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 6:40 p.m. Wed, February 23, 2000 at Bank One in Round
Rock. Eighteen members and guests attended. Lin introduced guest John and
Jean MAROSTICA. Maps to Pat Oxley’s house, site of Saturday’s garage sale,
were passed around. This sale is the 3rd one to raise money for the POINT
2000 Conference. Pat reminded everyone to register for the conference.
Laurie
GUGINO Riester (# 3878) was unable to attend, but sent word that the Valledolmo, Sicily
web site is a goldmine for making connections. The site address is:
Marilyn MANISCALCO Henley (#1653) reported that
the Texas State Prison records are now housed at the Texas State Archives. She
found records for a couple of Italian uncles who lived in Houston. The
description of one of them said that he had maroon eye color. Lory Troiani
said that the Italian word for brown is marrone! Marilyn announced that the
Italian Federation in Houston reported that they are putting together a book of
history & photos of Italian families in Houston.
Marilyn brought a copy of a free bi-monthly genealogy newspaper, Louisiana
Roots for those interested. They can send their name and address to Louisiana
Roots Subscription Dept, P. O. Box 383, Marksville, LA 71351 to be put on
the mailing list. She also announced that Rev Donald Hebert died Feb 22
in Mire LA. Father Hebert was responsible for the publishing of thousands of
Acadian records in South Louisiana as well as writing several other
genealogically related books. Marilyn thanked fellow PIP members Pat Oxley,
Don Villoni, and Zina and Henry Graalfs for attending the meeting and
joining the Austin Genealogical Society, of which she serves as President this
year.
Bill Brinkman announced that he is writing a book on his family history
that dates back to the 1500’s. He suggested that we all begin writing a book
about our families and that will help us to see what information we still need.
Joe
MASTRANGELO (# 2614) is continuing to extract the MASTRANGELO and PUGLIESE marriages and births from Putignano Italy from the FHC microfilm. Marie
Mastrangelo reported that she has Texas roots. She discovered that her great
great grandfather married into the Tergersen family who settled in
Bosque Co, TX.
Augie
TROIANI reported
that an Austin friend, Frank Santa Maria, recently hired a man in Sicily
to do some research work for him, and that Frank was very pleased and wanted to
pass his name to our POINT group. The researcher is EMILIO TERRAZZINO
at www.mediatel.it/public/emilio/
and his e-mail address is: Emilio@mediatel.it
Emilio was timely in reporting his
results, fair in pricing and communicated very well in English.
Dorothy
MANGO Lippincott is traveling to Connecticut in July and will visit with her
cousin, Frankie Lombardy. They haven’t seen each other in 70 years.
Jeanie MARSALIA received
a copy of the Declaration of Intention to Naturalize for her grandfather, Giuseppe Marsaglia from the National Archives in Ft Worth
(note: her request was coincidentally answered by Cindy Smolovik – POINT 2000 Speaker). He applied in Jan 1906 in
Indian Territory (Oklahoma).
Jeanie’s also corresponding with someone else researching the same MARSAGLIA/MARSALIA name.
Don VILLONI (#3985) announced that he is finally on the
internet! He is corresponding by e-mail with his cousin’s nephew in who lives
in Torino. Don searched on the name VILLONI
in various counties and found six in France. He is currently searching
Family Tree Maker CD’s for family names.
Virginia MACRI Gerick
(#2730) reported that, in a special sampling of the federal
1990 Census, 313,746 Italians reside in Texas; Travis County has 13,535; Austin
10,539; Houston 34,907 and San Antonio 16,266. Virginia read about a traveling
exhibit by Ellis Island; she is going to see if the exhibit is still available.
Virginia and Jim searched for a death certificate of her grandmother, Maria
Fillipangela DiLella/ DeElia
from Cerreto Sannito, Benevento
when they were visiting in New Haven, CT and couldn’t find it. A cousin, who
has been doing genealogy research, sent her a copy of a newspaper article he
had located about telling about Virginia’s grandmother’s death, which occurred
after an accident involving burning coals.
Zina VERSAGGI Graalfs (# 3336) has not located any Versaggi
names in microfilmed records from Siracusa, Sicily. She’s received
new film from Brucoli, Sicily.
John and Jean MAROSTICA are beginning his Italian research. His
grandfather MAROSTICA was born in 1882 in Italy and his grandmother Maria
RENALDO was from Vincenza Italy; they settled in Sterling Colorado.
Louis SCOPEL received a copy of the Declaration of Intention and
Petition for Naturalization for his grandfather Luigi BIONDINI. He
arrived on the s/s Caronia November 10, 1912 at NY. He now has
conflicting information about the birth places of his grandfather and his
mother. The Naturalization Petition has it as Selva, Italy; the
Declaration of Intention shows Lesignano as the birthplace, which is
what other documents show. However, he has certified documents giving his
mother’s birthplace as Terenzo and a letter giving his great uncle’s
death in Bocchetto. All of these communes appear to be within several
miles of each other.
Louis has filed final documents with the Texas State Historical
Society and Erath and Palo Pinto Counties that will officially declare the Thurber
Cemetery a State Historical Cemetery, the first cemetery to be so
designated in those counties. Also, an announcement was made that Tarleton
University will fund, build and maintain a Thurber Historical Center to house
the accumulation of historical items. Italian immigrants from the late 1800’s
and early 1900’s found heir way to Thurber coalmines and brick plants for work.
Louis is having his grandparents and his mother’s names inscribed on the Ellis
Island Wall of Honor.
Sheila BAYHA Dugosh has looked at films for San Mango d’Aquila without success. She has received email regarding the PIRANO name.
Pat
OXLEY (# 3713) has purchased a brick on the Ellis Island Wall of Honor for her
grandfather, Giovanni Battista BUFFO.
Our
next PIP meeting is Wednesday, March 22 at 6:30 pm at Bank One. The next
POINT 2000 Conference meeting is Sat, March 25 at 1:00 at Lin and Bill’s
house.
Our web site is: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/3752/index.html