time to check if any died very young.

Having found no more baptisms to the couple for the prior 5 years, I went to look for their marriage and I found it:

On 10 Jan 1802, Maria Camilleri daughter of Micaelis and Gratia Camilleri was wed to Andrea Barbara son of Josephi and Vizulae Barbara.

Andrea Barbara of Zurrieq was NOT Antonio's uncle
Andrea Barbara of Zurrieq was NOT the same Andrea Barbara of Bone, Algeria, as his wife's surname is CAMILLERI, not FARRUGIA
Andrea Barbara of Bone, Algeria COULD STILL be an uncle.

To further cement the fact that Antonio Barbara's father Giuseppe was NOT from Zurrieq, I did a 10 year search around the est year of his birth and found

NO record of Giuseppe's birth
NO record of a baptism to a BARBARA family

Thus my search has to resume elsewhere, as I said in my earlier post In search of Antonia, around Zurrieq.

P.S. As Giuseppe's mother is Caterina, Zejtun could be another place worth visiting...

BAD NEWS!

2009-08-22T08:35:00.001-07:00

The certificates didn't make it today - I have to wait until Monday, hopefully!

Good News!

2009-08-21T10:29:00.000-07:00

"Your order for certificates with reference #4808 has been processed and payment has been settled by the Public Registry. Your certificate copies have been sent by mail."

I'll spend the morning panting next to the letterbox tomorrow, awaiting the certificates!

Online request for Certificates from Public Registry

2009-08-19T13:30:00.000-07:00

During your research you are prone to come across information which will be assimilated for later pondering and deductions. While trying to find more info for the Barbaras in Zurrieq and Bone, I learnt that 1863 is the earliest date for records available from the public registry. Also I was reminded that the full birth certificate gives the names of both grandfathers.

This thought came to mind while I was in the peadiatrician's waiting room. So I loaded up my genealogy programme and brought up a 5-generation ancestor chart.

I checked if I had any post-1862 births for which I could get a full certificate and discover more ancestors. On my father's side I had exhausted all possibilities, but on my mother's side I had some work to do: which was a positive thing as research had stalled horribly there - basically never started in earnest.

The first candidate was Alphonse Vassallo, born in 1876. So far I only had the names of his parents - and getting their fathers' names is a very important step. This is the paternal line of my mother - as much important as my own paternal line.

Next candidate was Maria Teresa Micallef, born in 1894, being my maternal grandfather's mother - just 3 generations away. Again I only knew her parents.

The other two candidates come from the paternal line of my maternal grandmother: her father Paolo Zammit born in 1895 whose maternal grandparents are as yet unknown, and his father Mariano Zammit born in 1865 of who only the parents were known as yet.

With EUR9.00 per certificate, this will cost me EUR36 but will excavate seven more ancestors from the as yet dormant maternal side of the research.

Watch this space for updates and fingers crossed (that the clerks at the Public Registry manage to find the records!)

An Uncle in Bone?

2009-08-17T13:37:00.000-07:00

Whilst looking for the birth record of Antonia Barbara (see In search of Antonia) I came across the birth of a child in Zurrieq to a certain Andre Barbara and Maria.

Whilst revising the survey I had made of the Barbara records in Bone, Algeria I rediscovered the death of a certain Andre Barbara at the age of 60, whose wife was a certain Maria Farrugia. Is it a coincidence that, on the same year of Antonia's death , 1836, another Andre Barbara dies, with his and his wife's name cropping up in Zurrieq whilst searching for her death? Desperate times call for desperate measures: if he is an uncle, a brother to Antonia's father Giuseppe, then I can trace HIS family in Zurrieq. I had a look at his death record (Giuseppe's mentioned his father's and mother's name) but in Andre's case, they only mentioned his wife, Maria FARRUGIA.

So I had no choice but to head to Zurrieq. Wife and kid in tow, then deposited at the nearest park, I headed to the parish office where I was given access to the birth records of the 1830s.

The plan of action was this:

A family profile of Andre Barbara and his wife Maria
Find the marriage record of Andre Barbara and his wife Maria
Compare Andre's parents with those of Giuseppe (Antonio and Caterina)
IF the parents match

Find Andre's birth record
Look for Giuseppe's birth record in the whereabouts

I had 45 minutes to do all this... and in fact only managed to do the first (IF I have found all the offspring of the couple in question).

As I went through the births, I noted down ALL baptisms of Barbara offspring, irrelevant of their parents, just in case I'd need them in future. Here are my findings:

PARENTS: Andrea Barbara AND Antonia
NAME Carmelo Joseph Franciscus Barbara
BAPTISM 20 Feb 1833

NAME Archangelus Rosarius Joannes Cajetanus Barbara
BAPTISM 19 Dec 1828

NAME Anna Rosa Maria Barbara
BAPTISM 3 Jan 1828

PARENTS: Marquis Francisco Barbara AND Carolina
NAME Heliodony Erasmus Inatius Antonius Paulus Franciscus Joseph Carolus Barbara
BAPTISM 26 Nov 1828

PARENTS: Petro Barbara AND Maria
NAME Joanna Cajetana Paula Barbara
BAPTISM 19 Jan 1816

PARENTS: Andrea Barbara AND Maria
NAME Francisca Aloysia Carmela Elisabeth Catherine Colomba Barbara
BAPTISM 27 apr 1826

NAME Antonius Joannes Paulus Barbara
BAPTISM 13 Jun 1825

NAME Gratia Modesta Rosa Barbara
BAPTISM 12 Apr 1824

NAME Anna Francisca Joanna Barbara
BAPTISM 12 Feb 1821

NAME Antonina Maria Andreana Barbara
BAPTISM 27 Jan 1820

NAME Catharina Maria Gratia Barbara
BAPTISM 28 Nov 1816

NAME Consuela Catharina Christina Barbara
BAPTISM 4 Aug 1814

NAME Gratia Rosa Margherita Barbara
BAPTISM 4 Jan 1812

NAME Francisca Horatia Antonina Barbara
BAPTISM 7 Feb 1810

That's EIGHT DAUGHTERS for Andre and Maria in 16 years - and counting.

I plan to go again this week to finish off the plan - unless Andre turns out to be someone else's uncle!

In search of Antonia

2009-08-10T13:58:00.000-07:00

In my previous post, A surprise at the National Archives , I mentioned the discovery of an elder sister to Antonio, who died two years before his birth, at the tender age of 4.

Now this is actually a help to try to find the origins of the Barbara family (see Before Bone, Algeria ). Why? Whilst I have no idea of the year in which the couple was married, with Antonina's death at the age of four in 1836 I can retrace her birth date to 1832. So now rather than searching blindly for a marriage, I can search for a the birth of a specific Antonia Barbara to a couple Giuseppe Barbara and Rosa Vella in the year 1832.

Not having found any such record in Zurrieq, I started looking in the neighbouring towns.

Mqabba

Having recently discovered that an acquaintance of mine was a Barbara from Mqabba, I felt inclined to start my search from here.

From http://www.maltadiocese.org/l-imqabba?l=2 I found the opening hours of the parish priest's office for Mqabba, and today, Monday I drove there in the afternoon. The parish priest was a bit hesitant at first, but then was very helpful in trying to find such a record - but unfortunately to no avail.

Hal Safi

My next stop was Hal Safi. I had no internet access in my car so I just tried my luck - and lucky I was for I found the office open. The young parish priest was very helpful. The records can be very efficiently searched due to an index by surname and by year. The only Barbara baptism records in the 1800s were in 1800 and 1882 - so again the search was futile.

Zurrieq

To make sure I did not miss the record in Zurrieq itself, my next and last stop for the day was in Zurrieq - again without checking beforehand whether the office would be open. For the second time that day I was lucky - but the office only had 5 minutes left. The Archpriest did me the kind favour to allow me to search - given I did not take too long. In those 5 minutes I confirmed that she was not born there.

