What we know of the history that made our family what it is today is fascinating, if mysterious in places! There’s more to be discovered and told, and this website can act as our forum for new investigations. If anyone feels driven to find out more, please share the information with the rest of us, via the feedback sheet on this site.
The names and places that crop up in our family tree (family forest?!) are from many countries and cultures; French, Italian, Greek and Arabic names all feature (even in the same family of siblings!) as does Canada, Mexico, South Africa, Britain and Australia along with many Mediterranean and Middle Eastern countries.
As for the Ruggiers themselves, Malta is the centre of our history. With certainty, we know we’ve been on the island since Carmela Ruggier’s time, She died in 1814 and lies in the Ruggier grave. She was probably the mother of Antonio Ruggier, whose 1840 photo we have on this site. Note the family likeness through Grandfather William to Paul and Michael!
The family may well stretch back to the 11th century in Malta though. During the 11th and 12th centuries, the island was ping-ponged between Christian and Arab rule. The Normans, then a major European power, as we Britons can testify, would have backed the native Christians.
We know that in 1097, the mysterious Conte Ruggier the Norman came to the island as one of these Christian defenders. Ruggier is apparently an ancient Norman name. The link between we modern Ruggiers and the common Italian Ruggieri, Ruggiero and Ruggiere, simply meaning ‘Rogers’, or son of Roger, is more immediately obvious, but the two are not incompatible despite there being no double ‘g’ in modern French. Many of these Normans would have settled later in parts of Italy. Added to this, there were certainly French as well as Italians among the Knights of St John who were in Malta for so long. There was also a period of French occupation in Malta at the end of the 18th century.
We have been a travelling and a seafaring bunch.
See this link to an article and photo of Guze Ruggier, born in Cospicua, Malta in 1830. He made headlines, as he was a seaman shipwrecked on the Royal Charter in 1859. He apparently played a heroic part in saving lives. The shipwreck is also mentioned in Charles Dickens’ "The Uncommercial Traveller" (Chapter II)
We also have newspaper records of a November 1900 shipwreck off Sicily. The captain of this Maltese ship was our ancestor Adolfo Ruggiere.
Grandmother Helene’s Ansara line is as vast and perhaps even more complex than William’s Ruggier ancestry. We’ve traced Costandi Ansara back to 1600 when he left Jerusalem to trade with the Bedouins on the east coast of the Gulf of Suez, in El Tor.
www.ansarafamily.com is under development – please help!
We’re still getting bigger and settling all over the world. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to trace our heritage from 1097 right through to today? Let’s work on it!
About | Family Tree | History | Contact Us | Photo Galleries | Forums