Emmanuel Meli and his family business : a transition from cart to motor

Abstract

Originally, I had other ideas on what to base my dissertation. However, after little deliberation with my tutor – with whom I share the same level of passion for family history – I felt that something within me was pushing me to take this worthwhile journey in rediscovering the distinguished history of my family name. Despite the fact that there are many biographies of famous Maltese individuals available for everyone to read, there are not many biographies or personal histories about people who started off with nothing but their family's support until they managed to prevail. It may be that his full name is not well known throughout the island, even though in Qormi it is, at least with the older generations, but once one puts the words 'MELI’ and 'QORMI' together, or even 'MELI' and 'KAROZZI' (cars), most people identify what is being discussed. I thought that since my grandfather's business will be turning forty this year it would be fitting to honour his memory by studying his life in detail. The journey of getting were I am today was not easy, especially since he did not keep any diaries or left some sort of memoirs. I hope that in the future I will have more time to expand on what I have found up to now. I hope that this study will aid others, who are like myself, interested in family history.