Next Mission

Having covered Mqabba and Safi, next time I plan to visit Kirkop and Qrendi - the remaining two towns around Zurrieq...

A surprise at the National Archives

2009-08-10T13:23:00.000-07:00

Note: Please make sure you read the previous post, Before Bone, Algeria, prior to reading this post.

So once again I went to the National Archives of Santu Spirtu, this time looking at naval records BEFORE the birth of Antonio Barbara in Bone, Algeria. I was looking for the journey of the couple Giuseppe Barbara and Rosa nee` Vella to Bone, Algeria. I searched through tomes and grimoires, even enlisting the help of my father - but it was all in vain.

I left the idea for a while...

Then I discovered that the National Archives held another source of information: the Passport Register. While the naval records would have contained information about lots of irrelevant stuff and people (I remember finding a record of a Mexican man landing in Malta), and possibly multiple times for the same person, especially crew, the Passport Register would have only one entry for Maltese persons requesting a passport - and to travel by ship, one would need a passport. This information was also better available: in PDF format, so I could search the records without damaging and old invaluable book. I had 80 pages to search in, and I found something 20 pages on.

I found a record of a certain Rosa Barbara requesting a passport, together with.... wait for it... her daughter Antonina Barbara! Apart from the absence of her husband, which would have gone there before his family, the existence of an elder sister for Antonio was a welcome news!

On my way back home I wondered what could have happened to Antonia. Would she have helped her mother raise her two younger brothers? Would she have returned with them back to Malta, or would she have found love, married and brought up family in Bone, Algeria - would there be descendents, relatives of ours, still living there? Would I be able to make contact?...

All this fizzled away when I rechecked the CAOM records and found out that she had died in 1836, before Tony's birth in 1837 and Antonio's birth in 1838 - they hadn't even met!

Antonia died at the tender age of 4 years. This made the stay of the Barbara family even more dramatic:

in 1836 the daughter Antonina dies
in 1837 the son Tony is born
in 1838 the son Antonio is born
in 1839 the father Giuseppe dies

Imagine Rosa's tragic life: going abroad with a daughter and husband, and returning back with only two sons...

Before Bone, Algeria

2009-08-10T12:56:00.000-07:00

Earlier this year, specifically in my post entitled Tragedy and Happiness in Bona, Algeria I explained how the Barbara line had emigrated to Bone, and come back fatherless but with two more sons.

Now the quest was on to find out which town Giuseppe Barbara and Rosa nee` Vella came from. Since their son Antonio, on his return to Malta, married in Zurrieq, it was of course the first place to search - but alas with no result.

Actually there was a surprising result which felt like a slap in the face accompanied with dark laughter: I found there a copy of Antonio's baptism record from Bone, Algeria. And I had gone all that way to look for it when it was always there waiting for me!

Some careful thoughts ensued: where would a widow return to, with her two young sons? Would she return to her husband's home town, or to her own family? The latter being the most probable answer would mean that the wife Rosa was from Zurrieq but her husband no. As I was unable to find a marriage record of such a couple, I made an educated guess that Rosa was from Zurrieq, and the husband was from some other, hopefully neighbouring, town - and that they had married there. I could try to find a baptism record for Rosa Vella, but without knowing her parents (usually acquired from the marriage record) it would have been a wildly assuming and presumptious guess.

Where should I look for information as to where they are from?

In the meantime I was intrigued by the fact of being born in one country and getting married in another. I wanted to search for documentation of the journey and one interesting source of information came to mind: the naval records at the National Archives hosted at Santu Spirtu in Rabat, Malta. I had 23 years to search: Antonio was born in 1838 in Bone, Algeria and married in 1861 in Zurrieq, Malta. When I reached the Archives and told the clerk there of my intention, she remarked that I'd spend the whole summer there. I soon learnt why. She came back with three tomes (some 4 feet by 2 when closed) on a trolley - and they only covered the large part of a year. Each page contains details about the ship, its incoming crew, passengers, and cargo, as well as the outgoing crew, passengers and cargo. After looking through these three tomes I gave up... but it was not for nothing.

I realised that, on some occasions, next to the outgoing passengers was written the name of their hometown. What if I could find the record of Giuseppe and Rosa's OUTGOING journey to Bone, Algeria - and there find the name of their hometown?

A mystery solved - another emerges

2009-05-22T10:37:00.000-07:00

In http://barbaravassallo.blogspot.com/2008/03/quandary-explanation.html earlier this year I had explained the problem I was in and how I was to go about it.

Today, finally, I found the time to go to Attard parish church again, and started the family profile. My plan was to find out all the offspring having parents Laurentius Fenech and Gratia, and try to find out whether there were two couples or just one - possibly by finding some overlapping pregnancies.

I started by finding Rosa Maria Fenech's birth record again: 16 May 1694.

Then I found the marriage of Laurentius Fenech and Gratia Buhagiar: 13 Oct 1696

I started looking for siblings to Rosa Maria from 1694 onwards, and found:

8 Aug 1697 - Catarina Barbara Fenech
12 Oct 1699 - Maria Coranda Fenech
15 Sept 1702 - Porcha Fenech
13 Sept 1706 - Anna Hieronyma Fenech
19 June 1709 - Joanna Caterina Fenech
16 July 1711 - Jacobus Vincentius Fenech

Then I searched till 1721 but there were no more births.

It wasn't gonna be easy: there were no overlapping pregnancies.

So I searched for siblings BEFORE 1694. If, as I was assuming, they had a child born out of wedlock, it would be the one and only mistake... but I had to rethink my assumptions: I found FIVE more children born to the couple. They were, working backwards:

10 July 1690 - Angelica Fenech
11 Oct 1682 - Domenico Biagio Fenech
9 Nov 1681 - Joseph Fenech
18 Jan 1678 - Domenica Fenech
8 Dec 1674 - Maria Fenech

All born to a Laurentio Fenech et Gratia, coniug. (his wife). I searched as far back as 1660 but could not find any more births to the above couple.

In view of this fresh evidence, spanning a range of 37 years (1674 - 1711), it seems that there really were two couples with the same names, bath in succession, rather than in parallel - and Rosa Maria Fenech was one of the latter children of the elder couple.

With this in mind I set forth to search once more for the elusive marriage of Laurentio Fenech et Gratia, the real parents of Rosa Maria Fenech, my 7GGrandma. I had failed before, but maybe I had given up too early, starting, unknowingly, from the youngest of their children, rather than from their eldest - which is now known : Maria Fenech. So I started again, looking from 1674 backwards till 1662 but the search bore no fruit. I searched later than 1674 just in case fate wanted to have a laugh and have the couple really born children before getting married. But again I found no such record. It is true that in those years the parish registry is a bit tattered, with loose pages. There may have been some missing pages - but then the months are all there, so probably not. The couple were not married in Attard.

So, after all, the mystery of whether Rosa's parents married after her birth has been resolved, with a negative answer. There were two couples in Attard, with the same father's and mother's names. I still have a missing link as I have no details of Rosa's real parents' marriage - but at least I have cleared their name.

Tragedy and Happiness in Bona, Algeria

2009-02-07T08:08:00.000-08:00

In an earlier post (Bona, Algeria), I discovered the birth record of my ggggrandfather Antonio Barbara in 1838 in the North African state, then under French possession, where I discovered his father's name: Giuseppe Barbara.

Back to the CAOM I had terrible news. There was the death of a Giuseppe Barbara in 1839 - just a year after Antonio's birth. Looking at the CAOM list there was no Barbara activity until some 8 years later, and the death of the father was an enough strong motivation for the mother to return with her son back to her native land,Malta. To try to prove the link, I asked my french connection to retreive the document of death for Giuseppe from Aix-en-Provence. She complied.

