POINTers IN PERSON Minutes
Chapter # 10 Central Texas/Austin
Submitted by: Lin ONOFRIO Brinkman (#1388)
The meeting was held at the home of Bill and Lin ONOFRIO Brinkman (#1388), with 10 present.
On 27 April 2012, Joe Mastrangelo (#2614) received a response from a letter sent 13 January 2012 to Fr. Romanazzi in Putignano, Italy. Joe had requested additional information regarding:
Stace and Dee SMARRELLI said that, thanks to Joe's suggestions, Dee started to research some of the information shared at the last meeting. He found out that his grandfather Eustachio Smarrelli may have had a brother Domenico and a sister Domenica. He also found that Domenico married a woman from Texas in 1898; he is still trying to find information on her.
Stace is just starting his research, and his Morman neighbor has invited him to research at his facility, and shared the websites : familysearch.org and Newfamilysearch.org, which allows one to make a fan chart or family tree. It also allows others to add to the chart associated with your family.
Scott Patrick (#4819) showed a picture of a Swedish family that he, along with a group of four others, finally identified. The identification process went through two prior possiblities that were discounted by people with knowledge of those lines. The final identity was aided by finding the photographer's mark which identified the city where the photo was taken. A family known to have lived in that town then matched up perfectly. The identity was later confirmed by another individual with ties to that family. Scott noted what a fun and satisflying experience the research had been.
Scott also mentioned getting a new contact on his Italian side. A woman found her gg-grandparents, Pietro ZITO and Rosa Maria GALGANO, in Scott's tree in Ancestry, and contacted him. Scott has an indirect connection to the Galgano line, and only had limited information on this couple, but was able to do some quick research in the Italian records available on Ancesry for the town of Laurenzana (PZ BA ). He shared this with the woman contact, and they are now sharing more information on the Galgano line.
Jeanie MARSALIA (4251) received copies from the Missouri State Archives, of the will for Thomas Alley whom she believes to be the father of her gg-grandfather, Abraham Alley. She printed copies of the 1940 Census which included the Marsalia, Alley, Parker and Nohavitz relatives of hers.
Jeanie received a notice of an upcoming election in Monastero Di Lanzo, Italy, to be held 3 June 2012 in the Torino Province of Italy where her paternal grandparents were born.
Jeanie returned from a trip to Holland to visit her son Shane Mahon and wife Catherine, along with Catherine's mother. In Amsterdam, they visited the Vincent Van Gogh Museum. They went to Paris, France for 3 days, and visited the Louvre and saw the Mona Lisa.
Betty TOMMASELLI Glaser (#5297) found the brother of g-grandmother Lucia GIANNOTTA, born 14 May 1858 in Faicchio, Benevento, Campagna. Lucia is the mother of Betty's grandfather, Luciano Tommaselli. Brother Domenico Giannotta was born about 1854 in Faicchio and arrived in the U.S. 11 May 1901 bound for New Haven , CT. With him was Pasquale MAZZOCANE, age 18, a possible grandson to a later arrival, also named Pasquale. When Betty's grandfather Luciano emigrated from Faicchio in 1897 at age 16, he came with Pasquale Mazzacane, age 55 and Vittoria Mazzacane, age 21, bound for Lafayette Street in New Haven, CT.
Next meeting : 27 June 2012