On April 24, 2004, PIP Chapter 22 met at the Italian Community Center, 631 E. Chicago Street, Milwaukee, Wisconsin at 10:30 a.m.
The following members were in attendance: Michael Aliota, Ginny Balistreri, Frank Balistrieri, John Balistreri, Tina Favero (4452), Mave Freyberg, Elsie Fucile, Dani Marino Graf, George Koleas (1527), Dan and Marlene Krause(4882), Filomena Lea, Laura Lancione, Marie Roth (766), Adele Tarantino McGrath and her Mother, Anna Alioto Tarantino , Steve and Jean Scalzo, Tana Salvaggio (4835), Marge Schutz (2149), Anna D’Amico Skoczynski, Joyce Weber (4438)and Susan White. Also in attendance were new members John and Arlene Jorgensen and guests Frank Alioto, Janice Aliota, Tom Alioto, Steve Alioto, and Betty Balen.
The Fourth Biennial POINT National Conference will be in Kansas City, Missouri, October 7, 8 and 9, 2004. Visit the POINT website at www.point-pointers.net for the latest information. If any members are attending, please contact George Koleas.
We were asked by Jean DiMotto to review her qualifications and, if we agreed that she was qualified, to write a letter of support to Governor Doyle, asking him to consider her for an appointment to the Wisconsin Supreme Court. We sent such a letter on April 7, 2004. Governor Doyle sent a letter in return thanking us for our input concerning this appointment.
A letter was received from Vince Colitti (2933). He is also a member of the International Boxing Research Organization. He is working on researching Italian boxers. His letter asked for help to find about Joe Percente, who fought in Milwaukee. He also asked about Charley Balistreri, whose hero was Joe Percente. It appears that when Charley fought, he fought under the name Joe Percente. Joe Percente was a part of Jane Pipia’s family. Jane is preparing information to send to Vince.
We received a call from Mary Herro. She is the daughter of Rocco Maglio. Rocco's wife's first name was Leboria. Rocco's parents were Salvatore Maglio and Carmella Loggio. Her family was found in the 1930 census. Barbara Roberts, (1202), is assisting her. If you have any information, please contact George Koleas.
Mary A, (1322), is asking for help in
researching her SPARACINO surname from Montevago, Sicily, province of
Agrigento. If you have information, please contact her at
LMBSL@aol.com
Gayle Licari, (1231), asked we place a query on our website concerning her family. Here is what she wrote: “Cristina LICARI m. an Unknown BRUCELLATO. He passed away between 1926-1930. She then married Leonardo D' ANNA...He died in 1963. She died prior to him. I think Cristina's brother, Michele "Michael" LICARI m. Josephine SAN FILIPPO and his younger sister, Antonina LICARI m. Peter SAN FILIPPO. There sons and daughter and eventually their Mom moved to Southern California San Diego area. I am trying to find out who Peter and Josephine San Filippo’s parents were. Also, the first name for Cristina's first husband. I am not certain the spelling of his last name is correct. They had a son who was b. 1926 named Joseph BRUCELLATO. They were from San Giuseppe Jato, and San Cipirello, Palermo, Sicily and came to Wisconsin, Milwaukee and Madison in 1905 for the LICARI's. The San FILIPPO's, I am not certain, but they were in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Cristina LICARI D'ANNA and Leonardo D' ANNA were in West Allis, Wisconsin. Her siblings married with DARONEs, SANFILIPPOs, DI PIAZZAs, FIOREs, CARUSOs, LICARIs, ZICHICHIs.” Adele Tarantino McGrath took this information and was gong to try to check with potential Sanfilippo’s that she knew. If you have any information, please contact George Koleas.
Bobby Tanzilo contacted us. He is coordinating the display, Una Storia Segreta: When Italian Americans Were Enemy Aliens, created by Larry DiStasi, which will be at the Milwaukee County Historical Society March 26 to May 30, 2004. Bobby has a web site for Piemontesi Americans, http://www.monferrini.com, which has been featured in Italian newspapers like La Stampa and Il Monferrato as well as News Italia Press and other web journals.
Steve Scalzo described his successful experience working with Peter Bellanti. Steve joins the growing list of our members with ancestors from Palermo, Sant’ Elia, Sant’ Flavia, Solunto, Porticello or adjacent villages, and who have found that they are cousins. We have received many contacts concerning potential ancestors that may be found in the information provided by Peter. Peter has the information going backward, but needs information on current families back to their immigrant ancestors. We have sent a blank family tree and family group sheet for these individuals to fill out. When these individuals provide us with the information on their families, we forward it to Peter. Peter has a website at www.bellanti.org .
