POINTers IN PERSON Minutes
Chapter # 10 Central Texas/Austin
Submitted by: Sherry PACELLI Haddox (#4883)
Lin ONOFRIO Brinkman (#1388) opened the monthly meeting with 15 present, including two visitors. She shared a lovely book on Italian wines.
Bill and Lin are awaiting the birth of their first grandson in Washington, D.C..
Joe MASTRANGELO (#2614) is continuing to extract death records from 1809 on. He is currently viewing 1872 records. His current record count is at just over 1580 death records extracted and recorded in the access data base. The data recorded in the birth and marriage data bases are becoming useful in clarifying information observed in the death records.
Jeanie MARSALIA (#4251) received an e-mail from Mildred M. Pearson from Monona, Wisconsin who is doing research on her mother's family, the Dominic Benedetto family of Coal City, Illinois. In checking the baptism records from the Assumption church in Coal City, Illinois she discovered the names of Marsaglia and Marchetto which are Jeanie's family names. Jeanie e-mailed her information to see if there could be a possible connection with any of the three names. Jeanie received copies of old family photos from her cousin, Karen MARCHETTI McAdams, from Edwardsville, Illinois. She had identified most of the people but Jeanie helped verify and corrected a few names.
Scott Patrick (#4819) found a record in the U.S. Passport section on Ancestry.com. The record, from 1919, was for Scott's great-uncle Gaetano MOTTA who was applying for a passport to return to Laurenzano, Italy because his wife, who had remained in Italy, was very ill. This record gave conclusive proof that the Gaetano Motta, who lived in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, was the brother of Scott's great-grandfather Giuseppe Motta. Scott also found a newspaper article, through Google, that related the story of the murder of another great-uncle of Scott's, Vincenzo GARAGUSI. Vincenzo, who was a banker, was shot through the back as he went up the stairs of his home. The shooter, Lorenzo PRIORI, who had been playing cards with Vencenzo shortly before the shooting, was caught, tried, convicted and put to death in the electric chair. Scott found an additional article on the unsuccessful appeal of the conviction by PRIORI. Also through Google, Scott found references to the case in a book about Priori's lawyer, who went on to greater things. As an ending piece of the story, Scott was also able to find the record of the execution of Priori, which occurred on February 1, 1901 in Sing Sing prison.
A visitor, Cathy VITALE, wants to obtain her dual citizenship. She told our group the following information. Her grandfather's name was Angelo VITALE. He also went by Angelo TACCHINO which is the name on his naturalization papers as well as the Ellis Island site. He arrived at Ellis Island on June 30, 1913 from Carlentini, Sicily. He was naturalized on January 6, 1938. He died in Omaha, Nebraska on August 13, 1964. His mother, Cathy's great-grandmother, was Pesarco VITALE. Her maiden name is unknown. Cathy's grandmother was Lucia MONACO. She was born in Carlentini, Sicily and arrived at Ellis Island on October 24, 1913. She was naturalized on March 4, 1940. Lucia's mother (Cathy's great-grandmother) was Angela INZOLERA and her father (Cathy's great-grandfather) was Gaetano MONACO. Cathy's father, Thomas VITALE, was born on January 13, 1924 in Omaha, Nebraska. He died on October 26, 1995. Based on the above information Cathy qualifies for dual citizenship and will contact the Houston Italian Consulate.
Sherry PACELLI Haddox (#4883) reported that she was contacted by Stephanie MADERAZZO Haldiman, a cousin she didn't know existed that found her on the Comunes of Italy site. This cousin is Sherry's great-uncle, Antimo Pacelli's, great-granddaughter. He died in the Bronx, New York in 1942 and after his death his wife and children moved to Phoenix, Arizona because his son had tuberculosis. They lost contact with the rest of Sherry's family so it was a nice surprise to find out about this long lost branch of the family. She's looking forward to meeting all of them.
Carol MAINA Roam (#4623) went with Sherry to the LDS Family History Center to look at film from S. Salvatore Telesino, Benevento. With Carol's knowledge of research she was able to find many of Sherry's ancestors in her PACELLI and BIONDI line very quickly.
The names GRILLO, VOTTO and LAVORGNA are new names that Sherry has added to her list of ancestors.
Sherry also brought her birth certificate that she received from S. Salvatore Telesino when her dual citizenship was finalized.
The meeting adjourned at 8:30pm.
Our next meeting will be on Wednesday, March 26th at 6:30pm at Merrill Gardens, 8005 Cornerwood Drive in Round Rock.