From: Alfred Lowell (alfred.v.fiorini-lowell@magnet.mt) Thu, 25 Apr 1996
Subject: Lowell ancestry


Hi Paul

I first came across your interesting home page a couple of 
months ago and was even more interested when I saw your 
site on the geneology of the Lowells.

My paternal grandmother was a Lowell and she and all the 
Lowells in this small Mediterranean island of Malta (and 
there are now quite a number of them) are descended from 
the American  Lowells.  So, if one goes back far enough I 
have no doubt that we are related.

The first Lowell to have settled in Malta is said to have 
come overin the early paart of the 19th Century, probably 
on the USS Constitution which at the time did a number of 
Mediterranean missions. He is said to have been a surgeon 
in the US Navy who came here at the time that an outbreak 
of the plague was raging in Malta and who stayed on to help 
fight it.  He subsequently met and fell in love with a 
Maltese girl, married her...... and that is how I myself 
happen to be a Maltese citizen.

Unfortunately I have never managed to pinpoint the exact 
date of the first Lowell's arrival in Malta and who his 
parents and brothers and sistes werel  The tradition is  
that he was a 'close' relative of James Russel Lowell, the 
poet,and that he must therefor have come over from Boston. 
However how close a relation he was to the poet, and 
whether he actually came from a Boston family I have never 
really managed to find out.

When I came across your geneology page two things struck 
me. One was that there were quite a number of first names 
which also exist in my family. For example my own late 
father's name was RICHARD, a name which appears in the 
earliest branches of your family.  My father(whose second 
name incidentally was RUSSEL) had cousins named CHARLES and 
JOSEPH. mY brother is named George and two of my cousins 
are FRANK and JOSEPH.

But then, going back some generation things become even 
more interesting.  My grandmother's father was 
CHARLES(again)JAMES LOWELL and his brothers included a 
GEORGE (again), a JOSEPH (again) and a SAMUEL who were 
themselves sons of another SAMUEL.

The second aspect of your family tree which aroused by 
curiosity was that my grandmother's birth certificate 
records her as having been born in 1876 of,as I said, 
Charles James who was 29 years old at the time and who was 
himself the son of Samuel.

I am quite sure that this SAMUEL was the first Lowell to 
settle in Malta and According to the above clues he must 
have been born before, say, 1820 and quite well before  
even going back to the last part of the 1700's.

There is also a tradition in my family thatSamuel did not 
return to he States because he was not  on good terms with 
his family and that he could even possibly have been 
disinheritedby the family.  Now on paage 5 of your 
geneology you have an ancestor, JOSEPH LOWELL (No 16), one 
of whose  sons was a SAMUEL.  Moreover the dates of his 
birth and death aare marked ?-?  . So the second question 
which started recurring in my mind was:  Could that SAMUEL 
have been the one to come over to Malta and, if so, could 
the question marks be an indication of the fact that he 
was, for some reason,  well and truly struck off all his 
family's records?

I still feel that the dates of 'your' Samuel and 'my' 
Samuel may be slightly too early to coincide.  However it 
is quite feasible that a man of his generation could have 
been on the USS Constitution which is known to have been in 
the Mediterranean on a number of occasions in the early 
1800's.  Could he HAVE been the Samuel in your geneology?

In any case it was an intrigueing thought and that is why I 
decided to contact you.  I do not know how interested you 
would be in this 'tale'.  However should yoube, please let 
me know.

Regaards to you and to all your clan.

Alfred F. Lowell

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