Making Algeria French

Hi All,

Here's hoping you all have had a good start to 2015.

I just wanted to share with you a book I found on the French colonisation of Algeria that may aid in your understanding of any pieds-noirs in your ancestry, the environment they found on their arrival there, and their social status amongst the immigrants.

The book is titled Making Algeria French by David Prochaska. Whilst it mainly considers 1870-1920 it also includes a couple of chapters on the years preceding that period, and was thus of interest to myself in learning about my paternal line's brief stay there.

The Paternal line of Barbara

It has been nearly two years ago since I blogged here - and the only excuse I can bring up is that I have been busy studying for my Masters in Game Design... but I've had some fruitful bouts of genealogy research as well...

In the post titled Closely or distantly related I listed my research along the Barbara paternal line up to the couple who courageously emigrated to the northern shores of Algeria, Giuseppe and Rosa Barbara. (A doctoral dissertation by Andrea Lynn Smith about such emigrations by Maltese can be found here).

Having found a marriage entry in Zejtun for the couple, the only problem was that the groom's mother's name (Rosa nee Griscti) did not match that on his death record in Bonê, Algeria, which is listed as Catarina.

Having searched for other matching marriage records on www.geneanum.com and found none, I will have to make an informed assumption. Catarina on his death record is not his mother's name, but the name of the patron saint of his father's birth place: Saint Catherine is the patron saint of Zejtun. 

Taking this decision, the research path up the Barbara line is left wide open, and indeed, researching throughout www.geneanum.com and the Malta diocese archives I have managed to trace back my pedigree, found hereunder:

Thus the earliest records available are of Nicola Barbara, of Gudja, married in 1591 to Domenica Magri.

Closely or distantly related?

In the post titled Barbara, Michigan, USA I revealed an acquaintance with a possible close cousin through a common ancestral link. This followed a problem I had recapped in its previous post, Continuing the Journey.... Let me re-explain this and discuss a newly formed problem here.

So, in the recap I had listed the following collection of evidence:

1		BONE	1836	Décès	BARBARA	ANTONINA
2		BONE	1836	Décès	BARBARA	ANDRE
3		BONE	1837	Naissance	BARBARA	TONY
4		BONE	1838	Naissance	BARBARA	ANTONIO
5		BONE	1839	Décès	BARBARA	GUISEPPE

DEATH OF ANTONINA BARBARA (His sister)
Date: 19 Aug 1836
Place: Bone, ALGERIA
Age: 4 years
Father: BARBARA Giuseppe, 40 years old
Mother: BARBARA Rosa, 32 years old

BIRTH OF TONY BARBARA (His brother)
Date: 11 Feb 1837
Place: Bone, ALGERIA
Father: Giuseppe BARBARA , aged 42 years, native of Malta, fisherman
Mother: Rosa VELLA, aged 32 years, native of Malta

BIRTH OF ANTONIO BARBARA (His son, my GGGGrandpa)
Date: 22 Jan 1838
Place: Bone, ALGERIA
Father: Giuseppe BARBARA , aged 44 years, native of Malta, daily worker
Mother: Rosa VELLA, aged 36 years, native of Malta

DEATH OF GIUSEPPE BARBARA (My GGGGGrandpa)
Date: 14 Nov 1839
Place: Bone, ALGERIA
Age: 50 years
Description: Catholic, born in Malta
Parents: BARBARA Antonio and Catarina

PASSPORT APPLICATION
Date: 1835
Applicants: ROSA BARBARA and her daughter ANTONINA

Up till here is the only direct links I have to the family that left for Bona, Algeria.
Now in tracing their point of origin, we' re looking for the marriage of a Joseph BARBARA to a Rosa Vella.

