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 on August 21, 2001 at the Round Rock Library with 19 members attending. Lin reported that the July 21st Saturday Pot Luck luncheon meeting drew 20 members and 5 guests. Guests Jason and Laura Tabor Huerta are working on the Sicilian surnames D''AQUANNO from Trapani and VINCI from S''Antagata, who all settled in Cleveland Ohio. No minutes are available for the July meeting.
Lin passed around an article from the ""Austin American Statesman"" about a local man, Paul Parma, who applied for a City permit to offer gondola rides on Town Lake and Lake Austin. His gondola, named ""Venetian Passage"", was shipped from Venice, where he was trained to operate gondolas. (A side note - the city approved his permit.)
Lin read a thank you letter from the Texas State Library for our donation of the remaining volumes of ""Italians to America"". Virginia Macri Gerick (#2730) passed around copies of our club''s library listings. Members can contact Virginia prior to any meeting to ask her to bring particular books or videos to the meeting.
Lin announced that the October pot luck club meeting has been reinstated to it's original date of Saturday, Oct 20 at 1:30 at the Round Rock Library. The Italian Cultural Association of Austin (ICA) moved their Festa, to be held at the Fiesta Gardens, to Sunday, Oct 21.
Pat OXLEY (# 3713) reported that she worked at the Austin Genealogical Society seminar, held Sat, August 18, and that she will be Chair for the 2002 AGS seminar.
Ursula PASSAFUMA Rader has 162 names in her database. She is trying to learn the Italian version of a name in her children''s family Bible. The name is JOSEPH SEVEN HOUSE. He is said to be from Cianciana, Agrigento.
Dorothy MANGO Lippincott said that she is going to visit her hometown of Orange, Connecticut in September. Virginia Macri Gerick and Dorothy attended the same high school in New Haven, at different times, but did not know each other in New Haven.
Joe and Marie MASTRANGELO (# 2614) entertained new Austin residents, Valter and Kristen Mastrangelo. Joe and POINTer Jim Amatulli (#3982) are still trying to find a Mastrangelo, connection with each other. Joe has also received an e-mail regarding a common CUSULLI name.
Ernie and Gloria GAMBACCINI SILVA announced that they leave in two months for Italy. They are trying to determine the best way to get from Venice to their ancestral towns of Mondavio and Mondolfo, outside of Fano.
Augie TROIANI found his father''s ship record, from his first visit here in 1920, on the Ellis Island site. His father returned to Italy and married in 1930 and retuned to the U.S. several years later However, Augie and his mother and sister were not allowed to enter until after WWII, in 1946. They arrived on a Liberty ship, which was full of G.I''s and war brides.
Virginia Gerick announced that she visited her microfilm at the FHC Library. She may have found her grandfather''s brother. A cousin sent her an original photo of her paternal grandfather. Jim Gerick is corresponding about the Gerick name and they are swapping information that neither of them previously had.
Jamie CANNONE signed up on a Northern Italy e-mail list (free): www.groups.yahoo.com/group/ItalyNW , which covers the regions of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Liguria, Lombardia, Piemonte, Trentino-Alto Adige, Valle d'Aosta, and Veneto as well as the bordering areas of France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Emilia-Romagna and Toscana. This group offers a mailing list and message archive, a surname database, directory of related web sites, images of sample genealogical records and fun polls for its members. Jamie''s new email address is: cannone@texas.net.
Sheila BAYHA Dugosh (#4365) traveled to Virginia to visit with her mother
and her aunt and uncle, Josephine & Tony COURMACHI, from Scranton.
They found Sheila''s Piraino great grandfather and her mother''s Leone
grandfather
on the Ellis Island site. Shelia''s cousin Mary Claire from Florida
wrote a poem about their grandfather. Sheila showed photos of her father
and her brother''s cemetery headstones at the Arlington National Cemetery.
Bill Brinkman received abstracts from San Lorenzello for Lin''s paternal
side. Her new surnames are RUBINO from San Lorenzello/Benevento/Campangnia
and BRETTONE from Naples/Napoli/Campagnia. Lin will be sending those new
surnames into POINT before the November 1 deadline and urged all POINT
members to send in their new surnames and renew their memberships and to
join POINT, if they are not members.
Bill announced that he is retiring at the end of the week and is being listed on the Professional Researchers List that is handed out at the Texas State Library. His new motto is, ""will do genealogy for food"".
Jeanie MARSALIA (#4251) started family scrapbooks with the surnames imprinted on the covers. She is waiting for microfilm to come in and needs to find a marriage record to go with marriage banns she located. Her family reunion is set for Sept 29.
Zina VERSAGGI Graalfs (# 3336) Zina received an email from a Versaggi in Argentina asking for more family information. They are related through her great great grandfather.
Marilyn Maniscalco Henley (# 1653) showed off photos of her granddaughter who turns 2 on Sept 2 as well as photos from her mother''s 75th birthday party. Her daughter and son-in-law moved from Galveston to Houston where her daughter is the archivist at the Library at University of Houston -- Clear Lake. The Houston Italian Federation Festa is set for Sept 14, 15, & 16. She announced that the annual seminar for the Austin Genealogical Society seminar was a great success and that several PIP members attended. Pat Oxley and Zina Graalfs helped on committees, bringing with them their excellent skills from the POINT Conference. Marilyn announced that their trip to Sicily has been postponed until next spring.
Next meeting is Wednesday, September 26 at the Round Rock Library 6:30 pm to 8:55 pm.