She married at a young age to an older man, possibly because of her father’s death. She escaped Malta’s densely packed harbour area to move to the fishing village of St Julian’s.

She is one of my maternal 3 x great-grandmothers.

Angelica¹, or Angelina², was born on Sunday 23 May 1819^{3 1}. She is the daughter of Ferdinando Alesandra¹ and Maria Mifsud³.

She was baptized by Fr Joseph Cilia³ in St Paul’s Shipwreck church³ the day after³ as Giuseppa Vincentia Carmela Angelica Elisabeth Anna Oradis but known as Angelica³. Even if her first name is Giuseppa, all other references to her call her Angelica, especially official state documents. I refer to her as Angelica because of this.

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Family

She married Paolo Farrugia⁴ on Sunday 18 September 1836⁴ in St Paul’s Collegiate church, Valletta⁴. The Reverend John Callus officiated⁴.

Together they had 2 children I know of:

• Maria Carmela Liberata Margarita Giovanna Vincenza Filomena Antonia⁵
• Emilia⁶

Notable events

She lived in Valletta before marriage⁷ and later moved to Senglea where she gave birth to Emilia⁶. The family moved again to St Julian’s before her daughter married⁶.

Her marriage

Since her father was already dead at the time of her marriage, it’s possible this marriage was a rushed affair. Women couldn’t work in those days, and if the Alessandras didn’t have an independent source of income, marriage was the only way they’d have been able to survive.

Death

I don’t have any information on when, how or where she died.

References

1. Certificate of Baptism of Giuseppa Alesandra. (1819). Baptism Records Held in the Collegiate and Parish Church of St Paul Shipwrecked, Valletta, p.9[↩][↩][↩]
2. Act of death of Emilia Farrugia. (1946). [online] (203). Available at: https://www.certifikati.gov.mt [Accessed 06 Nov. 2024][↩]
3. Certificate of Baptism of Angelica Alessandra. (1819). Baptism Records Held in the Collegiate and Parish Church of St Paul Shipwrecked, Valletta, 9[↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩]
4. Marriage registry held in the Collegiate and Parish Church of St. Paul Shipwrecked – Valletta, (1836). Wedding certificate for Angelica Alessandro and Paul Farrugia, 344-345.[↩][↩][↩][↩]
5. Velin, N. (2024). Maltese baptisms – Digital Genealogy. [online] Digital Genealogy. Available at: https://en.geneanum.com/malta/databases/baptisms.html [Accessed 9 Dec. 2024].[↩]
6. Act of Marriage of Salvatore Bonnici and Emilia Farrugia. (1884). [online] (203). Available at: https://www.certifikati.gov.mt [Accessed 24 Jul. 2024][↩][↩][↩]
7. Note describing marriage of Paolo Farrugia and Angelica Alessandro. (1836). Liber Matrimoniorum, [online] XIV. Available at: https://www.maltaparisharchives.org/catalog [Accessed 8 Nov. 2024][↩]