In the birth and notary records at Geneanum there is only one such marriage:

MARRIAGE OF GIUSEPPE BARBARA TO ROSA VELLA
Date: 13 Jun 1820
Place: Zejtun, MALTA
Groom: Josepho BARBARA
Bride: Rosa VELLA
Groom parents: Antonij BARBARA & Rosa GRIXTI
Bride parents: late Josephi VELLA and Maria ZAMMIT

With the subsequent birth of the bride:
BIRTH OF ROSA VELLA
Date:7 Dec 1804
Place: Zejtun, MALTA
Father: Josephi VELLA
Mother: Maria

The problem that this leaves is that the mother of the groom Joseph Barbara does not co-incide with the name of the mother of the deceased Joseph Barbara.

The Barbaras from Michigan provide a couple with the names Antonio Barbara and Caterina, which would match with the parents of the deceased Joseph Barbara, but their marriage is dated as 1815, which would not coincide with the age of 50 years at his death in 1839 and improbable to have borne a daughter, Antonina, in the year 1832 - he would only have been 17 years old. Possible! But hard.

The only proof that can concretize any link is the birth of Antonina Barbara. I have already searched in the Zejtun and Ghaxaq parishes for her birth but to no avail.

Across the Globe and Back in Time to Unravel the Mystery of Pietro's Ancestry PART TWO

Ok, so after a good night's sleep, we're up to face the mystery of history again..

*Think* about it:
Pietro's mother is listed as Gioanella
Domenico and Antonella marry in Qrendi
Pietro is from Qrendi
His mother is Nella...
too much of a coincidence?
We'll see.

First port of call is the parish priest of Qrendi.

Dear Rev. Mifsud,

According to my records, my 12th great-grandpa PIETRO BARBARA was married in Qrendi to a MARGARITA AQUILINA on 9th August 1622.

I would greatly appreciate if, at your convenience, you could check out the names of their PARENTS from your parish marriage records please.

Many thanks in advance.

Respectfully,

Jonathan Barbara

 

To which the reply, within a couple of hours, was a negative:

 

Good morning Jonathan,

According to the marriage registry betwen 1620 and 1626 there was not the marriage you are referring to

Greetings
Fr Mario

Hmm. A blank. Then the marriage was registered at a notary, and not at the church of Qrendi.

My only other option is to ask a friend of mine at geneanum.
You wouldn't have the snapshot of the original record that you can share with me, would you please?

Here's the reply:

Mat. 9 Agosto 1622 di Margherita Aquilina figlia di Mariano ed Imperia del Siggiewi e Pietro Barbara figlio del qdm Mro Domenico e Nella del Crendi.

Marriage 9th August 1622 of Margerita Aquilina daughter of Mariano and Imperia of Siggiewi and Pietro Barbara son of the late Mro Domenico and Nella of Qrendi.

Now that's saying a lot in very little: the mother is not listed as Gioanella, but just Nella.

Next, we look up the notary records and find the testament left by Mro Domenico Barbara and his wife Antonella Cassar.

- Domenico's father is listed as Nicola Barbara (GREAT!)
- Domenico's heir is his wife Antonella Camilleri
- Antonella's heirs... are the following;

- Domenica wife of Demetrio PACE,
- Marietta wife of Giuseppe CARUANA
- Caterina wife of Consalvo BUTTIGIEG,
- Barbara wife of Lorenzo XERRI,
- Natale 
- Clemenza wife of Vittorio CAMILLERI
- Paola, widow of Antonio BUTTIGIEG and wife of Vittorio CASSIA
- Sevastulla wife of Mariano/Damiano CASSAR of Birchircara
- and Pietro, all children of the said Antonella.

THAT'S IT! Amongst her children are her two sons: Natale and Pietro Barbara.

This confirms that our Pietro Barbara is her son, and Natale, the guy we found in the Malta Genealogy website is his brother! .. (beats me where that PACE surname cropped up!)

So our search is over! And the top of Teresa's family tree now looks like this:

 

Across the Globe and Back in Time to Unravel the Mystery of Pietro's Ancestry PART ONE

It's Wednesday night and I'm connected via Skype with my newly found cousin in Michigan USA, Teresa. We both have a copy of her family tree as reported by a Maltese genealogist and at the top she has the elusive Pietro Barbara and his mysterious wife Margarita.