She also stated that she had discovered that Antonio had an elder brother Tony, who was born a year before him, in 1837.

Slowly I was getting a picture of the dramatic stay of the Barbara family in Bone, Algeria:

in 1837 the son Tony was born
in 1838 the son Antonio was born
in 1839 the father Giuseppe died

Knowing that at 19 years of age, Antonio had married and borne a son in Malta, I can only imagine the wife's (Rosa) journey back to Malta with her son(s) (I have no record of Tony Barbara in Malta, yet).

The tree returns to its roots...

2008-12-21T10:03:00.000-08:00

In my second post on this blog, The Spark, I had mentioned how

my dad drew a sketch (see right, darker annotations were made at a later date by myself) to explain how there was an inheritance of 7 /11 of a field in the South of Malta...

Yesterday I received a phone call from my dad who needed some information regarding some ancestors' places and dates of birth and deaths to give to the lawyer who was taking care of the said inheritance. I was able to furnish the results of my research as requested.
After 8 years, the research for my family tree helped provide some answers spurred by the same inheritance that sparked off the whole research!

Bona, Algeria!

2008-04-11T13:20:00.000-07:00

Earlier in my blog, specifically here: http://barbaravassallo.blogspot.com/2007/04/from-bona.html I had shared with you my desperation in not being able to trace my paternal line. All I knew about my paternal great great great grandpa was that he was born in Bona.

On 23rd May 2006 I came across a post by Mr Jean Bernard Mifsud indicating his Algerian-Maltese ancestry and asking for help. See here: http://genforum.genealogy.com/malta/messages/1963.html

On seeing a possibly Algerian person with an interest in genealogy I immediately threw in a reply, asking for any leads into seeking my own ancestor's records there.

To my post, another forum member Mr Frederic Messud from Australia(!) gave me a link to CAOM - Centre d'Archives d'Outre-Mere - where the French government was giving an online catalogue of birth, marriage, and death records in its colonies, including Bone, Algeria. He even gave me two possible records for my ancestor's births: one in 1838 in Bone and another in 1894 in Mascara.

I was overjoyed! The one in Bone fit perfectly as he would have been 19 when his son would be born in Malta. The catalogue is very dry in information, giving only what happened, to whom , which year and which commune. The website has strict rules not to communicate via email, and to my request for the birth record, or at least for information as how to get it, I was asked to supply a postal address which I did.

In the meantime I found myself subscribing to the pieds-noir mailing list. These 'black foots' are sons of the European immigrants to Algeria who were forced to leave the country after the Algerian-French conflict. Through this mailing list I received an email from a certain Ms Collonna who told me that she'd been to Aix-en-Provence (the place where these records are located) and seeing my request had brought it for me! I gave her my postal address so she could send it to me.

As luck would have it, Aix-en-Provence sent me a letter describing how they do not do research and that you have to go personally or send someone in your stead, BUT FOR THIS ONCE, THEY SENT ME THE RECORD! A civil record detailing the birth of Antonio Barbara to Barbara Giuseppe and his wife Rosa nee Vella (my gggggrandparents!) who were from Malta.

Against all odds, here was the birth record that I had given up of ever coming across!

-0-

A couple of months later I was looking in the parish archives of Zurrieq (where Antonio Barbara whose birth record I received above got married) for records relating to Antonio's wife's ancestors... and I was leafing through the records and noticed a page alien to the book, in that it was pasted onto the book. I had a look at the page and saw an Algeria mark. I remarked how strange it was for it to be in the book and did not give it any second thought.

Until I was packing up to leave and a second thought finally made it to my mind. I checked again the page. It was the parochial record of the baptism of Antonio Barbara in Bone Algeria! My GGGGrandpa! Here in Malta!

Whilst I had given up, came across a link by chance, and got through all the trouble of getting the record from France, it was all the time available in Malta! What a surprise!

Quandary Explanation

2008-03-19T14:20:00.000-07:00

It's been almost a year now and I have not had the chance to carry out the family profile that I promised in http://barbaravassallo.blogspot.com/2007/07/fenech-buttigieg-1696.html.

May I now explain the problem that I have met and how I plan to find evidence to prove a possible alternate situation that may have led to the records met.

Refer to Figure 1 below, which depicts an event timeline of a normal family:

A couple are born, marry, and have kids. For them to be legally recognised, they ought to be born AFTER the marriage. Each sibling is expected to be born at least 9 months after the previous sibling (9 months being the gestation period of humans) unless the siblings are twins (or triplets or quadruplets, etc) and are born on the same occasion (as for siblings 2 and 3 above). Another case is when the child is born prematurely - but they did not have incubators back then so they would have died on being born.

Now the evidence found so far shows that my ancestor Rosa was born BEFORE her parents' marriage. Figure two below demonstrates this:

This is after having searched for the marriage of Lawrence and Gratia prior to 1694 with no success and only finding a record of such a marriage in 1696, 2 years later.

This could mean that Rosa was born out of wedlock, even though there is no such record of this in the parish archive but rather the mother is specified as being the wife, and the bride is specified to be a virgin.

Now all this could only be true if the parents of Rosa were NOT married in the SAME parish but were married somewhere else, which would explain the missing marriage record prior to Rosa's birth.

But why is there a marriage AFTER the birth? This could be if there was ANOTHER couple named Lawrence Fenech and Gratia who married in the same parish where Rosa was born. The Figure below should help explain this:

The fact that Gratia's surname is not listed in Rosa's birth record makes this fact still possible.

But how can it be proved?

The only tool available is the fact that siblings need to be 9 months apart. What I plan to do is to take a family profile: that is finding all the children born to Lawrence Fenech and his wife Gratia to try to find overlapping births - which would indicate two parallel couples in the same parish.

In which case I would need to identify which parish were Rosa's parents from, maybe by looking at the godparents of the children who might be specified to be from some other parish.

Wish me luck!

Greetings to Sunday Circle readers

2007-10-06T04:56:00.001-07:00

If you've reached this blog after reading my article on the Sunday Circle, then I'm sure I piqued your interest :) Thank you very much for visiting!

This blog basically narrates my research in the parish records of Attard, Zurrieq, Zabbar and other localities. I tried to transcribe the records and provide a translation to give you a head start in the right direction if you plan to research your own family tree.

As with all blogs, the most recent entry is shown first, so if you want to start reading you should start from the first blog, here: http://barbaravassallo.blogspot.com/2007/04/preface.html

Once you've read this, if you're interested in my own family tree, feel free to visit http://lrdmagic.mysite.maltanet.net/genealogy

I am sorry to refuse any request for doing any research on your behalf - I barely have time to do my own! - not even against payment.

Beleive me, if you have the time, nothing beats the joy of finding unknown ancestors, one by one. The experience brings you face to face with records written by parish priests who have had face-to-face contact with your own ancestors. These are invaluable documents - so make sure you take good care of them!

I would appreciate any comment you might wish to leave to this blog.

Thanks for your time

Jonathan

Photos by Rene Roussignaud

Fenech + Buttigieg 1696

2007-07-03T05:37:00.001-07:00

Ottobre 1696

Die decima tertia Octobris 1696 Denuntiationibus premisis tribus diebus fassiuis(?) quarum pa. fuit die 23 7bris 1696, 2a fuit die 29 eiusdem, 3a fuit die 30 puedicti ing missae parrochilais solemnia habita, nulloq. legitimo impedimento detecto. Ego Sylvius Paci parochus Ecclesia parrochialis Casalis Attard Laurentius Fenech filius legitimus et naturalem qdm. Vincentii Fenech et Maria viventis obim coniugi ex Parrochia Casalis Attard, et Gratia virgine, filia legitima et naturalem Ignatii Butigieg, et Catharina coniugi ex eadel Parrochia, interrogavi, corumque mutuo consensu habit(?) per verba de presenti matrimonio coniunxi presentibus testibus artis(?) Angelo Debono sacrista, et Joanne Camilleri et postea in celebrazione missa ex vitu S. Matris Ecclesia Ego Parochus qui supra benedixit.

