Two down (and one), three to go!

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