Qrendi Ancestry & Historical Records:
The 1837 Cholera Outbreak Registry

The 1837 Asiatic Cholera Epidemic in Casale Qrendi

In the hot summer months of 1837, the Maltese islands faced a catastrophic outbreak of Asiatic Cholera. Unlike the historic bubonic plagues of 1676 and 1813, which were spread by infected rat fleas, cholera was a water-borne bacterium that tore aggressively through the population via contaminated community cisterns, wells, and communal washing spaces. The virus hit the southern village of Qrendi with severe speed, transforming the peaceful agricultural locality into a tightly monitored quarantine zone under the watch of British sanitary inspectors.

The primary source death register preserved below offers an invaluable window for genealogists and social historians. To prevent the lethal contamination of local aquifers, the medical committee enforced an absolute ban on traditional church basement or interior crypt burials. This public health mandate fundamentally altered how village logistics handled deaths. Because Qrendi lacked its own massive extramural burial ground at the time, authorities systematically routed casualties outward to regional sanitary outposts. The records track burials sent to the dedicated San Luqa cemetery in neighboring Żurrieq, the extramural trenches of Cimiterju Valletta, and the new suburban contagion plots at Blata l-Bajda (Civitatis).

Interactive Qrendi 1837-1838 Cholera Mortality Logs

Click any column header—Date of Burial, First Name, Surname, Age, or Cemetery—to dynamically organize, sort, and filter the dataset below.