POINTers IN PERSON Minutes
Chapter # 10 Central Texas/Austin
Submitted by: Sherry PACELLI Haddox (#4883)
Lin ONOFRIO Brinkman (#1388) opened the monthly meeting on Wednesday, January 26th, with 16 people in attendance.
Joe MASTRANGELO (#2614) brought a very interesting
newspaper article that his aunt sent him from Pennsylvania regarding a recently published book, "Italians of Northeastern Pennsylvania". The article states
that, according to the 2000 U.S. Census, Italian-Americans are the second largest ethnic group in Lackawanna and Luzerne counties. The article is very
interesting and the book is available in area bookstores or through Arcadia Publishing.
Joe gave us information on a PDA program that allows Microsoft Office applications to be loaded, such as Access, Excel and Word. The program is provided by
MOBIPOCKET, and is called Mobipocket Office Companion Pro V2.1, and is available at Mobipocket.com.
Joe sent his Qualification package for Dual Citizenship
application to the Consulate in Houston for review and judgment at the beginning of the week. In the meantime he is gathering the "official copies" from
the list of documents that will ultimately be sent to Italy for confirmation.
Joe also circulated a copy of the "Anglo-Italian Family History Society Winter Journal" from England that he received from Kay LORANZANO, editor of the
Journal. He had given them permission to include his article on "Military Conscription in Italy" in this issue.
Jeanie MARSALIA (#4251) wrote the Torino Military District in November requesting military records for her grandfather, Giuseppe MARSAGLIA. She received two copies. The first letter, dated November 25, 2004, stated they had no records for him. The second letter, dated December 20, 2004, was unexpected. It included a copy of the register for the Class of 1873 which is the year her grandfather was born. It doesn't contain much information except his name, date of birth and his parents' names. Jeanie plans to order a film for the Torino Military District from the FHC or write to Torino again for more information on this subject.
Scott Patrick (#4819) announced that things are slowing down on the Italian side of his research. He was unsuccessful trying to find a birth record for a great-uncle, Julius Garagusi, in the 1877 NYC birth records. An update to a database on Ancestry provided many more city directories for Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Scott found another great-uncle, Gaetano MOTTA, in all the available Pittsfield directories between 1896 and 1919, after which he no longer appears. Since this uncle's family was still in Laurenzana (PZ BA), it is unclear if he was traveling back and forth during this time. Scott has begun research on his paternal side of the family. This side is comprised of British and German ancestry. Scott has found quite a bit of information through various U.S. Censuses on his great-grandmother, Nellie Besgrove's family from the immigration of his gg-grandfather, Henry Besgrove, around 1857 through residences in Illinois in the 1870 and 1880 censuses and Missouri in the 1900 through 1930 censuses. This also includes records on four brothers of Henry who also immigrated between 1864 and 1882, and children of all the brothers.
Jim and Virginia MACRI Gerick (#2730) mentioned that Jim is working on the Gerick family history for the Texas Czech Genealogical Society. The Society is compiling a book of Czech families that settled in Texas. Sherry PACELLI Haddox (#4883) brought a guest, Gloria De MICHIELI Burton, who joined our group. Gloria is researching her grandfather, Osvaldo De MICHIEL, from UDINE, CAVASSO NUOVA, ITALY. She found him on the 1930 census but can't find where he came into the U.S. in 1925. The group gave her ideas as to who to write as well as what to look for.
Carol MAINA Roam (#4623) reported that she has received further information from LENNA (the place where her maternal grandfather Antonio CALVI was born)
and that they had located and sent her copies of birth records for two of her grandfather's siblings - both females. They had also located and sent copies
of the death records for her great-grandmother's parents, Antonio OBERTI and Antonia CALVI. These death records have provided her with the names of her
ggg-grandparents.
Carol has also been in contact with her cousins (descendants of Lorenzo MAINA and Catterina CAMBURSANO) in LIVORNO-FERRARIS. They have offered to meet her
and show her around the area during her upcoming trip to Italy.
She also shared an article written by her uncle, Joseph MAINA (#701), on the hand carved peasant footwear worn by her grandparents in their youth around 1900
in the Vercelli province.
The meeting adjourned at 8:40pm.
Our next meeting is Wednesday, February 23 at 6:30 pm to 8:55 pm at the
Round Rock Library.