DIARY DATES
This month, Gill Shaw is turning her attention to trade directories, news reports... and random internet hits. Let’s see how she gets on...
Essential family history dates
Twiglets
With some earlier ancestors – especially pre-census and civil registration – you count yourself lucky to find their name and the odd baptism or burial. But when they’re tradespeople, there’s a decent chance you’ll unearth something more, like a directory listing or a mention in the local paper.
So that’s my plan of action for today – trade directories, news reports and random internet hits. Let’s see if my 3x great-grandfather Joseph Riboldi puts in an appearance anywhere…
Now, Limerick archives has four directory listings for a Joseph Riboldi in the city between 1812 and 1840. But they only give his name, address and the nature of the business – looking glass maker, then carver and gilder – and I’m not totally sure whether they all relate to Joseph from Italy, or if the later ones are his son, Joseph junior. They can’t tell us any more, so let’s move on to some random Googling.
Now I’m quite partial to a bit of this – sometimes it works, sometimes not, but ooh, various combinations of ‘Riboldi Ireland Limerick history’ and so on turn up a couple of tasty titbits.
The first is a beautifully produced book of antique mirrors. Looking glasses! It’s by the fine antiques dealer Ronald Phillips and as I scroll from glossy page to glossy page I start to get very excited. These are incredibly ornate works of art, many from English stately homes, and must be worth a small fortune. Did Joseph make pieces of this quality? Seriously?
A mercury stick barometer made by Gill’s ancestor Joseph, signed ‘Riboldi Limerick’ on the face, sold by Flints auctions in 2019. Photographs of a similar barometer, with Gill’s ancestor’s
signature, can be seen at Limerick Museum: limerick.ie
Alas, probably not! The Riboldi mention comes under the description and photos of a George Ii-period mirror in Dromolond Castle, County Clare, and says simply ‘Mirror plate signed and dated on reverse J. S. Riboldi 1843’. The carved phoenix and griffin frame dates from 100 years earlier, so it looks like Joseph (and this has to be Joseph junior for reasons I’ll get to shortly…) perhaps just replaced a glass that was broken. But still a prestigious commission no doubt.
The second is more like it. Barometers! I know barometer making was a bit of a ‘thing’ for emigrants from Como and Milan and it seems Joseph was no exception.
The Webster Signature Database, said to be the definitive guide, and the Irish National Inventory of Historic Scientific Instruments list four Riboldi barometers that are still around.
Wow! Where are they now? What a treat it would be to have something made by your 3x great-grandfather hanging on the wall…
Well, one is in the Limerick Museum and there are pictures of it at limerick. ie. The curators date it 1800-1820, so it’s Joseph senior for sure, and there, engraved on the brass face is ‘Riboldi Limerick’. It might sound daft, but I feel strangely proud!
Back to the results, keep scrolling, and what’s this…? Nooo! Two recent auction listings (one only last November) for an ‘1810 Riboldi mercury stick barometer’.
I know barometer making was a bit of a ‘thing’ for emigrants from Como and Milan and it seems Joseph was no exception
It might even be the same instrument sold and resold, but the first time round it apparently went for £348. Gutted – I might have stretched to that, had I only known!
Brilliant; that was way more than I’d hoped for, so on to the British Newspaper Collection at Findmypast. A simple search on Joseph’s name returns several results in the Limerick papers, but disappointingly few are pre-1840.
In 1828 he appears in a list of those who gave money to St Michael’s, the Italianatelooking church where he and Catherine married and where all the little Riboldis were baptised. Then there’s a mention from 1833, where he’s among 50 or so benefactors who gave money towards the building of a new Catholic church in the nearby town of Bruff. Last of the big spenders Joseph gave a whole £1, though I dare say £1 would have bought more in 1833 than it would today.
In 1834 the Limerick Chronicle names him as one of the 12 good men and true sworn in as a juror at the Quarter Sessions, listening to the usual cases of theft, monies owed, and the odd assault. Put the three news items together and it suggests Joseph was likely a notable figure in the community.
And I imagine the family’s business at 122 George Street was just chugging along nicely as there are no other Riboldi mentions. Until, that is, we get to the Roscommon & Leitrim Gazette of 2 April 1836. And there it is. A single line in a short column of death notices.
‘Mr Joseph Riboldi of Limerick, carver and gilder, a respectable, honest man.’
For some reason this really touches me. After all, what better epitaph could you ask for than to be thought respectable and honest? It reminds me of his friend Charles Bianconi’s description of the young Joseph, before the boys left Italy, as a ‘fair, steady lad’ and his father ‘an honest flax dealer’.
A similar notice appears in the Limerick Chronicle of 30 March, and I think the fact that Joseph’s death is announced in the papers at all is quite significant; people would have known him. The others listed include a naval commander, a Methodist minister, ‘a highly accomplished lady’ and ‘Michael M’evoy of Maryborough in his 108th year’. (Ha, 107! I’ll have whatever Michael’s been having!).
But if Joseph died in March 1836 that’s earlier than I thought. I knew it was coming up as there’s an Irish Wills Index listing I’ve seen at Findmypast, but that’s dated 1840, so I’d assumed that was when he died. There are no Limerick parish burials online – only baptisms and marriages – and Irish civil registration doesn’t start until 1858, so if it wasn’t for these newspapers, I’d have been stuck.
The announcements don’t give Joseph’s age, but if he was born c1782-86 (Bianconi, baptised in 1787, said Joseph was a year or two older than him), then he was probably in his early fifties.
What I do know for sure is that my 3x great-grandmother Catherine was widowed at 41 and potentially left with eight mouths to feed, though I’ve no idea if all eight of the Riboldi children survived infancy. If they did, then the eldest, Rose Maria, would be coming up to 16; the youngest, Francis, just about to turn three. Joseph junior, probably already apprenticed to his father in the shop, was 14, and my ancestor John Antonio a year younger. Looking at it like that puts it all into context.
But what an amazing man was Joseph Riboldi, carver, gilder, barometer and looking glass maker, eh? To leave behind his homeland in Italy, travel to Ireland and learn a whole new language, then marry, raise a family and set up a successful business on the best street in town. I’m chuffed to bits to have found out so much about him.
About the author
Gill Shaw is a writer and former assistant editor of ‘Practical Family History’. She lives in Cambridgeshire and loves singing, and tracking down elusive ancestors.
Let’s move on to some random Googling. Now I’m quite partial to a bit of this – sometimes it works, sometimes not