POINTers IN PERSON Minutes
Central Texas/Austin
Marilyn MANISCALCO Henley (#1653) POINTers IN PERSON Minutes Chapter
# 10 Central Texas/Austin
Lin ONOFRIO Brinkman (#1388) opened the monthly POINTers In Person meeting at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, November 17 with 17 members attending. A get well card for Eugenia ASSIBENE Luken's husband, Warren, was passed around for signatures. Lin read a letter from the Los Angeles PIP Chapter # 1 suggesting that our PIP group name our chapter for an Italian. Lin asked us to bring any suggestions to the next meeting. She announced more donations for the POINT Conference and recapped the funds we've collected. Lin asked for a volunteer to serve as treasurer for the conference funds. The article, Coppini's Passion from the January 1999 issue of Texas Highways was discussed, and Lin showed a printout of some Italian clip art she received.
Lin announced her new surnames from information Bill obtained through microfilm records: CARUSO from Capua, DAMIANO, DORZO, MASTROIANNI, TROTTA and RAGOZZINO. She is back nine generations on her mother's side to the mid 1750's.
At the members' request, Lin furnished her recipe for the cookies served at the meeting.
ANISE DROPS
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 Tablespoon anise extract
3 eggs
1 cup + 2 Tablespoons sugar
Beat eggs and sugar for 30 minutes (or in blender) (yes, 30 minutes). Add extract. Add flour and baking powder. Beat for 3 minutes. Drop onto greased cookie sheet (or parchment paper) by spoonfuls and let sit overnight or for 24 hours. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 - 14 minutes. Makes about 3 dozen cookies.
Marilyn MANISCALCO Henley (#1653) showed copies of her newly printed English translation of the History of Poggioreale (Sicily), which she gave to cousins at the MANISCALCO/MONTALBANO/WEIDO/MESSINA family reunion on October 10 in Houston. She also gave out the Italian flag pins that were sold by the Ruffin Flag Company and displayed the flag at the reunion. She received a letter from Michael CASCIO of Illinois about the MANISCALCO surname.
Marilyn discovered a family connection with member Mary Jo Belk of Gun Barell City, TX through Mary Jo's late brother Louis SCOMA of Dallas who married into the MARCHIAFAVA family of Alia Sicily and of Baton Rouge LA. Mary ONOFRIO of Dallas sent a copy of a CARRABBA obituary from the Dallas newspaper for Marilyn's cousin Johnny GRIZZAFFI of Bryan Texas.
Marilyn received a telephone call from a Houston Police homicide officer regarding her letter asking about the murder of a cousin Roy MARTINO who was murdered in 1970. He is sending her a copy of the report. While in Houston in October, she copied pages of a Harris County criminal court index that included possible relatives.
Marilyn reported that granddaughter Cameron Ray Kelly was baptized on November 7 in Galveston. Cameron's mother, Shelly Henley Kelly has written a series of articles for the Sunday issue of the Galveston Daily News, each recounting ten years of history in Galveston, in preparation for the end of the century. Marilyn passed around newly obtained books which included The 125th Anniversary of the Galveston-Houston Diocese, Old Calabria and Midnight in Sicily. She also announced that her husband, Arthur, started a new job on Nov 15 in Dallas. They will wait until after the Christmas holidays before making any moving plans.
Sheila BAYHA Dugosh announced that she has access to a computer for emails and research.
Louis and Kay SCOPEL are submitting black and white pictures of the Thurber (TX) cemetery as the final step to have the cemetery registered with the Texas Historical Commission. They recounted their wonderful trip to New York City. They found the tour of Ellis Island very moving, relating the experience the immigrants must have felt as they entered this new world. Louis asked about any interactive Italian language computer programs. Laurie Reister said that she is pleased with "Italian for Everyone". Louis said that his niece, Sarah Scopel, of Marietta, GA won $10,000 and a trip to New York in an essay contest by Ladies Home Journal (May issue). The topic was self-esteem.
