Marianna is one of the few female ancestors who worked in the early 20th century as a nurse.

She is one of my paternal great-great-grandmothers.

Marianna was born in 1861 or 1862 because she was 28¹ when she gave birth to her daughter Susanna in 1890¹. She was born in Valletta¹, and was the daughter of Domenico Magri¹ and Lorenza Laferla².

Family

She married Francesco Xuereb¹, at some point before 1890 when her daughter was born. Since they lived in Valletta, it is probable they married there too.

Together they had 1 child I’m aware of:

• Susanna

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Notable events

In 1909, she declared herself to be a nurse on her daughter’s wedding certificate³. It is unusual for a woman to have a profession in those days; more so when you consider that at least one of her children was old enough to marry so this was not a pre-marriage job to keep her occupied.

It’s worth noting that her daughter’s act of birth doesn’t list a profession for her¹. I don’t mean that it shows her as being a “housewife” or lists her as “doesn’t work.” The field for her profession is blank. State records for my other female ancestors don’t have blank fields, making this unusual.

It’s also worth noting that her profession is described as “Infermiere“³ which is the Italian word for nurse. To be precise, that is the masculine form of the Italian word for nurse. Gender politics had yet to catch up with actual professions, and state records.

Her name was anglicised as Maria Anna on her daughter’s act of death⁴, but is Marianna in all other documents.

She lived in Valletta for all her life, as far as I can tell¹

Death

She was still alive when her daughter married in 1909⁵, but had died by the time her daughter died in 1947⁴.

I have no further details about her death or final resting place.

References

1. Act of birth of Susanna Xuereb. (1890). Available at: https://certifikati.gov.mt [Accessed 28 Jan. 2025][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩]
2. Said-Vassallo, C. (2025). Magro – Maltagenealogy. [online] Malta Genealogy. Available at: https://maltagenealogy.com/magro-6/ [Accessed 11 Apr. 2025][↩]
3. Act of marriage of Giuseppe Borg and Susanna Xuereb. (1909). Available at: https://certifikati.gov.mt [Accessed 28 Jan. 2025][↩][↩]
4. Act of death of Susanna Xuereb. (1947). Malta Government Public Registry. [online] Available at: https://certifikati.gov.mt [Accessed 5 Mar. 2025][↩][↩]
5. Act of marriage of Giuseppe Borg and Susanna Xuereb. (1909). Available at: https://certifikati.gov.mt [Accessed 28 Jan. 2025][↩]