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.