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 Wed, September 25, 2002 at the Round Rock Library with 18 members attending. Lin welcomed back Henry and Zina VERSAGGI Graalfs (#3336); Zina was in Florida caring for her mother, who is doing well. Members Jeannie MARSALIA (# 4251) and Ursula PASSAFUMA Rader (#4467) are recovering from their recent surgeries and Jim Gerick (#2730) is continuing treatment since his eye surgery. Lin collected dues, offered P.O.I.N.T. lapel pins for sale, reminded everyone about the ICA Italian Festa set for Oct 12 & 13 in Austin and read an email from Laura SABATINO (#4256) about her visit to Boston’s “Little Italy”.
Lynn LECROPANE (#4728) found new surnames in her early searching. She is attending the P.O.I.N.T. Conference and looking forward to finding even more names.
Warren and Eugenia ASSIABENE Luken celebrated their anniversary with their family.
Marie MASTRANGELO has put her father’s Norwegian family book in order; it goes back to 1430; she is beginning to work on her mother’s family.
Joe MASTRANGELO (#2614) passed around two new books he is reading, “A Traveller’s History of Italy” by Valerio Lintner, an easy to follow history of Italy, and “Bread and Respect - The Italians in Louisiana” by A.V. Margavio and Jerome J. Salomone. He also passed around a copy of “The Italian Neighborhoods”, a 20 page newsletter with news and recipes from Italian areas in the U.S. Joe is busy preparing for the trip to Salt Lake City and reviewing his research files.
Ernie Silva discovered that his grandfather had a double name of Silvera-Sousa and found his grandmother’s name of Espindola spelled four different ways. A discussion began about the differences between Italian Bread and French Bread.
Gloria GAMBACCINI Silva received a package from a cousin in Cleveland containing photos, a letter from a priest in Italy, and 31 pages of family information, which confirmed her Connecticut side.
Sheila BAYHA Dugosh (# 4365) began a discussion of the benefits of land records in genealogy research.
Bill Brinkman mentioned that he used ProQuest, available free at the Texas State Library, to locate family members in the 1870 New Jersey U.S. Census.
Zina VERSAGGI Graalfs (#3336) reported that she heard from someone in Argentina who has a New Jersey connection. She made a family chart for a niece. Zina related that around 1900 her grandfather was instrumental in the beginning of the shrimping industry and that he was in a video shown on PBS.
Jamie CANNONE and Di Frei are working on their wedding plans, set for
October 26 in western Pennsylvania. Jamie mentioned that the web site
Carol MAINA Roam (# 4623) is putting together her mother’s paternal family book. By using the information from the 1900 census, she was able to obtain her grandfather’s naturalization papers and passenger ship list.
Pat OXLEY (#3713) stated that she is getting prepared for the Salt Lake trip.
Marilyn MANISCALCO Henley (# 1653) announced that her Maniscalco family reunion is being held in Houston on October 6, and she passed around pictures of her new granddaughter Brenna Sue Kelly, born August 30. She announced that John P. Colletta would be the main speaker at the Texas State Genealogical Society Conference Nov 1 & 2 in Galveston.
Our new web address is http://www.main.org/pip10. Photos from the August 25 pot luck luncheon meeting with speaker Jonathan Galli are posted. Next meeting is Wednesday, October 23, 2002, at 6:30 p.m. at the Round Rock Library.