I know little of Paolo Darmenia because there are few direct records. Most of the information we have comes from secondary sources, mainly state records of his son’s life.

He is my great-great-great-grandfather.

He was born in Vittoriosa, Malta¹ in 1814 or 1815, son of Michele Darmenia and Lorenza Lia¹. I know how old he was when he died, but without a date of birth I am unsure whether he was born in 1814 or 1815.

Family

On 15 May 1836, he married Teresa Imbroll in the Basilica of Our Lady of Safe Haven and St Dominic in Valletta. At the time the church was still a new Basilica, having been elevated to that status in 1816.

I know they had at least one son:

• Emmanuele².
• Lawrence Carmel John Innocent Anthony Michael, born in 1843
• Vincent Carmel Michael Pascal John Xavier Lawrence, possibly born also in 1843

Notable events

He worked as a carpenter³ and then as a shopkeeper¹ in Valletta³.

It is interesting to see he changed profession. As a carpenter he would have not have struggled to find work which suggests his career change was not driven by market forces. He may have chosen a calmer life, or he may have suffered some injury which made him reconsider his life.

It is likely he moved to Valletta in 1830s around the time he got married, but I have no evidence of this. Early 19th century Malta was getting used to life without the Knights. While the British used the harbours, they had yet to equip the harbour with the dry docks so the amount of work in the harbour area was limited to sea-faring activities. Carpenters must have been plentiful and competition would have been fierce. This could explain why he chose to move to Valletta.

Death

He died at 04:00 on Thursday 07 February 1881¹ of apoplexy¹ at his residence at 210 Merchants Street, Valletta¹.

The authorities recorded his death the day after¹.

He’s buried at the Addolorata Cemetery in Marsa. His death certificate mistakenly lists this as ‘Addolroata’ cemetery¹.

Lineage

He is my great-great-great-grandfather.

1. Act of Death of Paolo Darmenia; 1881-02-07[↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩]
2. Act of Birth of Paolo Darmenia; 1885-11-12[↩]
3. Act of Marriage of Emmanuele Darmenia and Rosina Grech; 1880-06-24[↩][↩]