Florentina’s life spanned the end of the 19th century and most of the 20th. Her official documents show the slow change in Maltese life from Italian to British influence.

She is my one of my maternal great-grandmothers.

Florentina¹ was born at 11:00¹ on Thursday 14 October 1886¹ in Birkirkara, Malta¹. She is the daughter of Giovanni Farrugia¹ and Grazia née Balzan¹.

People wrote Maltese phonetics using Italian in the early 20th century. While she was born in Birkirkara, both her and her daughter’s birth certificate² show this as “Birchircara”. (The Italian language does not have the letter ‘k’).

Fr Buttigieg baptised her 4 days later in the collegiate parish church of St Helen’s³. The baptismal register has a small handwritten annotation mentioning her marriage³.

Her father filed her birth with the state on 24 October in Naxxar, Malta¹. The record entered the state archives on 25 October¹.

Since her birth was registered in Naxxar, it’s likely she was born in St Julian’s.

Family

On Tuesday 10 November 1908, she married 37-year-old Giuseppe Felice⁴. They married at the church of St Catherine of Italy in Valletta⁴. Fr Giuseppe Muscat, the Ħamrun parish priest, officiated⁴.

They registered the marriage with the authorities 4 days later⁴.

Together they had eight children:

• Maria Carmela²
• John
• Salvino
• Beatrice, known as Bice
• Philip
• Emma
• Rita
• Symphorosa

Notable events

After growing up in Birkirkara, she moved to Ħamrun⁴ and lived there for the rest of her life.

As was custom in those days, she did not work and stayed at home⁵.

Curiosities

There are a couple of curiosities around Florentina’s documented life:

1. Her parents chose to name her Florentina Elena Maria Margherita Emilia, and this is the order of her names in the state record¹. Yet the Church’s baptismal register lists her as Florentina Maria Emilia Helena Margharita³.
2. Since her birth certificate lists her as Florentina, that’s how I referred to her here. There are some cases where records show her as Fiorentina⁶ (with an ‘i’ instead of an ‘L’). It’s a simple phonetic mistake to make, but Florentina or her family didn’t correct these errors.
3. It is curious that her father’s surname is either listed as “Farrugia”, “Farruggia”, “”Farrugia Gay” or as “Farrugia, also known as Farrugia Gay”⁶, depending on which document you refer to.
4. It is more curious that her death certificate lists her as “Florentina Felice Gay” showing her married surname – Felice – coupled with half of her father’s alleged surname. Her family would have documented this after her death; there is no explanation of how this merge of surnames occurred.
5. For another twist on her surname, On 2 August 1927, the Maltese authorities granted her a passport to travel to Italy⁷. Her full name in this case is Florentina Felice Farrugia Gay⁷.
6. Her elder sister Annette married her husband’s younger brother Paolo⁸.

Death

Florentina died on Saturday 8 April 1967 in an old people’s home in Mosta⁵.

I have no information of what she died of, or where they buried her.

References

1. Act of birth of Florentina Farrugia; Malta Government state records; 1886-10-14[↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩]
2. Act of birth of Maria Felice; Malta Government state archives; 1910-05-18[↩][↩]
3. Extract from the baptismal register of St Helen’s Church, Birkirkara[↩][↩][↩]
4. Act of marriage of Giuseppe Felice and Florentina Farrugia. (1908). Malta Government Public Registry. [online] Available at: www.certifikati.gov.mt [Accessed 24 Jul. 2024][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩]
5. Act of Death of Florentina Farrugia Gay. (1967). Malta Government Public Registry. [online] Available at: www.certifikati.gov.mt [Accessed 10 Jun. 2024][↩][↩]
6. Act of Death of Maria Darmenia; Malta Government state records; 1991-07-23[↩][↩]
7. Passportes des Malte[↩][↩]
8. C Vassallo (2019). ArabSicilyMalta-Farrugia – Maltagenealogy. [online] Maltagenealogy. Available at: https://maltagenealogy.com/arabsicilymalta-farrugia/ [Accessed 22 Sep. 2024][↩]