Decade Milestone

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:

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

The Family Increases!

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

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

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.

So

1. Andrea Barbara of Zurrieq was NOT Antonio's uncle
2. Andrea Barbara of Zurrieq was NOT the same Andrea Barbara of Bone, Algeria, as his wife's surname is CAMILLERI, not FARRUGIA
3. 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

1. NO record of Giuseppe's birth
2. 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!

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

Good News!

"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

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!)