José Catasús Ferret (1825-1878)

José Catasús Ferret (or Josep in Catalan) was born in Sitges on 5th October 1825 and died in Sitges 9th December 1878. He was an industrialist and worked in many areas from importing wine, timber trade and oil importing and refining.

Together with his brothers he formed various companies: in Cuba they formed Catasús Bros (later Catasús i Casanovas), in Barcelona they formed Catasús and Co., Gas-Motor Catasús. (More on that in a later post.)

José married his cousin, Maria Bués Catasús. Maria was born in Sitges on 22nd July 1831 and died at Rambla de Cataluña 85, Barcelona at 10pm on 25th April 1906. They were married on the 8th June 1857 in Sitges.

My great grandmother, Dolores Catasús Bués, was their 5th child. Other children (that I currently know of) were Antonio Catasús Bués and Gertrudis Catasús Bués (known to my grandfather as 'Aunt Tula').

Sitges
In 2006 I was told that someone in my family had built the stairs to the church in Sitges. So I went to Sitges and looked at the stairs of La Punta (Sant Bartomeu i Santa Tecla). I found a plaque on the side of the stairs. This plaque refers to 'Pepe Catasús Ferret'.

I have been told since that this should read 'Pere'. And Pepe (=Jose) died in 1878, so he would not have been around to see the start of the stairs being built.

The stairs of La Punta were proposed in 1890 and completed 26th August 1900. More on this later, under Pere Catasús Ferret.

La Punta in Sitges

Emilio Texidor Torres

Emilio Joaquin José Texidor Torres was the 7th child of José Texidor Busquets and Concepcion Torres Nicolas.

He was born in Barcelona at 3:30am on 27th October 1857 and died at 11pm in calle Pomaret, torre, Bonanova, Barcelona on 22nd March 1909 at the young age of 52. He was baptised in the Cathedral.

Emilio was married to Dolores Carmen Marina Catasus Bues, the 5th child of José Catasus Ferret and Maria Bues Catasus (a family from Sitges). She was born at 11pm in Barcelona on 7th July 1869 and died at 149 calle Enrique Granados at 8pm on 9th October 1929. She was also baptised at the Cathedral. Emilio said (as reported by his son, Antonio) that they were engaged on 10th October 1890.  Emilio and Dolores were married in el Camarin de la Merced (Mercedes Chapel) on 27th May 1891 (recorded in the Parish of San Justo, Lonja District).

Emilio and Dolores are my great grandparents. Between 1892 and 1903 they had 6 children and 4 miscarriages. Emilio died after a long and painful illness as did his younger sister, Pepita, in 1914.

Dolores is "La Viuda" of the shop, "La Vda de E. Texidor", to which the shop, Casa Texidor was renamed after Emilio's death (and later moved to Ronda Sant Pere, 16 in Barcelona).

More to come on the shop, Emilio's children and Dolores' parents.