Valletta-born, she settled in the then-growing seaside town of Sliema to avoid the overcrowding in the capital city.

She is one of my paternal great-grandmothers.

She was born at 06:45¹ on Thursday 23 January 1890¹ in Valletta¹, daughter of Francesco Xuereb¹ and Marianna Magri¹.

Her parents christened her as Susanna Domenica¹, indicating she should be known as Susanna¹. Her father declared her birth to the government the following week on Thursday 30 January¹, noting he was illiterate, so a public servant had to fill the form in for him¹.

Family

On Sunday 21 February 1909^{2 3}, she married Giuseppe Borg^{2 3} in the parish church of Stella Maris, Sliema³. Parish priest Francis Vincent Manchè officiated at the wedding^{2 3}.

It’s interesting to see that while the formal declaration lists Susanna’s surname as “Scuereb”, the act in the government records declare her to be “Xuereb”. It is another case of English vs Italian phonetics used before there was a standardised way of writing Maltese names.

Together they had 7 children:

• Paolo⁴
• Emmanuele
• Maria Concetta
• Lucy
• Gina
• Dolly
• Anthony

Notable events

Residence

She moved to Sliema at some point, before marriage². While she may have lived in more than 1 place in Sliema, her husband’s last known residence was 285 Prince of Wales road⁵. This was included in the 1920 electoral register⁶ as well. Later, she lived at 22, Rudolph lane, Sliema, Malta⁷.

Miscellaneous

Like most women living in early 20th century Europe, she was listed as a housewife after marriage⁴. It is curious to note that before marriage the state lists her status as “Non esercita” (EN: Doesn’t work)², suggesting that she could have worked but did not.

There is a record of a passport issued to a Susanna Borg of Sliema in 1937 for travel to UK, Europe, Turkey, USSR, France and an unnamed “Italian possession”⁸. Borg is the most common surname in Malta which makes it impossible to determine if this Susanna is the same one as my ancestor.

Death

She died of diabetes⁷ at 15:45⁷ on Wednesday 9 April 1947⁷, at home in Sliema, Malta⁷

Her family buried her at the Maria Addolorata Cemetery, Paola, Malta⁷.

References

1. Act of birth of Susanna Xuereb. (1890). Available at: https://certifikati.gov.mt [Accessed 28 Jan. 2025][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩]
2. Act of marriage of Giuseppe Borg and Susanna Xuereb. (1909). Available at: https://certifikati.gov.mt [Accessed 28 Jan. 2025][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩]
3. Certificate of Marriage of Joseph Borg and Susanna Xuereb. (1909). Registers of Marriages Kept in the Parish Church of Stella Maris Sliema (Malta), II, p.180[↩][↩][↩][↩]
4. Act of birth of Paolo Borg. (1913). Malta Government Public Registry. [online] Available at: www.certifikati.gov.mt [Accessed 28 Aug. 2024][↩][↩]
5. Act of death of Giuseppe Borg. (1931). Malta Government Public Registry. [online] Available at: https://certifikati.gov.mt [Accessed 5 Mar. 2025][↩]
6. Archive.org. (2025). Electoral register for Malta – 1920. [online] Available at: https://web.archive.org/web/20180723012719/http://website.lineone.net/~stephaniebidmead/1920.htm [Accessed 9 Feb. 2025][↩]
7. Act of death of Susanna Xuereb. (1947). Malta Government Public Registry. [online] Available at: https://certifikati.gov.mt [Accessed 5 Mar. 2025][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩]
8. Velin, N. (2021). Passports in Malte – Digital Genealogy. [online] Digital Genealogy. Available at: https://en.geneanum.com/malta/databases/passports.html [Accessed 27 Feb. 2025][↩]