October 1696
13th October 1696 marriage banns made firstly on 23rd September 1696, secondly on 29th of the same month, third on the 30th .... no legal impediment detected. I Sylvius Pace parish priest of the parish church of Attard interviewed Lawrence Fenech legitimate and natural son of the late Vincent Fenech and his widow Maria from the parish of Attard, and Gratia virgin, legitiamte and natural daughter of Ignatius Butigieg and his wife Catherine from the same parish. who verbally gave their mutual consent for this wedding in front of Angelo Debono sacristan and John Camilleri. At the end of the celebrated mass in the church of St Mary, I the above mentioned parish priest, gave my blessings.

There is a bit of a quandary here. The marriage is dated 1696, but their daughter (Rosa Fenech below) was born 2 years earlier, in 1694. In her baptismal record, Gratia is mentioned as being the wife of her father Lawrence (which she would not have been if she only married 2 years later) and in this marriage record Gratia is said to be a virgin (thus would not have had kids yet).

The truth is I could not find any other couple marrying in Attard with the names of Lawrence Fenech and Gratia. Moreover , Rosa is said to be the legitimate daughter of her father in her wedding's record.

This leads to two possibilities: either Rosa's parents were not married in Attard, thus the absence of their marriage record - or they married after having Rosa, whilst the Church buried it under regular wordings to hide the scandal.

But how can I, 300 years later, try to uncover the truth? An impossible task really. What I might do is to take a family profile (look up all the children born to a Lawrence and Gratia) and see if there are any overlapping pregnancies (babies being born within 6 months or less of each other) which would mean that there were two couples named Lawrence Fenech and Gratia in Attard, one of them married elsewhere.

I could also look at the godparents of the baptised children to seek some common links.

Watch this space!

B. Rosa Fenech 1694, Lawrence Debono 1690

2007-07-02T13:58:00.001-07:00

TOP:

Maggio 1694

Die decima sexta Maij 1694 ego Sylvius Pace Parochus Ecclesia Parrochia Casali Attard baptizavi filia heri nata ex Laurentius Fenech et Gratia conig. cui impositum nome Rosa Maria. Matrina fuit Maria Rosa Vassallo ex eadel parrochia.

May 1694

16th May 1694 I Sylvius Pace parish priest of the Parish church of Attard baptized a daughter born yesterday to Lawrence Fenech and Gratia his wife who gave her the name of Rosa Maria. Godmother was Maria Rosa Vassallo from the same parish.

THIRD:

Die nona novembris 1690 Ego Sylvius Pace Viceparochus Ecclesia Parochis Casalis Attard baptizavi filio nato ex Angelo Debono et Gratia coniugibus, cui imposuit est nomen Laurentius Clemens. Patrinus fuit Philippus Debono ex aede Parrochia.

9th November 1690 I Sylvius Pace vice-parish priest of the parish church of Attard baptized a son born to Angelo Debono and Gratia his wife, who gave him the name of Lawrence Clemens. Godfather was Philip Debono from this same parish.

Note the later addition of the name Lawrence to the baptism record. Was this a forgotten name or a late change?

P.S. For the record, the second and fourth entries are unrelated to the infants listed here or to me. They are

Second: Baptism of Dominic Fenech on 19th May 1694, born the previous day to Joseph Fenech and his wife Dominica, with godparents Dominic Fenech and his wife Bellica from Lija.

Fourth: Baptism of Joseph Scerri on 3rd November 1690 born to Michael Xerri and his wife Dominica with godparents Mautirus Pullicino from the same parish. (Joseph died 10th February 1691).

Debono + Fenech 1715

2007-07-02T13:45:00.001-07:00

Die 13 Januarii 1715

Premisis tribus Denunciationibus trid: Diebus festivis de precepto inter pollotis provt moris est, inter missavid sollemnia, quorum 1ma duit die 30 Dicembris 1714, 2a fuit die 1 Januarii 1715 3a fuit die 6 Januarii Ego Aracangelus Debono Parochus, Laurentii Debono filio legitimo et naturalem quondam Angeli Debono et Gratiam ohm Conigi et Rosa filia virgine et legittima et naturalem Laurentii Fenech et Gratia conigi de Casali Attardo interrogavi, et corumque mutuo consensu per verba de presentei intellecto, matrimonio coniuxni presentibus Joseph Giuliano et JoanneMaria Aquilina, postea in celebrazione Missa ex vito S. Matris Ecclesia benedixit Red. Simon Pullicino.

13th January 1715

(Marriage banns made as requested by laws) 1st being 30th December 1714, 2nd being 1st January 1715 , 3rd being 6th January. I Arcangelus Debono parish priest interrogated Lawrence Debono legitimate and natural son of the late Angeli Debono and Gratia his wife, and Rose virgin, legitimate, and natural daughter of Lawrence Fenech and Gratia his wife from Attard.who verbally gave their mutual consent for this wedding in front of Joseph Giuliano and John Mary Aquilina. At the end of the celebrated mass in the church of St Mary, Rev. Simon Pullicino gave his blessings.

The couple were married 19 years before the birth of their daughter Anna Victoria, who did not have the chance to meet her paternal grandfather who was already dead at the time of the wedding.

Anna Debono born 1734

2007-07-02T13:35:00.000-07:00

Die 27 Ottobris 1734

Ego Arcangelus Debono Parochus baptizzavi fila nata ex Laurentio Debono et Rosa Coniugi; cui impositum suit nomen Anna Victoria Debono. Patrini Mauritio Tanti de Casali Attardo.

27th October 1734

I, Arcangelo Debono parish priest baptised daughter born to Lawrence Debono and Rose, his wife who gave her the name Anna Victoria Debono. Godfather was Mauritio Tanti of Attard.

I had made it a habit to start looking for the baptism of females 16 years before their marriage. Anna Debono was born in 1749, so I started looking from 1733 backwards.

After searching through 20 years of baptism without success, I tried again, but to no avail.

Then I started my search later, to find Anna being born only 15 years earlier.

Anna got married early in her life, at exactly 14 years and 2½months!

Sammut + Debono 1749

2007-06-23T21:56:00.000-07:00

Die 12 Januari 1749
Premisis evib. denuntiationibus evib diebus festivis de precepto (rit iuvis est) inter ??? sol(l)emnia, quavid p.ma fuit die 15 Xbris 1748, 2da fuit die 26 eiusdem mensis, 3ca denuis fuit die 29 eiusdem mensis, nulloq. impedimento detecto Ego Arcangelus Debono Parochus interrogavi Laurentio Sammut filio legali et nat. Jo:Maria Sammut, et Maria (Cini?) coniug. de Casali Musta et Anna Debono filia leg.ma et mat. Laurentis Debono et Rosa Coniug. de Cas. Attard, conuig(?) mutuo consenso ???? per verba de presenti matrimonio coniunxi, presentibus testib Redo. D. Joanne Vassallo, Laurentio Debono, et ??? in celebratione missa ex vitu S. Maria Ecclesia benedixit Revus. D. Antonius Griscti de mea licentia.

12th January 1749
(Marriage banns made as requested by laws) first being 15th December 1748, second being 26th of the same month, third being on 29th of same month: no impediment detected. I, Archangel Debono, parish priest, interviewed Lawrence Sammut legal and natural son of John Mary Sammut and Maria (Cini ?) his wife from the town of Mosta and Anna Debono legitimate and natural daughter of Lawrence Debono and Rosa his wife from the town of Attard: who verbally gave their mutual consent for this wedding in front of Reverend Don John Vassallo, Lawrence Debono. At the end of the mass celebration held in the Church of Santa Maria, Rev Anthony Griscti gave his blessings, by my authority.

