Borg 1914

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

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.

"From Bona"

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

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

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.