Andrea Guarneri, like Andrea Amati, was the pioneer of the family: but for his influence we might never have had the extraordinary works of his nephew, Giuseppe. How full of interest would the smallest events of Andrea's workshop life prove if we could only ascertain them! We know that in early years he was working in the shop of Niccolo Amati. With what delight would any record, or even anecdote, of those golden days in the history of the Violin be received by the lovers of the instrument! The bare idea that these men were living in daily close converse is sufficient to awaken interest of a lively nature in the mind of a lover of Fiddles. Unhappily, however, no Boswell was at hand to dot down events, of small value when passing, but of great consequence to after-time. The want of that direct biographical information which is handed down to us from recorded personal knowledge leads to the opening of many a mouldy, worm-eaten, and half-forgotten parish register, wherein we read, in language stiff and statutory, accounts of departed parishioners having duly performed and executed divers acts and deeds. These entries often shed much unexpected light on subjects previously dark or obscured. The pages of the Cremonese parish register, to which allusion has been made in the notices of the members of the Amati family, have served this purpose in some measure. From the same source we have a few interesting facts concerning Andrea Guarneri. It appears that Niccolo Amati entered, in the year 1641, the age of his pupil Andrea Guarneri in the parish rate-book as being fifteen years, thus supplying the hitherto unknown date of his birth. Again we learn that Andrea Guarneri does not appear to have been with Niccolo Amati in 1646, but was so in the year 1653, the register showing that he was at that date married. There is no further reference to his connection with Niccolo Amati after the year 1653. Andrea was married, December 31, 1652, and had seven children. Two of his sons, namely Pietro Giovanni and Giuseppe Giovan Battista, became Violin-makers. Andrea died on December 7, 1698, and we learn from the register that he was buried on the following day near the remains of his wife, in the Church of St. Domenico, in the same chapel where the body of Antonio Stradivari was laid forty years later.