Commentary: the bride's mother's maiden surname is 99% Cini - the only doubt is the difference in calligraphy when writing the C, as compared to other capital Cs in the script (such as that of Casali and Coniug) which have no leading line into the C.

Once again a branch takes us away from the town of Attard, into that of Mosta, but the research continued up the bride's ancestors, thus remaining in Attard.

Research Checkpoint

2007-06-02T11:41:00.001-07:00

At this point, it merits to recapitulate our progress so far.

One path has trailed off to Zebbug, the other path opened another trail into Qormi, whilst further up it split between Rabat and Attard.

In the figure above, the yellow path shows the records of the family in Attard.

So next in line is the marriage of Lawrence Sammut and his wife Anna Debono in Attard.

Maria Xaveria Sammut Born 1765

2007-05-30T10:31:00.000-07:00

Die 31 eiusdem
Ego Franciscus Felice Par. baptizzavi infatem heri natam ex Laurentio Sammut et Anna coniug. cui impositum nomen Maria Xaveria Liberata. Pat.ni fuerunt Augusto Fenech fil. qdam Antonij et Maria uxor Joseph ? omnes de mea Parochia.

Day 31st of same month (July 1763)
I, Francis Felice parish priest, baptized child born yesterday to Lawrence Sammut and Anna his wife, who gave her them name Maria Xaveria Liberata. Godparents were Augusto Fenech son of the late Anthony and Maria, wife of Joseph ? , all from my parish.

Joanne Fenech + Maria - Rabat?

2007-05-30T10:16:00.000-07:00

Lawrence's parents' marriage was not to be found in the parish records of Attard.

A subsequent family profile (visiting all brothers and sisters of Lawrence) led to the discovery of his younger sister Anna Saveria Magdalena Paola, daughter of his parents Joanne Fenech and Maria. Her godmother was a Anna Fenech, daughter of the late Peter Fenech from Rabat.

This leads me to think that the godmother Anna is sister to Lawrence's father Joanne, making Joanne also from Rabat and possibly that's where I should be able to find his marriage to Maria.

Rabat is a town next to Attard - so this makes it very possible (as against it being a faraway town).

Laurentius Fenech Birth 1763

2007-05-30T09:57:00.000-07:00

? die

Perillis et Admo Rdus Dnus D Pasqualis Grima Arciq. Sancta Parig. Colleg. et Parils Eccles. Divi Pauli Apli Civitas Valletta in hoc mea Parli Ecclesia de mea licentia, imo me presente baptizavit infante hodie natum ex Joanne Fenech et Maria iugalibus de mea Parochia cui impositum fuit numen Cajetanus, Laurentius, Anettus. Patrini fuerunt Perillis Dnus J.U.D. Cajetanus Grima fili quondam ? et Dna Clara fil Dni Anetti Pullicino de Civitas Valletta.

Same Day (previous record was 30 Sept 1763)

Architect and most reverend Lord Don. Pasquale Grima Archpriest of San Paul's Church in Valetta, in my parish and under my permission, in my presence baptized a child born today to Joanne Fenech and Maria his wife from my parish, who gave him the name Gaetan Lawrence Anetto. Godparents were Architect and Lawyer of Courts Lord Gaetan Grima son of the late ? and Lady Clara daughter of Lord Anetti Pullicino of Valletta.

Apart from the usage of the secondary name later on in life, as mentioned in my previous post, of note is the fact that the baptism was performed not by the parish priest but by the Archpriest of one of Valletta's most important parishes - that of Saint Paul. Moreover, his godparents were another architect and the daughter of another lordly noble from Valletta.

What connections did Lawrence's family have with the nobles of Valletta?

The Importance of Secondary Names

2007-05-05T03:47:00.000-07:00

Most often than not, when we travel back in time through our research in parish birth records we find that a person is not identified by just a name and surname, but has a number of secondary names given to him/her by her parents and god-parents. This list can be quite short ( 3 names, one each) or quite long - ( 6 names, two from each). The names given by the god-parents are usually only there in their honor and not used during that person's lifetime. These names are usually the names of the god-parent him/herself, of someone related to that godparent, a parent or grandparent, or some other name as they desire ( a patron saint or other religious figurehead).

Now the matters get complicated when the names given by the god-parents are listed before, and not after, the primary name. This would mean that the name written along the side-margin for easy identification would enlist a secondary name rather than the one you would be looking for!

This happened to me when I was looking for the birth of Lawrence Fenech, father of Joseph Fenech, husband of Maria Debono, whose marriage is listed below. I could not find an entry for the birth of a Lawrence Fenech to a John and Mary Fenech. So I performed what I call a family profile, that is, I started looking for all the baptisms to this family. The closest entry I could find to Lawrence's estimated birth date (thanks to his death record listed here) was this:

I will not go into detail on this record as it merits its own undivided attention, but the name listed is Cajetanus Laurentius Annettus Fenech - where Lawrence is the second name, not the first. Here's to prove my point: his godparents were a certain Cajetanus and a Clara, daughter of Annettus... so that leaves Lawrence as the name given by his parents. It is that name with which he got married, and died of plague at the end of his days.

In a similar way, his granddaughter Xaveria, listed as Rosa Xaveria Marcella after her god-mother Rosa.

So I must stress that when you look for, and record, the baptismal names, list them ALL as you might need them for cross-linking.

An interesting exercise I would like to make to this regard is mapping the god-parents mentioned in the brothers and sisters of Xaveria Fenech to the children of Ignatio Debono and Joanna Zammit, the parents of her mother, Maria Debono.

First I would like to list once more the children of Ignatio and Joanna:

Gregorius Aloysius Antonius Albertus born 1797
Paola Magdalena Caterina born 1794
Maria Anna Francisca born 1791
Vinartus Pasquali Bartolomeus Domincus born 1788
Joseph Bartolomeo Antonius born 1786
Petris Michel Felix born 1784
Joanne Maria Josephus Bartolomeo born 1782

Next I would like to list the godparents of Xaveria's siblings mentioned as being children of Ignatio:

Michael Debono son of Ignatio
Rosaria Debono wife of Vicenti
Catherine Debono daughter of Ignatio Debono
Anna daughter of Ignatio Debono
Ignatius son of Ignatio Debono

Have you spotted them?

Let me rewrite them, putting the corresponding names in bold:

Gregorius Aloysius Antonius Albertus born 1797
Paola Magdalena Caterina born 1794
Maria Anna Francisca born 1791
Vinartus Pasquali Bartolomeus Domincus born 1788
Joseph Bartolomeo Antonius born 1786
Petris Michel Felix born 1784
Joanne Maria Josephus Bartolomeo born 1782

No, I did not find all matching pairs... but the point is that they were all using their second or third name in their every day life.

So let that be a lesson to you: keep track of ALL given names!

Trigemini!

2007-05-04T14:14:00.000-07:00

I had promised earlier (See here) that I would go back to seek Xaveria Fenech's birth record. I have kept my promise, and I was rewarded with a triple surprise!

But here's how I got down to it...

Ok, my search was for the birth record of Xaveria Fenech. I knew she was married in 1850, and that her parents had married in 1815. So I had a search span of 35 years less 15 years (approximate average age of when girls got married) which made it 20 years.

So I brought up the baptism records and started looking for births into the Fenech family from 1815 onwards.

First up was Joanna Carmela Fenech on 23rd October 1816. Since I had some doubts on the whereabouts of the parents of Xaveria's mother Maria, I took note of any Debono godparents listed in these births. Joanna had Michael Debono son of Ignatii as her godfather nad a Rosaria Debono wife of Vincentii from Valletta. I can't tell if she, or probably he, since she'd have his surname, have anything to do with our Ignatio.

