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 on May 24, 2000 at the Brinkman home in Round Rock.
Nineteen members and guests attended. The POINT Conference was mentioned
on page
11 of the Spring 2000 issue of the NAIF publication. Lin said that
the Italian Club of Austin is renting conference vendor space and will
be selling their cookbook and Austin/Italian cups. Lin recommended a book
called, "Over Their Dead Bodies - Yankee Epitaphs and History" by Thomas
C. Mann and Janet Greene. She also mentioned that she heard from someone
who lives in Australia and is from Faicchio, Benevento, her paternal town.
Marilyn MANISCALCO Henley (# 1653) announced that her son David was
graduated from Texas A&M on May 13. She passed around a copy of the
fall brochure for Texas A&M University Press, which has a page dedicated
to the book, "Through a Night of Horrors - Voices from the 1900 Galveston
Storm" which was written by her daughter Shelly Henley Kelly and Casey
Greene. The book is expected to be out in August. Marilyn, and her
other daughter Lisa, just returned from accompanying Shelly to the Society
of Southwest Archivists conference in Fayetteville Arkansas, where they
had the pleasure
of babysitting 8 month old Cameron. Marilyn also did some research
for Augie Troiani in Fayetteville.
Marilyn has been busy preparing four one page articles about her Houston Italian families for a book, "Italians of Houston" being published by the Italian Community & Cultural Center of Houston. She received some court records on one of her Maniscalco family members, that she wrote for eight months ago. One of her cousins in Houston has purchased 13 copies of the English translation of the "History of Poggioreale". Marilyn has borrowed the 2 volume set of the "Historical Encyclopedia of Louisiana" from Ron Polito. She acquired postcards of Charleroi, PA, where her Scaccia/Martino families lived and the ship "Italia", on which her Alfano family arrived.
Laurie GUGINO Riester (# 3878) was in New Orleans recently and said that she discovered a great place called Central Grocery on Decatur St. She says that the Valledolmo e- mail list is very good; she's corresponding now with a pen pal in Valledolmo. She and her husband and daughter leave for Italy on June 23.
Frank HENRY (IANNARINO) (# 3258) received a video tape from his sister-in-law of about 400 old family photos, many of them are 100 years old. The tape was made by his grand nephew, and each photo was identified. The building of their new home in San Angelo is coming along.
Augie TROIANI was wearing his Sun City Bocce Club shirt; he told about his club's trip to Thurber Texas to play in a bocce tournament and passed around a photo of the Sun City team.
Joe and Marie MASTRANGELO (# 2614) talked about their trip that included Ellis Island and touring the old Brooklyn neighborhood with a stop at the Francis Bakery on 5th Ave & 92nd St, where they bought six loaves of the bread they loved. They visited their nephew's restaurant Nevada Flats in Bridgeport and Marie and her 84 year old cousin in Tannersville, PA met for the first time.
Don VILLONI (#3985) received a response to one of the letters he wrote
to a Louis Villoni in France, who's great grandfather came from Italy.
Louis was surprised at the information Don was able to send him and he
will try to find out more on his Italian family to share with Don.
Don's daughter, after visiting from Chile, sent him some boxes that Don's
late mother had given her over the years. Many members offered to help
him go through these boxes as well as several others he has accumulated
to see what goodies are in them. He discovered personally autographed photos
of the late singer Russ Columbo, who was a personal friend & musician
of his father 's, before Columbo's early death (murder). Don started a
scrapbook of
his dad, which includes newspaper items from his early days as a musician.
He is hoping to catch the E television channel Mysteries & Scandal
show on Russ Columbo that shows occasionally and doesn't appear to be on
a tape that can be purchased.
Jeanie MARSALIA (#4251) received a copy of passenger index card from NARA for Giuseppe MARSAGLIA, of Caselli, Italy; the card states that he is meeting his brother in Thurber, TX.
Virginia MACRI Gerick (#2730) read an email letter from Albert Cofrances, who is also researching the names Biondi and DiLeone from Cerreto Sannito, Benevento, Italy. He has traced the name Cofrancesso back to Charles Martel, grandfather of Charlemagne and possibly to Clovis, one of the first Merovingian Kings after the fall of Rome.
Jim Gerick attended his 50 year Texas Tech class reunion in Lubbock and managed to get in some genealogy research during the trip. While in Lubbock, he discovered that the drummer at the Cactus Theater was a relative. He stopped in Thurber, TX for a great chicken fried steak.
Sheila BAYHA Dugosh (#43665) has a new granddaughter, Claire Jean Peterson, who was born April 21. Sheila is now a POINT member and in the directory, found another member researching the name NOTARIANNI and town.
Angie and Ted CLARK (#1538) just returned from a seven week trip to Europe. She met relatives in France, she's never met before. In Italy, she saw all the relatives she's visited before and one cousin had certificates of civil record ready and waiting that she had obtained for Angie. Angie also received an early family photo she had never before seen.
Dorothy MANGO Lippincott passed around a new photo of her with her great granddaughter, Lauren Nichole Onofrio.
Bill BRINKMAN discovered that a cousin is buried in the Thurber cemetery, a small town most of us had never heard of before member Louis Scopel joined the group. Bill is writing a book about his family, and has made a list of items to go back and check. After the book is finished, he will have lots of tips about preparing and writing a family book. He's been reading about how whole families traveled on canal boats. He's finally gotten his father and brother writing down family stories and sending them to him.
Bill announced that a Sons of Italy chapter is forming in San Marcos, from the San Antonio Chapter. Meeting information will be sent when it is available.
Louis SCOPEL (#4250) also visited Thurber and Palo Pinto County, researching
deeds of his grandfather. The Thurber Reunion Group is restoring an old
bandstand to have it ready for the Thurber Reunion on June 2. Funds for
a historical center have been appropriated and will be maintained by Tarleton
College. The National Park Service is obtaining the remaining oral
histories. Scopels and Rechs lived in Thurber.
The next POINT 2000 Conference meeting is Sunday, June 4 at 1 pm at
the Brinkman's.
Next PIP Meeting is Wed, June 28 at 6:30 at the Bank One Building.