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, June 29, 2005 with 13 people present.
Lin, her husband, Bill, and her mother, Dorothy MANGO ONOFRIO Lippincott invited everyone to their home on the 4th of July for a cookout and to watch the city of Round Rock's fireworks.
Don VILLONI (#3985) had an interesting follow-up to his April report to our chapter regarding his communication and relationship with Mr. Steven
Piermarini, the Bandmaster of the Leominster Massachusetts Colonial Band. In May, Steven stated in a telephone conversation with Don that the Colonial
Band was going to be performing for an Italian Fest at St. Anna's Catholic Church. Steven's brother, Carl, was going to receive a gold award for producing
and directing the award winning DVD entitled "Marcia Sinfonica". The DVD contained six Italian Marches by several Italian composers. Two of the six
marches, "Pluto" and "California" were composed by Don's grandfather, Domenico Villoni.
Steven had not told anyone that he was also going to make presentations of several metal printing plates that Don had sent to him several months ago.
Don's grandfather was not only a composer but he also had his own publishing company. These plates were the actual devices that he created and used to
print his marches. When Don finished his phone conversation with Steven he told his wife, Shirley, about it. Shirley told Don that he should fly to
Boston and enjoy the music and the festivities! He immediately called Steven and told him that he had decided to go to Boston and said that he would email
his itinerary. Steven told Don not to rent a car and that he would make arrangements to have him picked up in Boston and would reserve a hotel room for
him in Concord. Mrs. Piermarini, who plays the saxophone in the band, met Don at the airport and took him to the hotel. A couple of hours later Steven
arrived at the hotel with John De Cicco who is the President of the Musicians Union. They enjoyed dinner and several hours of conversation.
On May 21st they all attended the Fest. Don said that the Band, conducted by Steven, did a remarkable job and listening to all of the Italian marches that
he grew up with brought tears to his eyes.
When the band was getting ready to perform the last march, Steven walked out to the audience to the front row where Don was sitting and handed him the
baton. He told Don that he would like to have him conduct their final march, "Stars and Stripes Forever"! Don was overwhelmed!
After the performance, Steven gave out the metal plates and his brother, Carl, was presented with a gold award by the President of the local University
for his production of the DVD "Marcia Sinfonica".
Carl Piermarini asked Don if he would join him at his TV studio the next morning. Carl and Steven wanted Don to answer question about his grandfather's
life since Don lived with his grandparents from the time he was born until December 1945 when Don was a senior in high school.
They spent approximately a half hour asking Don questions and then gave him a CD and cassette of the entire program. Carl said it may be something that
would go on Channel 8 in Boston sometime in the future. Don said that he didn't know when he had experienced such a heartwarming experience!
Carol MAINA Roam (#4623) reported that she has been working with the SETTIMO ROTTARO parish birth records on microfilm at LDS and has traced her ODDONO ancestors back to the 1500's. Her hope is, as she begins translating the CD copy of the book on the civil and religious history of Settimo Rottaro that she got in Italy in April, that she may find mention of some of her ancestors.
Joe MASTRANGELO (#2614) reported that his Citizenship package has been received in Houston. His father's Pennsylvania Birth Certificate has been
forwarded by Houston to the Philadelphia Consulate for "verification". When it is returned to Houston, Joe's Birth Certificate will be sent to Italy for
"registration". He can then expect to receive the paperwork that will inform him how to apply for his Italian Passport.
Joe is continuing contact with Maria Mastrangelo from Pennsylvania. They are exchanging information and finalizing existing information.
Joe explained how he successfull exported a FTM file to PDF, burned a CD and brought it to Kinko's to print on their large sheet plotter, resulting in a
seamless Family Tree!
Jeanie MARSALIA (#4251) viewed some films at the FHC but did not find any more military records for her grandfather. She did find a military record for a Giovanni MARCHETTI born in 1873 and she believes he could be one of her grandmother's relatives. The Department of Homeland Security is still searching for her grandfather's naturalization papers.
Gloria DeMICHIEL Burton had put her family information on an Italian genealogy site and she heard from a second cousin who lives in Germany after the
cousin randomly typed in their family name on the computer and recognized all the names Gloria had listed! She emailed Gloria and they have emailed and
talked many times since then, exchanging information and sending pictures. Gloria, her husband, son and daughter are all going to visit them in September.
She is still searching for her grandfather's immigration and death records. He immigrated in 1925 and died while visiting Italy.
The meeting adjourned at 8:45 PM. Our next meeting will be Wednesday, July 27, 2005 at 6:30 PM at the Round Rock Library.
Our web page is : http://www.main.org/pip10/