POINTers IN PERSON Minutes
Chapter # 10 Central Texas/Austin
Submitted by: Lin ONOFRIO Brinkman (#1388)
Lin ONOFRIO Brinkman (#1388) opened the meeting on 23 February with 9
present.
Lin pointed out that the Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps of Texas and
Mexico from the late 19th and early 20th centuries are now online at
www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/sanborn/texas.html.
More than 10,000 maps of cities and towns have been scanned.
She repeated that Joyce Wans will be guest speaker at the 23 March
meeting, and will speak on, "What My Great-great Grandfather Taught
Me".
Lin had been in touch with Laura Sabatino Parisi from Wallingford, CT,
who used to visit POINT #10 when she was in Austin for work. Laura has
found 4000 names, and has a printout 50 feet long, which she had spread
out on a basketball court ! She had helped at an Italian festival in
CT, and had made homemade pasta and spread it out on a doll bed. Many
people who passed by commented on how they remembered their
grandmothers making pasta in this way.
Jeanie MARSALIA (#4251) passed around three Christmas cards she received from Rosa BIANCO, Margherita MARSAGLIA CAGNOLA, and Nicola Marsaglia. Jeanie's son, Shane Mahon and wife Catherine moved to Amsterdam, Holland, and sent Jeanie a postcard with a picture of the Anne Frank House, which is now a museum.
Sherry PACELLI Haddox (#4883) brought 22 pictures which her cousin, Todd Capron (Caproni), sent of his mother, Sally (Serafina) PACELLI CAPRON, when she was the queen of the St. Bartolomeo Festival and play in the Bronx, New York. Sherry's great-uncle, Matteo Domenico GILATTA, was the king of the festival. The pictures were taken in the late 1940s and early 1950s. They were the King and Queen for a four-year period. This play started in Greci, Italy, and the people who immigrated from Greci to the Bronx, New York, Canton, Ohio, Lodi, New Jersey, and Waukesh, Wisconsin started recreating it every year at the same time. The festival and play still occur every year in late August in Greci.
Cathy VITALE received information on her grandfather, Angela TACCHINO, 18. She received his WW I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918; from Omaha, Nebraska, born Nov. 1894. He was born in Carlentini, Siracusa, Italy. He left his mother, Cesarea VITALE, and joined his uncle Sebastiano GULIZIA in Omaha.
Betty TOMMASELLI Glaser (#5297 ) found that her great-grandfather, Nicola TOMMASELLI, arrived from Naples, Campagna, Italy on 12 February 1892 at age 44. His sons, Gennaro, 22, and Guiseppe, 16, arrived from Naples on 7 July 1901, going to their father in New Haven, CT.
The next meeting is March 23, 2011 at the home of Bill and Lin ONOFRIO Brinkman.