So we're looking at the notary records as per geneanum and we find the entry related to the marriage of Domenico Barbara with Maria Farrugia that we found in the Malta Diocese archives in the last post of this blog. Domenico's details has the name of his parents:

Pietro Mro x 1622 fils de Domenico et Gioannella PACE.

So his father is Mro Pietro Barbara, who got married in 1622, and who is the son of Domenico BARBARA and Gioannella PACE. Thus we have gone one generation upwards from the reported family tree my cousin has. GREAT!

Then we look at his mother's details, and apart from confirming her name as Margarita, we also have her surname: AQUILINA. GREAT!

Onto the details of the bride: Epouse veuve de Mario Cilia. This confirms my earlier blog's  transcription of the entry in the parish records: Maria is a widow of the late Mario Cilia. But here we also get her parents' names: Mro Giuseppe FARRUGIA and Giovanna (Sorry no surname there!). Lots of Mro around... I wonder if that's a Maestro as in Musical Composer or some other social status at the time - anyone has any idea about this? Please share!

Knowing the year of marriage for Pietro (1622) we go further up in the notary records to find HIS marriage now. His father's name is confirmed: Mro Domenico BARBARA, whilst his mother's name gives us further information: Gioanella dite Nella. Meaning Gioanella known as Nella.

Looking at his bride, we learn something more beyond her surname: her parents' names: Mariano AQUILINA and Imperia FORMOSA who got married in 1578 in Siggiewi. GREAT!

However our journey came to an end, as there was no marriage listed for a Domenico BARBARA and a Gioanella PACE.

BUT.

That 'Gioanella dite Nella' was taunting me. I looked up the marriages of a Domenico BARBARA before the date of marriage of Pietro BARBARA. And the search bears the fruit of a marriage in Qrendi between a Mro Domenico BARBARA and an Antonella CAMILLERI.

Let me say that again.

between a Mro Domenico Barbara and an AntoNELLA Camilleri.

You see what I did there?

That's another NELLA!

So the mother could be not a GioaNELLA pace but an AntoNELLA Camilleri.  Of course the only way we can confirm that is if we have some record of either Pietro Barbara's marriage or his birth but he is from Qrendi and the records of Qrendi are not online at the Malta Diocese Archives...

On another line of thought... further up in the notary records, we find the marriage of a Natale Barbara, son of Mro Domenico Barbara and Antonella Camilleri in 1619. On the Malta Genealogy website this was listed as

2.1. Mro Natale (Pietro) Barbara, married 1619 Qormi to Margherita Ciantar, , with issue.

Thus Natale and Pietro were being deemed to be the same person, but we know that Pietro Barbara married in 1622 to a Margarita AQUILINA. So this is definitely not right, but this Natale chap is interesting...

Barbara + Farrugia : 1652

In searching for the elusive Pietro Barbara, we start from his son's marriage in 1652. A search through the Malta Diocese Archives brings forth this record:

Maria & Domenico

Die 14 di luglio 1652 ___ Salvatore Muscat Parrochia ___ fatta la ___ denunzazione in questa mia Parrochia e nella Parrochia di Casal Crendi ___ __ __ del matrimonio da __trattarsi ___ di presente ___ Maria vedova ____ del qdm Marco Cilia miei parrochiani, et Domenico Barbara figlio di Pietro Barbara et Margarita iugali di Casal Crendi et no ______ ____ impedimento alcuno (hanno ___ ____) ho celebrato il lor matrimonio in forma comanda la ___ madre Chiesa, testimoni Stephano Mallia et Thomaso Bonnici.

Maria  & Domenico

Day 14 of July 1652. Parish priest Salvatore Muscat having denounced in my parish and in the parish of Qrendi of the matrimony of the present Maria, widow of the late Marco Cilia, my parishoners and Domenico Barbara son of Pietro Barbara and Margarita his wife of Casal Qrendi and no impediment detected I celebrated their matrimony in the form ordered by the Mother Church with witnesses Stephano Mallia and Thomaso Bonnici

So from this record we learn that Maria was already married to Marco Cilia but widowed. Thus we do not get her surname or father's name here. The genealogist who produced the tree would have either sourced the record of her original marriage or maybe she is listed in the marriage record of her son with Domenico, Grazio Barbara, married 1687 in Porto Salvo Valletta.

