Qrendi Ancestry & Historical Records:
The 1676 Plague Mortality Register

The 1676 Great Plague: Qrendi's Darkest Demographic Crisis

While Qrendi flourished as an independent parish throughout the 17th century, its resilience was pushed to the absolute limit during the devastating Great Bubonic Plague of 1675–1676. Introduced to the islands via a British fleet or Levant merchant shipping, the pestilence quickly breached the defensive walls of Valletta and radiated outward into the vulnerable, tightly-knit rural casali of the south. For Qrendi, the spring of 1676 was a period of unprecedented horror. The virus fractured entire family trees, forcing the village priests and health deputies to abandon normal church burials and establish emergency isolation trenches in remote fields.

The localized mortality register preserved below showcases the sheer velocity of the contagion as it ripped through the village core. A close analysis of the data reveals a heartbreaking pattern of multi-generational household destruction. Iconic Qrendi surnames such as Callus, Farrugia, Bugeja, and Cassar appear in rapid, consecutive succession. The toll taken on the village's youth was particularly severe; infants and young children under the age of ten make up a staggering portion of the casualties, signaling a complete collapse of domestic quarantine defenses during the peak months of April and May 1676.