Di FREI and Jamie CANONE traveled to Pennsylvania to visit both of their families. Di's grandmother showed them her grandfather's WWII medals. Jamie showed his family his compilation of family information. His grandmother (maiden name OTINO) showed him photos of her trip back to Italy and told more family stories. Jamie brought back copies of various family certificates including his grandmother's baptism certificate from Westmoreland Co, PA, his grandfather's baptism certificate and his parents marriage license. He showed photos of his great-great uncles Giuseppe and Francesco ALIQUO taken about 1918 and one of his grandfather and his siblings. His grandmother has a copy of the Italian newspaper LaStampa dated Aug 28, 1938, but she couldn't remember its significance.
Pat Oxley is planning their trip to Italy for next June. She's been busy preparing for the St Williams Arts & Crafts show, held the past weekend, but did relay that that she has found revolutionary soldiers in her non-Italian side.
Jeanie MARSALIA is following up on the information she received from her cousin regarding the MARCHETTI family. She's written to the county courthouse offices in McAlister and Pittsburg Oklahoma for family information and is waiting for the LDS microfilm of Torino records.
Don VILLONI told about his marvelous trip to Rome and other Italian cities. The perfect ending was attending his cousin's daughter's wedding in Torino, which included an eleven course sit down dinner at a restaurant for over 200 people in the hills of Torino. He and Shirley surprised the family with their presence. After returning from Italy, they spent four days in Salt Lake City pouring over records from Bellona and then on to Colorado (where do they get this energy???) Don met POINT member # 50 at the library.
Don is nearing the end of his project to have all of his grandfather's marches copyrighted with the Library of Congress. The application is finalized and in the mail. Don was in contact with Angel who has a ship list with BARONE names. She asked Don about Valledolmo, Sicily and he put her in contact with our member Laurie GUGINO Reister. It turns out that Laurie's first contact in Valledolmo on their trip was named Carlo BARONE, which is one of Don's primary names. Laurie is going to contact Carlo for further family information.
Laurie GUGINO Riester (#3878) showed a map from a National Geographic publication with a history of Italy. NAIF sells this map for $5.00. She told of attending an Internet conference in NYC and visiting a genealogy booth hosted by Ancestry.com. She passed out flyers from Ancestry.com and My Family.com.
Joe MASTRANGELO (#2614) received a record of his mother's PIZZOLATO brother and wife MELORO (maiden name). Joe wrote to Campofiorito Sicily for a marriage certificate dated 20 Dec 1874 for Filippo VETRANO and Maria GUAGLIARDO. He wrote to Putignano, Italy for a marriage certificate for PUGLIESE and LAPORTA. New surnames are LOLOVIA, SPORTELLO(I), SERRAVEZZA and DINOBILE.
Joe is waiting for family information from Jack LICATA of Illinois, who's uncle in-law was Leonardo PIZZOLATO. Joe has sent other family information to a MERONI cousin. Joe brought some new books on Italy: The Immigrant Upraised by Andrew F. Rolle, The Hatchett Guide to Italy, Travelers History of Italy by Valerio Lintner and The Heritage Guide to Italy.
Frank and Bert HENRY (IANNARINO) (3258) received a rundown of the LAMANNA and BOVA family lines of Termini Imerese, Sicily from Frank's great niece.
Augie and Lory TROIANI said that Augie's sister and niece had visited with them and wanted to see some of the famous Texas sites, such as the John F. Kennedy Memorial site and South Fork Ranch, both in Dallas. Augie reported on John Costa, who served as the Chief Justice of Travis County.
Lin mentioned that her son Bob is researching Giusepppe MONTEDONICO, the first Italian to settle in Round Rock.
Pat Oxley contributed various Thanksgiving pilgrims she made for the arts and crafts sale as door prizes, which were won by Don Villoni and Sheila Dugosh.
Lin announced that the potluck Christmas luncheon is Sunday, Dec 12 at 1 pm at her house. January's meeting is on Saturday, January 26 at 1:00 at the newly renovated ROUND ROCK LIBRARY on Main Street (Hwy 620).
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