What we also learn is that Pietro and Margarita were from Qrendi, close to Zurrieq, and any search for him should happen there. Unfortunately, the parish records of Qrendi are not online at the archives...

Back to the Tree

 

 

I went to my ancestry briefcase and searched for the letter I had received from Sharon Barbara from Michigan, USA. Given the acquaintance of her niece in my previous post I wanted to bring it back to my attention. And indeed here it is.

It lists all the Barbara marriages from 1893 back up to 1652, when the parents are listed as Pietro Barbara and Margarita. Apparently the genealogist was unable to trace this marriage and did not continue further up.

However, on another family tree up on ancestry.com I found that someone went further up to 1550s:

The quest is on to seek the elusive Pietro Barbara...

Barbara, Michigan, USA

I happened to log in to ancestry.com, in order to install the app onto my android smart phone, and I realised that I had some messages in my inbox. One of them went on the lines of....

Hello, I think that we might have a common ancestor. My great-grandfather was from Malta (XXX Barbara). His family owned an olive oil business in Sfax, Tunisia, where he was actually born. My aunts have visited Malta and really enjoyed it there. I have several names in my Barbara line. I would love to connect.

Dated 20 January 2012. I read it on 25th November 2012. WHOOPS! I sent an apologetic email and immediately got a reply. Turned out I had communicated with her aunt some 8 years back, and she had sent me a copy of her surname pedigree but I had not had any links there yet. I gave her niece a link to my blog and a couple of links to the online diocese archives and sent them to her by mail. Then after a few email exchanges, she sent me:

Jon, I think we are distantly related!! I checked it out, and Ancestry says that Giuseppe Barbara (born 1789) was my 4th great-grand-uncle. I am descended from his brother, Ignazio. Their father Antonio was my 5th great-grandfather. He was married to Catarina. I have names and marriage dates going back to 1550 for the Barbara line. Check out my tree and compare it with yours... I think we're distant cousins  

I couldn't beleive my eyes.

In my earlier post, Continuing the Journey, I had shown a crisis point when the records in Bona, Algeria, said that the mother was named Catarina whilst the marriage record I had found back in Malta listed Rosa as the mother. And here I find a Catarina for Antonio, apart from a sixth cousin!  

Some more research in the pipeline!

Continuing the Journey...

It's been a while since I explored my Barbara line, last seen in the Casal Bisbuti area.

Since this week the Maltese Diocese has surprised us all with the online publication of a good chunk of church records (see here), it is a great opportunity to catch up with some lost threads.

Let's do a quick recap. Evidence currently in hand is summarised hereunder.

DEATH OF GIUSEPPE BARBARA (My GGGGGrandpa)
Date: 14 Nov 1839
Place: Bone, ALGERIA
Age: 50 years
Description: Catholic, born in Malta
Parents: BARBARA Antonio and Catarina

BIRTH OF ANTONIO BARBARA (His son, my GGGGrandpa)
Date: 22 Jan 1838
Place: Bone, ALGERIA
Father: Giuseppe BARBARA , aged 44 years, native of Malta, daily worker
Mother: Rosa VELLA, aged 36 years, native of Malta

BIRTH OF TONY BARBARA (His brother)
Date: 11 Feb 1837
Place: Bone, ALGERIA
Father: Giuseppe BARBARA , aged 42 years, native of Malta, fisherman
Mother: Rosa VELLA, aged 32 years, native of Malta

DEATH OF ANTONINA BARBARA (His sister)
Date: 19 Aug 1836
Place: Bone, ALGERIA
Age: 4 years
Father: BARBARA Giuseppe, 40 years old
Mother: BARBARA Rosa, 32 years old

PASSPORT APPLICATION
Date: 1835
Applicants: ROSA BARBARA and her daughter ANTONINA

