Public Lecture on Ancestry
The search for information on one's ancestors is the result of one's own natural urge to discover one's real self. The discovery of names and stray pieces of information of our ancestors is a journey to infinity, and that infinity's limits are imposed by the relatively late introduction of noting baptisms, confirmations, marriages and deaths in ecclesiastical registers going back to the years after the Council of Trent which imposed that practice.
Stray notarial documents can provide further information prior to 1530. It requires the expertise of a patient, perseverant and keen-eyed Latinist and palaeographer who, for many hours on end, works in stuffed rooms to acquire some few pieces of information from various centres in his own country and abroad.
The result of such work by Prof. Horatio Caesar Roger Vella has been his own millennium project for the year 2000 and can now be viewed as the unique worldwide first genealogical ceiling in his own house at Kirkop.
Prof. Horatio C.R. Vella will now be delivering a lecture at his own house on what his research actually entailed and on the discipline of genealogical research itself. Attendees will also be invited to admire the genealogical ceiling for themselves.
The lecture will take place on 10 June starting at 19:30. Please note that anyone wishing to attend must reserve their place by email only at horatio.vella@um.edu.mt.