Pons/ Bonz surname in Malta and Figliolante

[rachelselway]

Hi,
I am new to this board so please bear with me.
I have been researching my Maltese family for the past few years but am stuck on one of my direct lines which is Pons.
My great grandmother was Rosa Maria Pons and I have been able to go back 3 generations in Malta, although I cannot find the baptism of any of their children, only the marriages on the direct lines, back to William Pons or Bonz marriage to Maria Azzopardi on 12 Feb 1820 in Valletta.
The marriage record says William's residence was Valletta, but states his parents as a William Bonz and Antonia Figliolante, and of course I can find no record of a baptism for him.
His mother's name sounds Italian, and I was thinking Pons was either Spanish or French, I do not know. I know that my great grandfather Pons was in the military, I don't know if the military connection goes back this far.
Would anyone know how I would find perhaps a passenger or immigration/naturalization record and whether you think this family may be Italian?

Any help would be so appreciated, I can't figure out where they would have come from, but I know Pons is not Maltese as this family are the only Pons that I have found iN Malta.

All the best
Rachel Selway, nee Gatt

[gnadirection]

It is the best post I am about this. I get a lot of information. I'm reading I'm not easy to understand the other.

[coguepard]

Hey,

I don't really know how I ended up here but since your posted is recent I registered expressely to answer you.

I am going to give you probably the key to find something important. Pons is not neither Italian or Spanish. It is catalan, which is a language from the region of Catalonia which is part of Spain. Barcelona it is its capital.

Pons is a surname that comes from a town/village so-called Pons in Lleida province. It means Bridge in Catalan and probably you have some relatives which were sailors from Catalonia or people from the Alger/Algero, I don't know how to spell it correctly. Which traditionally was a Catalan colony and passed to Italians, I think they still have some inhabitants who speak Catalan there.

Hope is this helps you!

[coguepard]

By the way,

I do not think I will remember to connect here anymore. I do not know how I arrive here but I think you have enough information about where that surname comes from now.

Good luck!