MARRIAGE OF GIUSEPPE BARBARA TO ROSA VELLA
Date: 13 Jun 1820
Place: Zejtun, MALTA
Groom: Josepho BARBARA
Bride: Rosa VELLA
Groom parents: Antonij BARBARA & Rosa GRIXTI
Bride parents: late Josephi VELLA and Maria ZAMMIT

BIRTH OF ROSA VELLA
Date:7 Dec 1804
Place: Zejtun, MALTA
Father: Josephi VELLA
Mother: Maria

Now, some inconsistencies.
1) The reported age of Giuseppe BARBARA is inconsistent throughout, aging TWO years in ONE year between the death of his daughter and the births of his sons - but then aging SIX years in ONE year to his death.
2) The reported age of Giuseppe BARBARA and Rosa BARBARA nee VELLA is inconsistent throughout, with Rosa not aging a year and then aging FOUR in TWO years. The birth record of Rosa VELLA fits with her reported age in the death record of her daughter in 1836.
3) At his death, Giuseppe's mother's name is listed as CATARINA, whilst in the marriage of 1820 it's listed as ROSA. To note that the patron saint of Zejtun is St Catherine. Could it be a reference to his birth town, rather than his mother?

The issue at hand here is whether the couple married in Zejtun on 13 Jun 1820 are the same couple who sired my GGGGrandpa in Algeria on 22 Jan 1838. Whilst their names and surnames match, and likewise the name of the groom's father, the name of his mother does not. Also, so far I have been unable to find a daughter named Antonina born to the Zejtun couple on 1832 - this would cement the link.

There are two actions that I am now considering:
1) A family profile of the Zejtun couple - basically scouring the baptism records from their marriage date onwards and trace any offspring they had, together with the death records in case of infant deaths. If quite a number of offspring survive, it will be difficult for the mother to just emigrate to Algeria with just one daughter. Also, if any births are attributed to the couple after 1835, then there would be two concurrent couples: one living in Zejtun and one in Algeria, and the Zejtun couple would not be my ancestors.
2) Look for the baptism of Antonina Barbara in 1832 in other parishes - and thereafter trace a marriage between a Giuseppe BARBARA, son of Antonio BARBARA and Rosa VELLA in that parish - in which case they would be my true ancestors.

To work. To long, laborious work. From my study at home, at least, thanks to the Malta Diocese online archives!

UPDATE:
The Family Profile returned the following results:
There were two baptisms of children born to Giuseppe BARBARA and his wife Rosa:
1823 BARBARA Franciscus Joseph ex Josephi Barbara et Rosa
1826 BARBARA Maria Josepha Angela Rosa ex Josepho Barbara et Rosa

There were NO MORE births thereafer, up till 1840.
It would be possible if the couple no longer lived in Zejtun.

UPDATE:
No results in searching for Antonina's birth record whereabouts of 1832 neither in Zejtun nor in Ghaxaq and Zurrieq.

UPDATE:
I found the following births in Ghaxaq (Asciak) records, but they are unrelated as the mother's surname is Mizzi.

BARBARA Fortunata ex Joseph et Rosa Mizzi in 1830
BARBARA Cajetano ex Joseph et Rosa Mizzi in 1835

Rent Payments - 1958

The above scans are of the notebook upon which receipts for payments of rent were noted during the year of 1958.

In these pages, Francesca Zammit pays each of the six Barbara siblings, including herself.

Presumably, this Francesca Zammit is the Francesca Barbara to whom her father Carmelo Barbara left the houses of 24,25 Carmel Street in Zurrieq in the will of 8th July 1936.

The missing sibling identified in The Missing Sibling in The Will of Carmelo Barbara (+1942) as Catherine, is also listed here, as Catherine Grixti.

The Missing Sibling in The Will of Carmelo Barbara (+1942)

In Purchase of the Land, one of the pending questions was: who is the missing sibling? With my grandfather having bought 5/6 of the land from his father and his four siblings, a fifth sibling remained.

A good possible source of information for the identity of the fifth sibling was found to be the wills mentioned in the same article: those of the parents Carmelo Barbara and his wife Giuseppa dated  dated 2nd November 1920 and 8th July 1936 from the notary Francesco Farrugia.

