Surnames on Kunserva cans

Three Hills Brand Kunserva has been part of the Maltese kitchen since 1934, making it a household name for over 80 years. Today, it is still an iconic Maltese product, steeped in tradition and quality and very close to the heart of Maltese and Gozitans alike.

Over the past 10 years, Magro Brothers have endeavoured to give added value to their Three Hills Brand Kunserva cans by depicting traditional Maltese recipes using kunserva, included photos of the Maltese islands from the 1930s and provided information about popular feasts and their patron saints from various Maltese towns and villages.

This year, Three Hills Brand Kunserva – Fil-Qalb tal-Maltin cans will be featuring a set of 60 most common surnames of the Maltese islands. The exercise was by no means an easy task and included months of work and research.

Each can is adorned with information about the origins of the surname, when it was first documented in the Maltese islands and an explanation about its coats of arms.

This extensive research was carried out by Joe Borg, a genealogist with over 20 years’ experience in Maltese heraldry and Simon Mercieca, a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Arts, University of Malta, specializing in family name research and genealogy.

The descriptions on the cans were abridged and edited by Mgr Dr Joseph Bezzina, a well-known Maltese historian and national archivist, who made sure to show as much information as possible on the space available on the Kunserva cans.

The coats of arms images for the 60 surnames date back to the early 1800s. These were all hand-painted drawings found in the library of the Augustinian Friars in Rabat, Malta. Photography of the coats of arms was entrusted to Daniel Cilia, a renowned Maltese photographer, by kind permission of the friars.

This lovely gesture, portraying the discovery of our roots and heritage, has once again proved that Three Hills Brand Kunserva – Fil-Qalb tal-Maltin is truly a Maltese product for the Maltese.