POINTers IN PERSON Minutes
Chapter # 10 Central Texas/Austin
Submitted by: Sherry PACELLI Haddox (#4883)
Lin ONOFRIO Brinkman (#1388) opened the meeting on June 24th with 16 present. It turned into a surprise birthday party for Lin with many cards, gifts,
and a beautiful and delicious Italian cream cake that Patricia COLACINO baked. Lin was speechless ~ a rare event!
Lin passed around pictures of her and Bill's third grandchild, Benjamin Gray Brinkman, who was born June 12, 2009 to son Bob & Stephanie Gray Brinkman.
Lin and Bill invited everyone to their annual 4th of July party at their home in Round Rock.
Jeanie MARSALIA (#4251), Joe MASTRANGELO (#2614) and Sherry PACELLI Haddox (#4883), each having dual citizenship, reported that they had received a packet of absentee ballots from the Italian Consulate in Houston to vote in the Referendum scheduled on June 21, 2009.
Jeanie's son, Shane Mahon, was in Italy in May to attend motorcycle races. While there he stayed with his friend's parents in Germanagno which is located next to
Lanzo Torinese. His friend's grandmother was there and stated that she was from Monastero di Lanzo where Jeanie's grandparents were born. Shane attached a
few pictures of his trip on his Ducati motorcycle.
Jeanie read a book review in USA Today of American Passage: The History of Ellis Island which stated this book is being billed as the first complete history of
the famous island. The book was written by historian Vincent Cannato which includes 16 pages of black and white photos bringing his research to life.
Patricia COLACINO received copies of the papers from LDS for what she thought was the naturalization of her great-grandfather, Giuseppe ARCURI.
Unfortunately, the names of the children and his wife were different so it is the wrong person. She was told it was probably a cousin from the same town in Sicily.
Patricia brought several old pictures of her relatives to share with the group that she received from her cousin in New York.
Scott Patrick (#4819) announced that while on vacation in Virginia he had met a third cousin, Cecilia FAVORINI Balog, for lunch one day. During this brief
meeting Cecilia surprised Scott by giving him copies of three photographs, one each of Scott's g-g-grandfather, Giuliano GARAGUSI, great-uncle Vincenzo
GARAGUSI, and great-aunt Adelaide GARAGUSI MONACO.
Scott also mentioned finding marriage record information in the Illinois State Archives database that has an on-line searchable index. From this he was able to get
the maiden names of the spouses of several of his distant relatives. Scott also checked several other states' archives and found the information available on-line
varied widely but was worth a look.
Rick COPPOLA reported that he received assistance from a Mario COPPOLA now living in West Haven, Connecticut who was born in San Salvatore Telesino, the
town that Rick's grandfather, Libero COPPOLA, came from. Mario has a contact at the city hall in San Salvatore Telesino who was able to provide him the birth
certificate of Rick's grandfather. From this they learned that Libero's father was Felice COPPOLA. He was born January 2,1842 and they lived on via Cerrato in
San Salvatore Telesino. This is the same street that Sherry PACELLI Haddox's grandfather was born on! Apparently they were neighbors and this helps explain why
our grandfathers remained in contact until Sherry's grandfather died in New York in 1940.
Rick and his wife, Pat's previous research at LDS gave them the names of several COPPOLA families living in San Salvatore Telesino in 1810. When they discovered
Felice's name they were able to make more connections. They could determine that Felice's father was Isidoro and he was born June 14, 1810. Tom Priscilla
(originally PACELLI) from Purcellville, Virginia, who has been helping Sherry with her research, then provided more information. He provided a detailed spreadsheet
showing all the COPPOLA'S living in San Salvatore Telesino in the LDS records. He also sent them the marriage certificate of Isidoro, to Maria Teresa DiPalma.
The DiPalma name is also in Sherry's family and we are wondering if she is related to this DiPalma. Interestingly, Tom is also related to the DiPalmas.
Tom's spreadsheet further showed Isidoro's father to be Guiseppe COPPOLA (born ~ 1765). It also showed that Guiseppe had at least two siblings: Don Vincenzo and
Domenico and that Guiseppe's father was Matteo (born ~1740). Tom provided a copy of Matteo's death certificate. All this information allowed Rick to connect 8
generations of Coppola's!
The meeting adjourned at 8:30pm. The next meeting will be on Wednesday, July 22nd, at 6:30pm at Merrill Gardens in
Round Rock.