How to get them?

I looked up "notary archives malta" on Google and the first search result was a link to the Office of the Notary to Government and Notarial Archives - Malta Quality Service Charter which offered the service of looking up such deeds with requests being possible even by email on notarial.archives@gov.mt . Thus I hastily performed by providing the following details:

—  the name of the Notary : Francesco Farrugia
— the date of the deed or will : 2nd November 1920 and 8 July 1936
— the nature of deed: will (testment)
— the parties to the deed or will : Carmelo Barbara and/or his wife Giuseppa nee` Briffa

Within a couple of days I received a reply that the will dated 1936 had been found but they would need an original copy of the latest death certificate of the couple. Providentially I had a copy of both their death certificates issued back in the year 2000.

Opening hours (at time of blogging) are from 7:30am to 3pm and within a couple of days I managed to find a suitable time slot to visit. I provided the requested death certificate and within a few minutes I had a copy of the will for EUR2.10.

What does it say?

Dated: 8th July 1936 at 10:15am

In front of Francesco Farrugia, Notary Public in Malta, and in front of witnesses who are suitable as per law appears Carmelo Barbara, farmer, son of the late Antonio born and living in Zurrieq.

Known by me.

That he will leave after his death the below written:

The said Carmelo totally nullifies the will made here on 3rd March 1929.
The said Carmelo leaves ?? ?? to his daughter Francesca Barbara, spinster, the house at Zurrieq 24,25 Carmel Street , Alley No 3, who takes it in full ownership since Francesca is taking care of him, with the duty that Francesca Barbara gives, on one occasion only, her siblings the sum of six English pounds Sterling each. Her siblings are five, i.e.: Giovanna, Catherine, Marianna, Leonardo, and Rosa.

The said Carmelo Barbara declares that the sum of 40 English pounds Sterling that his son and daughters took (in marriage?) consisted of money, stone, animals, and other things.

The said Carmelo Barbara declares the he bought to his son a mule for the sum of 40 English pounds Sterling, which sum Carmelo has not yet received from Leonardo, his son.

The said Carmelo Barbara obliges each of his son and all his daughters to make him a mass for 2 English pounds Sterling.

The said Barbara confirms the will he made with his wife on the 2nd of November 1920.

The said Barbara made this will because he had the faculty of being able to change and nullify as per above mentioend will dated 2nd November 1920.

Made and published after all was explained to Barbara in Maltese in my office in Zurrieq No 66, Royal Street  in front of witnesses Carmelo, shop owner, and Salvatore, pensioner,brothers and sons of Saviour Sammut hereunder listed. Carmelo Barbara does not know how to write his name.

Carmelo Sammut
Salvatore Sammut
Francesco Farrugia
Notary Public,Malta

Thus, not only do we confirm that there was a sixth daughter to Carmelo and Giuseppa Barbara, but we discover that her name is Catherine (highlighted in bold above).

Thus, Catherine nee Barbara did not sell her share to my grandfather Antonio in 1963. Where did this share end up?

The other question: where did the inherited land come from? Who has the other half? remains unanswered. This will makes no mention of it, and probably we can only unravel more information if we are able to access the earlier will mentioned in the will above - that written by both Carmelo and Giuseppa on 2nd November 1920. Another email request to the Notary Archives will follow hastily this blog entry...

Notes.

The above will was made on 8 July 1936, six years after the death of his wife in 12 Oct 1930. Dying six years (and one week!) later on 15th July 1942 at the age of 85, Carmelo was about 79 years old when he made the above will.

The spinster Francesca, mentioned in the above will as inheriting the houses, would have married and become  a widow of Giovanni Zammit by the time my grandfather Antonio bought her share of the inherited territory at Tal-Katina in 1963.

23rd June 1963 - Purchase of the Land

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.(EDIT: Probably the 5/24 is 1/2 of 5/12 as he had bought this when he was married to Nicholina nee Borg, so the other half belongs to her).

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

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

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...

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!

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

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!

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

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

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.