Four years after that first shock, Xaveria's parents Joseph and Maria had another go and out comes Lawrence Fenech on 16th January 1820 - a younger brother for the 4-year old girl.

Seems Joanna wasn't happy with a brother, and asked for a sister. She was soon made happy when Ignatia Anna Maria Fenech was born just two and a half years later on the 20th of November 1822. Her Godmother was Catherina daughter of the late Ignatii Debono.

Hmm. "Late". As in "dead". I put a mental side note to look up his death record starting from 1822 and working backwards.

I kept on looking. I was already in 1824. I glanced at Xaveria's marriage date. 1850. 26 years. "We're getting close." I murmured to myself. I was alone in the archives of the Attard parish church. Alone with so many people. I felt like I was shaking hands with every person whose record I was skimming through.

Bingo!

Wait, that's not Xaveria Fenech. That's Rosa Fenech. Let's take a look at the second names. Rosa XAVERIA Marcella. Deja vu? Had she been baptised with a name but took to her second name during the better part of her life? This had happened before with Cajetanus Laurentius Annettus Fenech (her grandfather) - where he kept Lawrence as his name for marriage and death. He was given Cajetanus by his godfather - so probably his parents decided to call him by the name THEY wanted to give him - Lawrence. Was it the same in this case? Who was the godparent of Rosa Xaveria Marcella?

Rosa, wife of Philippi Formosa from Valletta.

Double Bingo!

That's it then - she was given Rosa by her godmother, Xaveria from her parents, and when the godmother wasn't around - basically the rest of her life - her parents called her by their chosen name: Xaveria. And that's how she got married - as Xaveria Fenech.

Click! a 2Mb photo.

Click! a 6megapixel photo taken - with Macro focus.

Happy to have accomplished my mission, a smile adorning my face, my eyes settled once more on the yellowish page.

What's that there?

TriGemini?

TriGemini??

Triplets!?!??!

Triple Bingo!!!

Rosa Xaveria Fenech was not the only one born on the 21st September 1825 into the Fenech family! With her were her twin brothers Ignatius Joseph Salvator and Mattheus Franciscus Seraphim! What joy in the family they must have brought! What panic to the father! He had been maintaining a wife and three kids. Now they had doubled in number!!

The page had Trigemini written next to Ignatius's entry and a large bracket enveloping the three infants' baptism records.

Click! another 6megapixel Macro shot.

A quick look at the godparents of the boys revealrd an Anna Debono and Ignatius Debono both children of the late Ignatio Debono.

Which reminded me in the mental note I made earlier to seek his death record.

It didn't take me long, he died on 12th February 1820 (just over one month after the birth of his grandson Lawrence Fenech mentioned above) at approximately 76 years of age - making him about 37 years old on his wedding day.

Trigemini!!!

My Genealogy Video on RootsTelevision

2007-05-02T12:38:00.000-07:00

A small break in my narration to broadcast the fact that my genealogy video (a re-edited version of the above with a different legal soundtrack) has been accepted and being put on display on www.rootstelevision.com.

Just follow this link: http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid464120982/bclid505319645/bctid823367737

Fenech + Sammut 1785

2007-04-21T10:37:00.000-07:00

Die 16 Januari 1785

Premisses evibus denuntiationibus evib die festivis de precepto, quarum pa fuit die 19 Xbris 1784, sda fuit die 26 eiusdem 3a dabrum fuit die 2 Januarii 1785; nullo impedimento detecto, ego Petrus Delicata Parocus interrogavi Laurentium Fenech fil. leg. et nautam Joannis et Maria conju et Xaveriam fil. virg. leg. et nauram Laurentii et Anna de Sammut conjum meas parochianoi; covumq mutuo consenso habito per verba de presenti matrimonio coninunxi presentibus testib. mihi notis Michaele Calleja filio qndam Ignatii et Joanne Muscat sacrista. Postea iuxta neum S. M. data Rdus Gio Maria Muscat eis benedixit.

16th January 1785

(Marriage banns made as requested by laws) first being 19th December 1784, second being 26th of the same month, third being on 2nd January 1785: no impediment detected. I, Peter Delicata, parish priest, interviewed Lawrence Fenech legal and natural son of Joannis and Maria his wife and Xaveriam natural, legal and virgin daughter of Laurentii and Anna Sammut, all my parishioners: who verbally gave their mutual consent for this wedding in front of Michael Calleja son of the late Ignatii and Joanne Muscat, sacristan. At the end of holy mass, Rev John Mary Muscat gave his blessings.

This being the marriage of my 5th great grandparents (ggggggrandparents).

Lawrence Fenech D 1813

2007-04-21T09:23:00.000-07:00

Joseph Fenech, husband of Maria Debono below, had lost his father two years earlier.

Lawrence Fenech, died of plague, which had entered the Maltese islands just over 3 months earlier on 28 March 1813 aboard an English merchant vessel [See The Plague of 1813-1814 by Ray Spiteri].

The extract from his death entry in the parish records of Attard describes the effect of pestilence on his corpse:

Die 4 Juli 1813
Laurentius Fenech viv Fransisca Xaveria filius qdam Joanni annos 45 circite natus, pestis ? crassante correptus; Sanctissimo Viatico voboratus, extremum diemo claryit; cujus cadaver in ejus domo crematum, cineresque in coemeteris St Maria sub invocationes Providentia conditi sunt.

4th July 1813
Lawrence Fenech, husband of Francisca Xaveria, son of the late Joanni born about 45 years ago, fattened and corrupted by pestilence; "visited" by the Holy Eucharist (administered to the sick), <>; whose body was cremated in his house, and his ashes residing in St Maria cemetery (Attard) by agreed invocation of Providence.

The Elusive Debonos...

2007-04-21T08:04:00.000-07:00

I could not find the marriage of Ignatio Debono and his wife Joanna Zammit, parents of Maria Debono whose birth is shown below. Then I remembered a rule that I learnt by experience:

When looking for a marriage of a newborn's parents you could be lucky and find them marrying soon before - if the newborn is their first born.

Or they could've married 20 years earlier - if the newborn was their youngest child...

Or they could've married in another parish.

With this in mind, I went to look for further siblings to Maria...

and I found...

lots...

Gregorius Aloysius Antonius Albertus born 1797
Paola Magdalena Caterina born 1794
Maria Anna Francisca born 1791
Vinartus Pasquali Bartolomeus Domincus born 1788
Joseph Bartolomeo Antonius born 1786
Petris Michel Felix born 1784
Joanne Maria Josephus Bartoloemo born 1782

Thus Maria was the youngest of 8 children. I searched the marriage between the parents Ignatio and Joanna in the marriage registry of Attard from 1782 backwards, but to no avail.

But from the births of her sibilngs, I gleaned some clues as to the origins of Maria's parents. One of the godparents was a certain Paoli Debono from Casali Pinto. Another was Joseph Zammit, son of Bartolomeo and Maria, also from Casali Pinto.

If you haven't seen the clues yet, Paoli shares the same surname as Ignatio, and Joseph shares the same surname as the mother's maiden surname: Joanna Zammit.

Could these two be the brother and sister of Maria's parents?

If so, then my research will take me elsewhere: Casali Pinto.

Casali Pinto refers to the town to whom the Grand Master Emmanuel Pinto de Fonseca gave his name and made it a city: Qormi

Will I find the marriage of Ignatio and Joanna Zammit in the parish records of Qormi?

First I need to identify which parish to visit: Qormi has two parishes: St George and St Sebastian. A visit to the parish website reveals that St Sebastian was built in 1889, thus it's too late in the day. The parish that interests me is St George, which was already existant in 1436.

