November 17, 2010 Meeting Minutes

    POINTers IN PERSON Minutes
    Chapter # 10 Central Texas/Austin
     

    Submitted by: Lin Onofrio Brinkman(#1388)

    Lin ONOFRIO Brinkman (#1388) called the meeting to order with 11 present.
      She passed around her recently-acquired photo of her Dad, Jack Onofrio, with his Army-Air Corps squadron in 1943.
      She reminded the members of the 5 December potluck Christmas party.

    Guest Anyah BRUNO spoke about the Bruno and George Winery in Sour Lake, TX, belonging to her husband, Julian Bruno's family.

    Betty TOMMASELLI Glaser has just joined POINT. She found a website named ITALIANSRUS located at http://www.italiansrus.com, and found a surname which matched that of her Paternal Great-grandmother, Lucia GIANNOTTA, as well as Lucia's father, Marzio Giannotta. Using the site, Betty emailed Sergio GIANNOTTA who was looking for relatives from Faicchio in Benevento, the same town as Betty's Maternal ancestors. Sergio promptly answered, saying he thought there could be a relationship, and forwarding her information to his family in Italy. ITALIANSRUS even has recipes handed down from generation to generation.

    Scott Patrick (#4819) continues to go through the films from his ancestral town of LAURENZANA (PZ BA), specifically looking for death records of his 4th-great grandparents. To date he has found five death records :

    • Vincenzo CAFARELLA in 1831
    • Vincenzo's wife Rachele MOTTA, 1831
    • Pulcheria GIULIANA, widow of Prospero D"ALESANDRO, also 1831
    • Giuseppe MARTOCCIA, 1841
    • Giuseppe's wife Maria PAVESE, 1847.

      The death records have provided the names of ten new 5th great grandparents and five new surnames, VERRE, DE GRAZIA, LAURIA, DI PERSIA, and CASSIERE.
      Scott still hopes to find one more 4th great grandparent in Laurenzana and a few more in the nearby towns of ANZI and PIETRA PERTOSA.
      Scott has also just completed going through the post-unification records for Laurenzana which are available on-line at Ancestry.com.
      He has added many names to his family tree for siblings and cousins of his direct ancestors.

    Joe MASTRANGELO was awarded his Italian Citizenship in October 2005, but never received a copy of his Italian Birth registration, or a certificate of Citizenship. At the suggestion of fellow POINT # 10 member, Jeanie MARSALIA, Joe contacted the Houston Consul Generals Office, and requested a copy of his Birth registration. A very helpful Giulia Cerino Viali responded that they had not received a copy, and therefore could not provide one. She suggested Joe email info@comune.putignano.ba.it and request the documents from them. On 11/10/2010, Joe sent an email message. On 11/11/2010, they put copies of the requested documents into the mail, and Joe received them on 11/15/2010; now that is service!
      Joe is still awaiting contact from the FHC staff in Salt Lake City, regarding the disposition of the missing records for Putignano. There are between 5-15 years of records missing in the sequence. It is not known if the records exist, were filmed and then scheduled for re-filming, or simply misplaced. Joe said that the time frame these records represent are crucial to Joe's rebulding his family tree. He hopes to hear back from SLC so he may plan his next strategy.

    Next meeting : 5 December Christmas party at Brinkman's.