November 18, 1998 Meeting Minutes

POINTers IN PERSON Minutes
Central Texas/Austin
Marilyn MANISCALCO Henley (#1653)

Lin ONOFRIO Brinkman (#1388) opened the monthly PIP meeting Wed, Nov 18, 1998 at the Bank One in Round Rock with 21 members and guests attending. She announced that the Christmas pot luck luncheon would be at their home on Sunday, Dec 13 at 1:00 p.m. The 1999 meeting schedule is not set. Minutes of last month’s meeting were passed around.

Lin informed everyone that the annual Austin Ethnic Fair sponsored by Concordia University will be held on Saturday, Jan 23 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the university, 3400 North IH 35. The Austin PIP group will have a booth; volunteers are encouraged to help man the booth. The Italian Cultural Association will have a separate booth. Lin briefed the group on the progress of the 2000 POINT Conference to be held in Austin.

Judy FRIDELLA, a new researcher, joined us for the first time. Her uncle, who lives in California is also researching their Italian lines. She's trying to get current family data and is reading microfilm records at the FHC. Her surnames and towns are: FRIDELLA, NIGRO, CARUSO, CASULLO, ACCADIA, FOGGIA. Judy's email address is: jfridell@usa.net.

Gloria GAMBACCINI and Ernie SILVA are also new to our group. Their family names are: GAMBACCINI from MONDAVIO, Pesaro, Urbino and RICCI from MONDOLFO.

Laurie GUGINO Riester, whose grandmother's maiden name was also GUGINO, has located her grandparents in the 1920 New York census. Additional microfilm that just arrived includes passenger lists and the 1910 NY census. A newly discovered 2nd cousin is Carla GUGINO, who had appeared on the television show "Spin City".

Don VILLONI (#3985) discovered a link to his grandfather Dominic VILLONI who was the music composer and the late singer/musician RUSS COLUMBO. He showed the group an album he found at a music vendor’s convention of the Russ Columbo Story sung by Paul Bruno and a Russ Columbo music CD. He is also corresponding with record dealers and with a RIZZO connection.

Jamie CANNONE is searching for his TRICOLI great great grandparents in Barcellona records.

Frank HENRY (IANNARINO) (#3258) talked with an individual with his mother's maiden name LaManna while he and Beth were in Pittsburg; they did not find a family connection. However, all was not a loss, they brought back Italian salami and cheese from Pittsburg. Frank and Beth also visited Savannah and Charleston, Beth’s hometown.

Marilyn MANISCALCO Henley (#1653) read an email message from Dallas member Mary Lou ONOFRIO who was unable to attend. Mary Lou found Anglantonio ONOFRIO’S parents, Nicolo and Maria Rosa DELLA PENTA.

Marilyn received an email message from a SCACCIA who told her that the local Sicilian dialect of Ragusa Sicily for focaccia bread is "Scaccia". Marilyn announced the speaker for the November 24 Austin Genealogical Meeting would be David Baskin speaking on "The History and Origin of English Surnames".

Jeanie MARSALIA is working on obtaining naturalization records.

Gloria GAMBACCINI SILVA is just beginning her research and is trying to find out what relatives are still in MONDOLFO Italy. She passed around a naturalization certificate.

Joe MASTRANGELO (#2614) has found his MASTRANGELO great great grandfather's birth and 1838 marriage certificates in the Putignano, Italy microfilm records. Since the town does not have older records, he wrote to the Putignano priest to try to locate older records. By using mirofilm records of Westmoreland Co, PA, he located a 1908 marriage record for a MASTRANGELO.

Joe suggested that when we read ancestor's Italian birth records that we watch for marriage notations that might have been entered. Also, we might check death records in the event of an early death of a family member.

Joe showed everyone a book on the history of Putignano, Bari, Italy that he is attempting to translate into English using a new, more powerful computer translation program. He mentioned a PIE thread about new privacy laws in Italy that might make it more difficult to obtain information. Each town can interpret the law their own way.

Augie TROIANI introduced his niece, Liana FATTORE who is visiting from SARDENIA. She is a researcher at a university in Italy.

Sheila BAYHA Dugosh mentioned that Joe forwarded her a message about an Antonio LEONE from Settingiano, Catanzaro, Calabria.

Next meeting will be in January; schedule to be set. Members and spouse or guest will meet on December 13 for our Christmas luncheon.

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