names update

Agius Azzopardi Barbara Bartolo Bonello (13) Bugeja Busuttil Cachia Cambell Camilleri (19) Cassar

Ciappara Degiorgio DeLazzaro Deraffaele Dimech Duncan Ellul Falzon Fava Francese

Galea Gatt Grech Lucchese Micallef Misfud Mizzi Pace

schembri Sciberras Scicluna Vella Zerafa

I now have 144 Maltese family members in our family tree.

Mysterious Uniform!!

Vincenzo BONELLO

Born 1847
VALLETTA




This handsome young fellow is my maternal g g grandfather.
The family legend is that he was a soldier who defended the Pope against Garibaldi.

OK, defended the pope? but his uniforms nothing like the Swiss Guards!
Even though the picture is black and white, I`m told his uniform was grey with red piping.
Having spent many hours looking at military uniform sites I came across a picture of the Zouaves.




From there I discovered the Papal Zouaves were formed in defence of the papal states by Lamoricière in 1860. The Zuavi Pontifici were mainly young men, unmarried and Roman Catholic, who volunteered to assist Pope Pius ix in his struggle against the Italian Garibaldi.
I also found a piece writen by Dr. John C. Rao called "The Last Crusade" a quotation from that piece mentions there only being 17 Maltese serving in the Papal Army.

"The recruits belonged to twenty five different nationalities. Curiously, although their country had a Protestant majority, the most numerous were the Dutch. Then came the French and the Belgians. The Italians, almost all Romans or Neapolitans, are well represented, above all in music (a question of competence). But one finds also Swiss (among them the officers of high rank), Irish, Austrians, Germans, among whom the Prussians and the Bavarians are the most numerous; Poles, Spaniards, a number of British, whether English or Scot, eight Americans, these above all from the southern states. From South America, Peru, Chile and Equator are each represented by one volunteer; Brazil by two. One finds also seventeen Maltese, one Abyssinian, a Turk, a Moroccan, and an Indian from Madras. Finally, one must speak of the one hundred thirty Canadians from Quebec, who will arrive in 1868. They will not have the chance to fight, but some will participate nonetheless in the siege of Rome. Another wave of one hundred twelve volunteers left Canada in August of 1870 to engage." (Ibid., p. 40)

In a letter from my great Uncle Joseph Bonello he states that Vincenzo fought for 3 yrs from 1867 to 1870 then returned to Malta. Uncle Joe also said that the the picture was drawn by a marmist (a marble sculptor) called M Spampinato ?
Vincenzo was also at some point a teacher and a tintore (painter) at the time of his marriage to Concetta Galea circa 1883.

A little update 24/01/2008

through further research I found a blog about the Zouaves. This blog had information about a museum in the Netherlands called the Zouaven Museum. I emailed the museum to ask for some help in tracking down the military records of the Papal Zouaves and here is the reply:

Dear,
I've found his name in the "Matricule"-book of the Papal zouaves:
Vincent Bonello, born in Talleto, Ile de Malte at 1847.
Zouave from 28 march 1868 till 31 march 1870.
His number was 7413.
That's the only thing I could find about him.
My regards,
Marijke Zonneveld-Kouters
conservator Nederlands Zouavenmuseum Oudenbosch.

I was so very excited to receive conformation of our
family's legend.


Thank you so much Marijke!! :)

(I am assuming the place Talleto is a gross mis spelling of Valletta, since there is no Talleto in Malta)

Status Animarum

Whilst searching on the Internet I came across a review of a document called "Status Animarum" it is basically the census taken by the church, an ecclesiastical census.
I was very excited to have come across this information as I wanted to be able to trace where my ancestors had lived, quote " individuals are not simply counted, but are listed by name, surname, family, age, town or village and quite often with several other interesting details as to nickname, occupation, status and location in the village, not to mention of course the “state of their souls”

I am going to write to the Church of the Latter Day Saints and ask them to send me a copy of the last year the Status Animarum was taken and see if they can send a copy of the microfilm to my nearest Mormon family centre.
I found a list of what documents they have on their website.

Distant Delazzaro?

Through my maternal line I have found family called Delazzaro. As far as I can tell the name is not Maltese. I have purchased the book "The Surnames of the Maltese Islands" and its not present there.
Researching where the name is from is proving difficult, I have come across a few different ways of spelling the name such as Dilazzaro, D`lazaro, De Lazzaro, Delazzar etc.
I have concluded that the name is possibly of Italian origin, probably from the Saint, Lazarus.

Interestingly I found this article on Wikipedia

Order of Saint Lazarus

The Military and Hospitaller Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem is a religious/military order, purportedly dating back to the First Crusade. The Order is run by two distinct channels of authority, referred to as the Malta Obedience and the Paris Obedience.

The Order of St. Lazarus of Jerusalem originated in a leper hospital run by hospitaller brothers, founded in the twelfth century by the crusaders of the Latin Kingdom. It was originally established to treat virulent diseases such as leprosy.

and their insignia is the Cross of the Order of Saint Lazarus

My first certificate

After the death of my Nonna in 2005, I decided to get her marriage certificate. After a bit of research on the Internet It was surprisingly easy.
I applied to the http://www.certifikati.gov.mt/
I received an email to say they had found the document and I received it about 3 days later.

Armed with my new information I managed to trace a number of descendants, such as my great grand parents and if they where alive or dead at the time of the wedding and their occupations, also the names of the two witnesses, which in my experience can also have been a relative.

How it all began!!

This time last year I began the search for my ancestors in Malta.
I currently have 113 names in my tree mainly from my Maltese ancestors.

Agius Azzopardi Barbara Bartolo Bonello (13) Bugeja Busuttil cachia

Camilleri (19) Cassar Ciappara De Lazzaro Degiorgio DeLazzaro Deraffaele ?? Dowsey Duncan Ellul

Falzon Fava Francese Galea Galea (fabri?) Gatt Grech

Micallef Misfud Mizzi schembri Sciberras

Vella Zerafa

This blog will be about how I found my descendants and my progress.