Births: Maria Debono (1800) and Joseph Fenech (1790)

2007-04-21T08:03:00.000-07:00

Die 28 Juli 1800
Ego, F. Francisus Onoratus Cap. Vic Baptizavi infantem heri natam ex Ignatio Debono et Joanna Conjbus, cui impositum est nomen Maria Theresia Catarina. Patrini fuerunt Ludovicus ..... filius... de ... et Liberata Gristi filia Petri de hac parochia.

28th July 1800
I, Fr Franciscus Onoratus Vice Chaplain baptized a child born yesterday to Ignatio Debono and Joanna his wife who gave her the name Maria Theresia Catarina. Godparents were Louis son of... and Liberata Griscti daughter of Peter, from this parish.

Die 12 9mbris 1790

Ego Petrus Delicata Parocus baptizavi infantem die 10 eiusdem mane hora 4 post media noctem natu ex Laurentio Fenech et Xaveria congiux; cui imposium fuit nomen Josephus Joannes Laurentius; Patrini fuerunt Paullis Dnijmatus Gregorius Mifsud filius qndam Joseph de Cli Zeitun et Rosa Morfosa uxor Philippi de Cli Attard

12th November 1790

I, Peter Delicata Parish Priest baptized child born 10th of same month at 4am born to Lawrence Fenech and Xaveria his wife; who gave him the name Joseph John Lawrence; Godparents where Paul 'Dnijmatus?' Gregory Mifsud son of the late Joseph from Zejtun and Rosa Morfosa (Corruption of Formosa?) wife of Philip from Attard.

P.S. Casali means Town or City

Fenech + Debono 1815

2007-04-17T14:23:00.000-07:00

Alas, I failed to find Xaveria's birth record...

To be honest I had forgotten about this - I aim to go back and look it up again.

But I did find her parents' wedding record...

Die 4 Junii 1815

Promisis Denuntiationbus a Conc. Trid. ordinati quroum una fuit die 14 Maii, secunda fuit die 21 ejusdem, tertia denun fuit die 28 prodicti: nulloq canonico Imepdimento intellecto.Ego Martinus Zerafa Parochus interrogavi Maria fil virg. leg. et nato. Ignatii Debono, et Joanna Zammit: et Josephum fil. leg. et nato. qdam Laurentii Fenech et Xaveria Sammut, utrosque de hoc Parocia, habitoque corum mutuo consenso per verba de p'nti eos Matrimonio coniunxi in faciem Ecclesia coram Joanne Sayd filio Vincentii et Gregorio Magri filio Josephi a eadem Parocia. Deinde in fine Missa eis Sacerdos Aloysius Magri benedixit.

4th June 1815

Marriage banns as ordered by the Tridentine Council were made on 14th May, secondly on 21st day of the same month, thirdly on the 28th as above - no impediment was made aware of. I, Martin Zerafa, parish priest interviewed Maria virgin and legal daughter of Ignatius Debono and Joanna Zammit and Joseph , legal and natural son of the late Lawrence Fenech and Xaveria Sammut, all from this parish, who verbally gave their consent to this marriage in front of Joanne Sayd son of Vincent and Gregory Magri son of Joseph, both of this parish. At the end of the mass, they were blessed by Fr Aloysius Magri.

Fenech + Abela 1850

2007-04-17T13:50:00.000-07:00

Die 10 Novembre 1850

Premisis tribus denuntiationibus factis Tridentini in hoc Sancto Parrochialis Ecclesia, cum in Archipretali Ecclesia Casalis Zebbug, sin die 21 8bris et die 1 Novembris et 7 ejusdem mensis 1850, nulloque canonico impedimento detecto, ut etiam colligere licet ex Atteptazione ad modum _______ Xaveri Vassallo Archipresbiterus C. Zebbug.
Ego Antonius Vassallo ___ Xaveriam Fenech, filiam vir. et nat. Josephi et Maria Debono sponsom de hac Parrochia et Joannes Mariam Abela filium leg. et nat. defunctorum Andre et Maria Cilia ex Casali Zebbug interrogavi ambitoque cin mutuo consenso per verba de praecenti ex matrimonio coniunxi praesentibus notis mihi leg ___ Joanne Debono sacrista et Josephi Debono _____________ Paolus Zarb de mea licentia.

10th November 1850

Marriage banns as requested by the Tridentine Council made in this parish, as in the parish of Zebbug on 21st October, 1st November and 7th of the same month 1850, no impediment detected by myself or Saviour Vassallo, Parish priest of Zebbug.

I, Anthony Vassallo parish priest (married) Xaveria Fenech virgin and natural daughter of Joseph and Maria debono, his spouse, from this parish and John Mary Abela legal and natural son of the late Andrew and Maria Cilia from Zebbug...

Going back 6 years takes us to this joyful day of marriage between John Mary from Zebbug and his wife from Attard. We also learn that the groom's father was already dead by this date and his mother's maiden name is Cilia - this will help confirm any records found in Zebbug parish records.

Wanting to stay searching within the records of the Attard parish, the next search is for the birth of Xaveria Fenech...

Take Off

2007-04-17T13:26:00.000-07:00

Having learnt that Carmena Abela (the groom's mother in the photo of the previous post) died in 1940 at 80 years of age and was born in Attard, I set off to the locality's parish records seeking her birth record. I was lucky enough to find the man in charge of the records present in the office and he helped me search her record. After a frantic search eyeing the names down the sides of the book, he found her - his trained eye finding her listed down as Maria Carmela Abela. He even made a photocopy for me :)

Die 5 ejusdem

Ego Antonius Vassallo Parochus baptizavi infante heri natam ex Joanne Maria Abela, et Xaveria Fenech jug. cui impositum suit nomen Maria Carmela, Antonia, Rosa. Patrini fuere Laurentius Fenech filius Josephi , et Joanna uxor Josephi Debono ambo ex hoc casali.

5th day of same month (Feb 1856)

I, Anthony Vassallo Parish Priest christened a child born yesterday to John Mary Abela and Xaveria Fenech his wife who gave her the name Maria Carmela Antonia Rosa. Godparents were Lawrence Fenech son of Joseph and Joanna wife of Joseph Debono, both from this town.

I was in ecstasy! I had found written proof of my great great grandmother's birth! I had even learnt who were her parents - even her mother's maiden name! And speculation told me that her Godfather Lawrence was her uncle, being Xaveria's brother. This gave me courage to go look for her parents' marriage...

My gggrandma was a cousin to the 'Alfaran' family, ancestors to today's family Abela who hold the contractors' company with the name "Alfaran"

Borg 1914

2007-04-17T12:51:00.000-07:00

Photo taken at wedding of Joseph Mary Borg (left) to Catherine Chirchop (2nd from left) in 1914, in Zebbug Malta. Also in picture are Joseph's brother Andrew (centre standing) who later emigrated to the USA and his sister Maria Saveria (rightmost seated) together with their parents Carmena and Carmelo (center). Standing around Andrew are Carmena's sisters and rightmost standing is the bride's sister. Seted in front is the daughter of Maria Saveria

Notice how the seated ladies are lifting their skirts to show off their lace underskirt.

Joseph and Catherine are my father's maternal grandparents..

My father was also the only relative to visit his great-uncle Andrew in the USA in 1976.

On the right is a picture of Joseph Borg, the groom in the above picture.

Micallef - 1908

2007-04-17T12:28:00.000-07:00

The photo above depicts a mother (second from left, front) and her 10 children in a photo dated approximately 1908.

It is special in that the children at the back were not present for the photo - they were added later. At the time they had already emigrated to the Unites States of America. The family was never reunited. The young boy in front is Joe Micallef - father of Eda, who later married Albert Adreveno - also in the USA.

The girls on the right (the only two girls in the family) remained in Malta. The rightmost is 16 year old Teresa, who 9 years later married Carmelo Vassallo (see below). She is my great grandma - mother of Cristino and his siblings.

