Frederick Watson's Birth Certificate

I now had copies of Frederick Alexander Watson's death record, naturalization records, and census records starting in 1910.  I checked the 1901 Canadian census knowing that he immigrated from Vancouver just three years latter, but I couldn't find him.  I knew that if I was going to discover any more information about him, I needed to find his birth record.

I did a basic search on findmypast.com which has a large collection of British records.  I found two records for Frederick Alexander Watson's birth.  

http://search.findmypast.com/search/world-records?firstname=frederick%20alexander&firstname_variants=true&lastname=watson&keywordsplace=malta&yearofbirth=1874&yearofbirth_offset=2

Army Returned Births 1796-1880

Government Army Chaplains Birth Indices (1796 to 1880)

(note R.E. stands for Royal Engineers)

In order to find the information I really needed, I had to order a copy of the certificate from Malta.  I did a google search and found that I could order a birth certificate from the Malta Public Registry office.  

 https://secure2.gov.mt/certifikati/

I ordered a copy of the certificate using information I had found from a public tree on ancestry.com.  The tree listed his parents as David Watson and Helen Williams.  Attached to the tree, I found a copy of Frederick Alexander Watson's Maltese birth certificate.  Latter I contacted the tree owner (skgrabler) and asked about the certificate.  She told me that she had hired a researcher from ancestry.com to locate the birth certificate.

http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/17157783/person/1887581609

Original Birth Certificate 

 The birth certificate needed to be translated into English.  

Translated Birth Certificate

(translation is in parenthesizes)

• Notice how Frederick Alexander Watson's birth date is 22 October 1874, the same date he gave on his naturalization records (see last blog entry).   
• The birth location is Torre San Luciano, Zejtun, Malta.  I think this might be Fort San Luciano, Zejtun, Malta?
• Father is David Watson, he is 36 and is a Sergeant in the Royal Engineers.  David was born in Ireland and his father is James Watson, who is dead.
• Mother is Ellen (Williams) wife of said David Watson, she is 29 and does home care.  Ellen was born in the Province of Wales and her father is John Williams, who is dead.