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, Jan 22, 2003 at the Brinkman home after 15 members and one guest helped themselves to Lin’s homemade Minestrone Soup and Italian Breads. Lin displayed a red, green and white Italian costume dress donated to the PIP group from member Eugenia ASSIABENE Luken that was made over 50 years ago for a New Jersey Italian Church Festival.
Lin announced the Italian Club of Austin’s annual Children’s Festival is set
for Saturday, March 1 from 6 - 10 PM at the Lakeway Activity Center;
registration by Feb 15. For more information,
Jim and Virginia MACRI Gerick (#2730) alerted us that Lifetime Learning begins an 8 week Conversational Italian Class on Feb 3 from 1:30 – 3:30 pm. Call 512-486-1139 or 512-486-1232 to sign up or for more information. Lifetime Learning is open to those who are age 50 and over.
Marilyn MANISCALCO Henley (# 1653) was thrilled to show the new Houstonians
of Italian Descent book that was recently published by the Federation of
Houston Italian American Clubs. She submitted four articles and photos of
her MANISCALCO, MARTINO and ALFANO Families. Marilyn showed two research CD’
s of Louisiana Vital Records and Italian to New Orleans Passenger Records
she recently purchased from
Lynn LECROPANE (#4728) brought a booklet she put together from questionnaires she sent out to family members for the first LE CROPANE Family Reunion in 20 years. She also showed a Special Days Calendar she made that she gave to family members for Christmas with each person’s birthday and anniversary listed on the appropriate dates and a family chart on the last page.
Pat OXLEY (#3713) announced that she saw the beautiful Italian Christmas
display, at the Austin airport that was set up by our own Jim and Virginia
Gerick (#2730), and that they did an excellent job. She and Don were on
their way to
Santiago, Chile to begin their two week South American cruise. She showed
pictures of the Italian section of Buenos Aires, Argentina where the tango
began. This cruise is their favorite.
Pat is working on a new chapter membership directory and needs everyone’s
information. She announced a research trip to Salt Lake City for October 7 –
12, sponsored by the Austin Genealogical Society. Her fun surprise for the
meeting was a doll named Sophie, that speaks in English and Italian, which
was given to her by a friend. The doll can be found at
Cecilia PARODI Lankes, guest of Zina VERSAGGI Graalfs (# 3336), is just beginning her research. Cecilia’s surnames are PARODI from the Milan area and ZEULI from the Napoli area and ONOFRIO.
Jeannie MARSALIA (# 4251) showed us an Ellis Island postcard sent by another State employee.
Carol MAINA Roam (#4623) reported that she has received new family photos.
Don VILLONI (#3985) is reading microfilm records from CASAPULLA where his VILLONI grandfather was born. Don met Saverio Garcia at the Georgetown FHC, who had lived in Italy for 5 ½ years, and offered to help him write for church records, which are not microfilmed. Don and Shirley are taking his daughter, granddaughter and great granddaughter to London in June, where he will celebrate his 75th birthday on the 16th.
Don’s grandfather Dominic VILLONI wrote many Italian marches, and Don has acquired the sheet music to them. Through Christy PALUMBO Foster (# 2767), Don took several of the marches to the Wimberley (TX) Band Director, who had his students play through some of them. The director is now considering using one of the marches in a UIL Competition and in a school concert in March.
Bill BRINKMAN reported on an article in a recent issue of Family Tree Magazine about 100 great genealogy websites.
Zina VERSAGGI Graalfs (# 3336), had photos of her extended family who live in Formia, near Gaeta, Italy.
Ursula PASSAFUMA Rader (#4467) reported that she found 26 family names using the Google search.
Joe MASTRANGELO (#2614) reported finding documentation of an 1835 marriage on a birth certificate. Joe gave a subscription to PRIMO Magazine his 89 year old aunt for Christmas. He passed around newly acquired books: Italian Folktales by Italo Calvino and A History of Italy and mentioned that another book he purchased has old street maps of Firenze.
Dorothy MANGO Lippincott showed photos from her New Haven, Connecticut MANGO/MANCO Family reunion and of her great grandchildren.
Lin ONOFRIO Brinkman (# 1388) passed around Italian Pride – 101 Reasons to be Proud You’re Italian by Federico & Stephen Moramaico. She and Bill are going to Phoenix for Bill’s father’s 87th birthday and to Los Angeles to visit her TOMMASELLI cousin whom she hasn’t seen in more than 35 years.
Our next meeting is Wednesday, February 26 at the Round Rock Library. The
2003 meeting schedule is posted on our new web address is