POINTers IN PERSON Minutes
Chapter # 10 Central Texas/Austin
Submitted by Sherry PACELLI Haddox (4883)
Lin ONOFRIO Brinkman (#1388) opened the monthly meeting on January 28th with 16 people present, including one visitor.
Lin reported that she and her husband, Bill, attended a genealogy workshop at Griffith Round Rock Public Library, representing POINT. There were almost 100 present.
Two people with Italian ancestry expressed interest in attending our meetings : Gabriel BRADA, researching Brada in Sicily, and Mike Hardin.
Jeanie MARSALIA (#4251) received a letter from Pietro MARSAGLIA from Caselle Torinese, Italy. He learned from some of his cousins that Jeanie is searching
for relatives in Italy. He stated in his letter that he is the nephew of Pietro Marsaglia, who was the brother of Jeanie's grandfather, Giuseppe Marsaglia and he wants
to find out about his relatives in Texas.
She also received a Christmas card from another Marsaglia family in Caselle Torinese, Italy.
Jeanie enjoyed the HBO documentary “Le Cirque: A Table in Heaven”. It is about the Maccioni family opening their next restaurant. It is an Italian American family comedy
in the form of a documentary about a formidable and somewhat French-leaning institution among the Manhattan upper crust.
She also told the group about an interesting view of Venice on the Travel Channel called Anthony Bourdain No Reservations. He guides you through out of the way places
to eat and concludes that what makes Venice unique is its people.
Mike Harden accepted Lin and Bill's invitation to attend our meeting when they met at the genealogy workshop in Round Rock. Mike has done extensive research on his father’s side of the family but knows little of his maternal Italian heritage and is researching the ancestors of his great-grandparents. Mike’s maternal great-grandparents arrived in the United States from Sicily in the early 1900s but little is known about the family prior to that time. Giuseppe and Vincenza (ARRIGO) RIZZO and Giuseppe and Rosalia (PERCACCIOLO) IMMORLICA were all from the Mirto or Messina area of Sicily prior to making their new homes in the United States.”
Patricia COLACINO was in New York January 10th - 13th and went back to the house where she grew up. Her brother still owns the house and they found a photo of her maternal great-grandparents, Giuseppe ARCURI and Margherita COLLETTI. She is trying to find out the towns in Sicily where they were born. She also found photos of her father’s mother, Raffaela COLACINO. And, she is trying to find out the names of her paternal great-grandfather's, Giuseppe COLACINO'S, parents.
Sherry (PACELLI) Haddox (#4883) brought the Memorial Record booklet that visitors signed when they attended her grandfather's funeral in February, 1940. Sherry and Rick COPPOLA had already discovered that their grandfather's were both from S. Salvatore Telesino, Benevento, Campania and were born the same year (1879), immigrated to New York the same year (1899) and died the same year (1940). The memorial record booklet had been in her aunt's possession in New York for all these years but after her aunt passed away last July Sherry's cousin sent it to her since she's become the "family historian". Since Sherry's grandfather died in February 1940 and Ricks grandfather died in October she wondered if Rick's grandfather had possibly attended the funeral. She read the list of names and immediately saw Rick's grandfather's name (Libero Coppola)! The address next to his name was Rick's address until he was 15 years old! So many "coincidences"! She only had that booklet for about a month when she made that discovery!
Our next meeting is February 25, 2009 at Merrill Gardens, 8005 Cornerwood, Round Rock, Texas.