POINTers IN PERSON Minutes
Chapter # 10 Central Texas/Austin
Marilyn MANISCALCO Henley (# 1653)
Lin ONOFRIO Brinkman (# 1388) opened the monthly POINTers In Person meeting at 6:30 pm Wed, April 23, 2003 with 17 members attending, including, beautiful, 3 month old, Brianna Madeline CANNONE. Member Maria TONTI Schulze donated five tapes of Italian music as door prizes for the meeting.
There were several announcements about grandchildren. Don VILLONI (#3985) has a new great grandson, # 6, River Seth Minor, born February 10, 2003; Ernie and Gloria GAMBACCINI Silva welcomed their third grandson, Benjamin Walker Silva, 6 lbs 12 oz, born April 16, 2003; Warren and Eugenia ASSIABENE Luken's granddaughter, Stefanie Kinsler is being married on Saturday, in Houston, and Marilyn Maniscalco Henley announced that daughter Lisa Jones is expecting her second child in December.
Jamie CANNONE updated his Reunion program, compliments of grandma. He passed around an article about Phillip Piccigallo, National Executive Director of the Sons of Italy, published in the current University of Delaware Alumni newsletter. Jamie located several collateral family members in Cambria and Westmoreland Counties, PA in the 1910 –1930 census.
Gloria GAMBACCINI Silva showed a December 7, 1989 Austin American Statesman newspaper photo of Lin Brinkman, who was a finalist in a holiday dinner contest. Gloria shared xerox copies of a 1942 RICCI family wedding in Mondolfo, Italy. Ernie Silva said that they recently attended a fund raiser in Dallas organized by an Italian group there.
Scott Patrick (# 4819) has unsuccessfully searched passenger lists from 1879-1882. The dates are from immigration dates given on various census records. Joe Mastrangelo suggested that he try using the Steve Morse one step site www.stevemorse.org/ to search the Ellis Island online records. Scott has a photo that was taken at a studio in Pittsfield, MA. He has an 1887 NYC marriage record for his great grandparents, Joseph MOTTO and Johanna GARAUSA and his grandmother’s 1896 birth certificate. He is interested in finding his great grandfather’s World War I Selective Service record. He is trying to find out the Italian equivalent for the name Dan.
Don VILLONI (#3985) donated his back copies of PRIMO Magazine to the Round Rock Library. After hearing speaker Curt Witcher, head genealogy librarian at the Allen County Indiana Public Library, at the Williamson County seminar, Don encouraged members to use PERSI (Periodical Source Index) to search for genealogy articles that might add to their family research. (Information about PERSI) www.acpl.lib.in.us/genealogy/persi Don announced that the travel agency cancelled their upcoming trip to London and Paris. He and other family members were going to celebrate his 75th birthday in Paris.
Ursula PASSAFUMA Rader (#4467) found some of her relatives’ names submitted on the LDS web site. She discovered a book about one of her families in the Round Rock Library, and the author sent her copies of photos. She also received some new information from another cousin. Ursula passed around a Houston newspaper column by Mic Barnette about Italian migrations to Louisiana and a book called, “Italian Stories” by Joseph Papaleo, celebrating an Italian neighborhood in the Bronx during the 1930s and '40s.
Warren and Eugenia ASSIABENE Luken are heading to Houston this weekend to attend their granddaughter’s wedding. Warren thanked everyone for their cards and prayers during his illness.
Joe MASTRANGELO (#2614) passed around an online article The St. Joseph’s Table with beautiful photos and stories submitted by readers. http://www.initaly.com/regions/sicily/joetabl.htm He also had a copy of the American Italian Heritage Digest http://www.aiha-albany.org/ and a copy of the Comunes of Italy Magazine, http://members.aol.com/dinonni/coi.htm , In addition to POINT, he also enjoys these publications.
Joe received a copy of a 1910 passenger list of the ship Luguria with his PIZZALATO and SALVAGGIO families who were headed to Independence, LA. He had good results from his letter he wrote to the mayor of Bari, stating that he had not received a response to his letter written to the Stato Civile, and that possibly the letter might have gotten lost in the mail since he knows he is to receive a reply within 30 days. He received extracts of death records of his great grandmother and aunt.
Carol MAINA Roam (# 4623) wrote for World War II military records and is organizing her genealogy files.
Joyce TIANNELLO Snodgrass emailed from her father’s home in Ohio that her father gave her his copy of “Italians In Texas”.
Marilyn MANISCALCO Henley (# 1653) announced that she has a new cousin on her father’s mother’s maternal line. Frankie CULMONE of Baton Rouge, found her from the Culmone surname listed on our PIP page. Her grandmother had many cousins in Baton Rouge that none of us knew existed. They are sharing photos and lots of family information. She also received a postcard from the AUGELLO family in Poggioreale, Sicily.
Marilyn bought an English version of a video of the town ALIA and loves that she can understand the story of the town. Giovanni Montanti now has English translations of several of his videos of Sicilian towns http://www.sicilyvideo.it She also purchased “Brazos Valley Italians” the complete interviews used in the book “The Italians of Steele’s Store, Texas” and the CD, Birds of Passage (an index of Italian passengers to Louisiana). All three were published by Rosemary DePasquale Boykin. Marilyn donated a copy of “The Italian Experience in Texas: A Closer Look”, by Valentine J. Befiglio to the Round Rock Library.
Lin ONOFRIO Brinkman (# 1388) had an April 22 Austin newspaper obituary of Mike PORFIRIO, born to Vance and Anna SCONCI PORFIRIO in case any of our members had those names in their lines. She announced that the Austin Italian Cultural Association held its first St. Joseph’s Day Table at Reale’ s Restaurant and that the table was covered with beautiful flowers and decorative breads and cookies.
Our next meeting is Wednesday, May 21. Our schedule and past minutes are on
our web site:
http://www.main.org/pip10/