POINTers IN PERSON Minutes
Chapter # 10 Central Texas/Austin
Submitted by: Zina VERSAGGI Graalfs # 3336
On Sunday, April 22, 2001 twenty-one members and two guests assembled at the Round Rock Library for
a pot-luck luncheon. As always, the entrees and desserts were delicious. Thanks to all of our great Italian
cooks!
Lin ONOFRIO Brinkman # 1388 introduced our guests: Maria Campagnia Anderson from Cameron, Texas
and Joan Porcaro from Austin.
Lin announced: The pot-luck luncheon scheduled for Saturday, October 20th is being moved to Sunday,
October 21 at 1:30 pm. The Italian Cultural Association of Austin is hosting a Columbus Day Street Festival
on Saturday, October 20th. It will be open to the public and will run from Noon until 8:00 p.m. The festival
will be held in Fiesta Gardens,Austin, and will be a family- type festival featuring Italian culture and food.
Lin also mentioned that she had received an e-mail request from a student at the University of Texas needing
an Italian-speaking male to read excerpts of an essay for an electronic music project. If anyone is interested
in following up on this request, please contact Lin.
Laurie GUGINO Reister # 3878 subscribes to an Italian magazine called ITALY, ITALY, and the current
issue featured the gardens at the Palace in Caserta where Lin and her family spent New Years Eve 2000. A
subscription rate is $30/yr. for 6 issues.
Lin also circulated a picture of Dorotea MANGO ONOFRIO Lippincott (Lin's mother) taken with a cousin several decades ago in Orange, Connecticut. The cousin today is 82 years of age.
Shiela BAYHA Dugosh # 4365 received a copy of a newspaper clipping that appeared in the Scranton, PA paper announcing the marriage of her Mother's half-sister. The Aunt was living here in the US, returned to Italy, married there and then returned to Scranton. She also found copies of the prayer cards used at her grandfather's funeral listing family names.
Jeannie MARSALIA # 4251 announced that with much perseverance, she had succeeded in getting into the
Ellis Island Immigration Records web site. It took her most of the day but she eventually got in. Through
the LDS microfilms she was able to obtain the birth records for her grandparents, Margherita MARCHETTO
(grandmother) and Giuseppe MARSAGLIA (grandfather). And from these two records she found the names
of her great-grandparents: Giovanni Marsaglia and Margarita BENEDETTO, and Domenico Catoiso
Marchetti and Domenica Marsaglia. Are Giovanni and
Domenica Marsaglia brother and sister or cousins? She doesn't know yet.
Maria CAMPAGNIA Anderson is researching the names of Campagnia, MARGAVIO, and
ANZELMO. Story has it that her grandfather was an orphan and Maria
was asking whether she would be able to find out more information on this child other than what she already
has. It was suggested that she write to the Stato di Civile in the town of his birth or contact the LDS Family
History Library for town films. She also mentioned that her grandmother (surname: Anzelmo) arrived in the
US in 1892 through the Port of New Orleans. Maria's family mostly came from the region of Montemaggiore
Belleto, Palermo, Sicily.
Laurie GUGINO Reister said that she had always felt a strong connection between Valledomo, Italy,
the hometown of her Sicilian ancestors, and Fredonia, New York, the town where they settled
after immigrating, but never had anything to confirm this connection. She found a mailing list of people from
Valledomo on e-mail and started communicating with this group. She then received a note from someone on
this site explaining the connection between the two cities. From an
interview with a 92-year-old: Valledomo is a very small community where everyone knew everyone and
when they left to come to the U.S., they made an agreement that they would always stay together in their
new location and remain as close as they were in Italy.
Laurie has also received the olive curing recipe from Joe GERACI who attended the POINT Conference and who brought his homegrown olives and almonds to the conference. Laurie also told us about her cousin who is a movie star...Carla GUGINO who is starring in her most recent picture "Spy Kids". She is attempting to make contact with Carla and has sent her a letter and some pictures of Carla's grandparents. Laurie wasn't sure if she wrote to the correct Carla Guigino and Lin gave her the name of a contact at the Austin American- Statesman who might be able to find a good address for Carla.
Joan PORCARO is just beginning her research into the CASTIGLIONE name. Her family came from the
Calabria area, Cosensa and Rovito. Her mother's family comes from the Naples area. Joan is planning a trip
to Italy the end of September for three weeks and will be visiting both areas in search of family members.
Warren Luken received some information on the Irish side of his family. Found that Gaer married Peter
Martin which caused some trouble within the family because one family was Catholic, and one, Protestant.
Joyce TIANELLO Snodgrass shared two garage sale finds with the group. One was a book on the opera "The Marriage of Figaro" and the story of DePote who scored it, and the other was a book on the Patron Saint of Pharmacists. Her cousin sent her the name Armina GIANZANTO, the Mother of her paternal grandfather, Domenico Matteo TIANELLO.
Maria TONTI Schulze modeled a beautiful Italian denim vest made by her daughter. It was embroidered with
the Tower of Pisa, the Coliseum, the Italian flag, a Gondola , a Roman aquaduct, the Ponte Vecchio, and
beautifully done. If anyone is interested in having a vest made, please see Maria for details.
Next Meeting : 6:30 p.m., 23 May, 2001 at Round Rock Public Library.