The other girl is Grace Micallef. Her son's son (my mother's second cousin) married my aunt Catherine Barbara, my father's sister. This relationship can be seen in the descendency chart below. Carmelo Barbara and Catherine Barbara are brother and sister.

Maltese in Algeria

2007-04-16T06:34:00.000-07:00

I am posting this here because I will need it in a future post. It highlights the position of the Maltese immigrants in Algeria:

"The Maltese, the poorest of the arrivals and a previously colonized people under British rule, were placed at the bottom of this settler hierarchy. They were targeted by terrible anti-Maltese sentiments as early as the 1840s, and these have lasted in some circles to this day in France." http://www.lafayette.edu/news.php/view/9155/

and

"The difficulty of finding work at home, coupled with the decrease in trade with foreign countries, made the Maltese worker look to emigration as a solution to this double problem. Maltese had been emigrating to the lands bordering on the Mediterranean for many years and there were Maltese colonies in Egypt, Tripolitania, Tunisia and Algeria" Malta Migration

and

"Like all newcomers, the Maltese in Algeria did at first encounter hostility from the French. Continental Europeans looked down on other Europeans who came from the islands such as the Sicilians and the Maltese. It is true to admit that most insular Europeans were poor and illiterate. Some did have a criminal record and were only too ready to carry on with their way of life in other parts of the Mediterranean where their names were not publicly known" Malta Migration

and

"Following the departure of the Knights of Malta (1798), the ensuing Anglo-French struggle in the Mediterranean led to considerable prosperity of the Maltese economy. However, by 1813 the economic boom was at an end. By the 1820s famine was rife. A cholera epidemic in 1837 killed nearly 5% of the population and the subsequent quarantine restrictions closed all Mediterranean ports to Maltese imports and produced great hardship. The conditions of life were miserable." http://www.maltamigration.com/settlement/mma/chapter1-2.shtml

and

"The Maltese who crossed over to Algeria did establish a good rapport with their French rulers. Although poor and illiterate they were able to improve their lot through sheer hard work. Like their countrymen in Egypt, they realised the importance of a good education and they made sure that their offspring received that kind of education which in Malta they never got." MaltaMigration

and

"The first free Maltese settlers came to Australia during the late 1830s. The Maltese did not leave home because of political or religious oppression. Most of them wanted to build a better economic future for their children and for themselves..." English and Maltese in Malta:
History, Language Usage and Attitudes by Nadine Angermann (http://www.tu-chemnitz.de/phil/english/chairs/linguist/documents/angermann_malta.pdf)

and

"Meanwhile, however, the French made Algeria an integral part of France, a status that would end only with the collapse of the Fourth Republic in 1958. Tens of thousands of settlers from France, Spain, Italy, and Malta moved in to farm the Algerian coastal plain and occupy significant parts of Algeria's cities. These settlers benefited from the French government's confiscation of communal land, and the application of modern agriculture techniques that increased the amount of arable land.Algeria's social fabric suffered during the occupation: literacy plummeted,while land confiscation uprooted much of the population." http://www.wikipedia.org/

and

"Upon experiencing the primitive conditions in Algeria, colons with means fled home to France, or, at least, to Algiers or Oran, where they felt protected...

Many of the colons who remained in Algeria complained bitterly about the deficiencies of their situations...

Many colons soon became ill with local diseases...

By 1834, the Maltese were third in number of immigrants to Algeria, outnumbered only by Spaniards and Sicilians. Algeria was for many years the most important destination for Maltese migration within the zone of the Mediterranean. (14) By 1847, the number of Maltese living in Algeria calculated to 4,610 people, so many that the Maltese church dispatched two Catholic priests during Lent to deliver sermons in Maltese. By 1850, about half of all Maltese emigrants chose Algeria as their final destination. Most Maltese emigrated because of the high population density and unemployment on Malta and adjacent archipelago islands. Most were agricultural workers, which fit the needs of Algerian colonies" http://www.semp.us/publications/biot_reader.php?BiotID=487

and

"From Bona"

2007-04-14T10:03:00.000-07:00

An important part of every family tree is the paternal line (your father, his father, his father, his father, etc) - from where your surname comes.

My dad had photos of his grandfather Leonard (right), whose father, Carmelo, had been given the nickname "La Karm".

The only information I had about Carmelo's father (my 3rd Great grandpa) was that he was born in Bona, but his parents were Maltese.

Some geographical research located Bona (Bone) in Algeria, North Africa. His birth there was estimated to be in the 1830s and he would've been part of the European Colonization of Algeria.

"Colonization by Europeans (½ of whom were French and the rest mainly Spanish, Italian, and Maltese) began c.1840 and accelerated after 1848, when Algeria was declared to be French territory. " http://www.columbiagazetteer.org/public/Algeria.html

Attempts to contact Algerian nationals via genealogy forums proved futile and when a reply arrived to one of my emails (a month later) it had nothing to offer.

Alas, for now I had given up of finding anything much about this important ancestor. But time would present other opportunities... will tell you all about it in the near future

Matria

2007-04-10T11:26:00.000-07:00

Another source of info was my mother's maternal aunt, a nun, may God grant her eternal rest. A visit to her convent had given me some three more generations back thanks to some birth and marriage certificates that she possessed.

This is a photo of her father - my ggrandpa, a policeman in Birkirkara.

Unfortunately, to date I have not yet researched any further along this line...

Pictoria

2007-04-10T09:05:00.000-07:00

Amongst the sources of information are the pictures that descend from father to son to grandson. A number of these came into my possession or at least within shooting distance and are a treasure to behold.

Here on the right is my maternal great great grandpa in his sailor suit during World War I. He was with the British Navy and here is seen with an Italian Sergeant Major, a good friend of his.

This photo was taken in 1917, when my gggrandpa was 41years old (b. 1876). It is possible that he was not present for his son's (my ggrandpa) wedding which took place within the year as can be gleaned from the message written on the back by the father to his son:
The writing is in Maltese and says:
"27th April 1918 Carmel, this sergeant major and I are great friends - we're always together on land.
A.Vassallo Italy"

The wedding took place in Rabat, Malta on 22nd Sep 1917 when the groom was 17 years old and his bride was 8 years his senior: a lady from nearby Dingli. He was the oldest of the family and the first to leave the nest. He went on to have 7 kids, one of whom my maternal grandpa.

The Spark

2007-04-09T12:06:00.000-07:00

A few days after the passing of my paternal grandfather, my dad drew a sketch (see right, darker annotations were made at a later date by myself) to explain how there was an inheritance of 7 /11 of a field in the South of Malta. He listed himself and his siblings, his parents and his aunts, his grandparents and their brethren and their father and his siblings and their father and his father...

"...and then they are somehow related to these"

That somehow, that gap, brought forth a mystery which my mind, hyperactive due to being in thesis mode, gladly took in as a challenge. I downloaded a freeware DOS program (Family) and began entering all the persons on the sketch. Then my dad contributed with more people and their descendants, dead or alive, neighbours or emigrants abroad and afar. We soon had 230 people in our records.

Then I finished my thesis...

Preface

2007-04-09T10:34:00.000-07:00

I am starting this blog to share with you my endeavours in researching my family tree over the past eight years or so - what started as a small pastime has become a massive addiction.

Who was I when I began?

It was the year 2000 A.D. I was in my final year of studies reading a degree in Computer Science at the University of Malta, the only university available on this island back then. At 22 years of age I had just lost my paternal grandfather - I was his only grandson able to carry on his surname. My mind was on hyperdrive due to the pending thesis but I wanted to do anything except the thesis...

Who am I now?

Today I'm a husband of 28 years of age, proud father of the next Barbara, owner of a genealogy research topping the 4000 ancestor mark...