Elsie Fucile, George Koleas and Pat Stein attended The Wisconsin State Genealogical Society Gene-A-Rama on April 23 and 24, 2004 at Olympia Resort in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. The featured speaker was John Phillip Colletta. During his speech on immigration, he suggested assembling all the information you know from family stories such as name, any spelling variations of the name, age at the time of immigration, the name of the port, the name of the ship, the name of anyone they may be traveling with and their occupation before searching the indexes. When you are searching the available indexes, matching as many of these facts together will help you locate the right passenger, especially when there are many similar names to choose from arriving during the same time.
At our last meeting we discussed theories about the origin of the Alioto surname variations of Alioto, Aliota, Arioto and Galioto. Further research and collaboration with other researches has shown us that all of our theories were probably correct except the one concerning a town called Alia. The potentially correct theories include:
· Members of a particular Alioto family, wishing to distinguish themselves from another Alioto family began using Aliota instead of Alioto.
· In old Italian records, the “L” in Alioto is transcribed as an “R” and the name appears as Arioto.
· Galioto originates from the word "Galeotto" which means "galley slave." The Galioti did not want to be known as "slaves", so they changed the name to "Alioti" and later to “Alioto”.
· Some Galioto simply dropped the “G” when they came to America and became Alioto.
Betty Balen recommended Prince of Foxes, a work of fiction by Samuel Shellabarger. Betty said that the surname Galioto was used in the story.
We discussed the meaning of the surname Balistreri. The website http://www.italyworldclub.com/genealogy/surnames/b.htm reports that variations of Balestra, Balestrini and Balestrieri are connected to the profession of crossbow maker or soldier.
George Koleas (1527) reported on a breakthrough in his research. He had trouble locating his grandfather, Giuseppe Costa’s birth certificate. The birth date was known from marriage and from Leva records from Burgio, Agrigento. Going back to additional records birth records from Burgio, it was discovered that Giuseppe’s parents had filed a delayed birth record, acknowledging that he was their son, born prior to their marriage and placed in an Institute dei Trovatelli in Agrigento. Trovatelli means “foundlings”. This facility was for children, whose parents were known, but who could not care for them, as opposed to orphans. Surnames still had to be given. When placed in this facility, Giuseppe was given the surname Fiore. Fiore means single flower. The article “Tracing Italian Lineages of Adoptees and Ancestors Born Outside Marriage”, located at http://italiangenealogy.tardio.com/html/index.php had the following additional information. “From 1860 until 1929, the Italian state (i.e. the Kingdom of Italy) did not recognize Catholic marriages. Although it is true that both ecclesiastical and civil marriages were performed for most spousal unions in certain parts of Italy (such as the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies) in the decades before 1860, the Kingdom of Italy refused to recognize ecclesiastical marriages altogether. This means that an act of birth from, for example, 1875, might refer to a child as the son of "an unwed mother" who in fact was married in church but not at the town hall. A formal act of recognition was made by the natural father before the local vital statistics registrar.”
Filomena Lea reported that she will be attending a picnic called Rendese Summer, held by the Toronto Rende Club on July 25th in Woodbridge, Ontario, Canada. Filomena’s relatives were from Rende, Cosenza. If you are interested in attending or would like more information, please call Filomena at 414 352-8044 or 414 352-5880.
Filomena Lea informed us that Martin Hintz, the author of Irish Milwaukee, a book in the “Images of America” series, is working on a book entitled Italian Milwaukee.
Filomena Lea also recommends the book , Under the Southern Sun: Stories of the Real Italy and the Americans It Created by Paul Paolicelli.
Steve Scalzo, reported that many libraries now offer AncestryPlus. AncestryPlus is an enhanced library version of Ancestry.com's celebrated genealogical database that provides instant access to more than one billion names in more than 3,000 databases, including digital images of the 1790-1930 US Censuses, as well as immigration, vital, court, church, and ethnic records; city directories, genealogical societies, Social Security Death Index, Periodical Source Index (PERSI), family history library, Civil War Pension Index, and 700 historical maps. Steve reports that contents of AncestryPlus may vary by library. Check with your local libraries for details and restrictions.
We submitted our idea for a display at Festa Italiana which will be held on July 16, 17 and 18, to Italian Community Center President Mario Carini, on 1-18-2003. Our idea is to create a space for a Family Reunion Tent and a display. Our reunion idea was not responded to. Michael Aliota and Ginny Balistreri will form a committee to try to move this idea forward on our own. In our last meeting, we reported that The Italian Community Center Cultural Committee expressed an interest to collaborate with us. Our display idea was considered. We have been told that we could share space in the Culture Committee tent. We have no other firm details. If we are provided a space, we have to determine the size of the space we will be provided so that we can plan the contents of our display and determine how many volunteers we need. At our meeting, we discussed display options. If we can come to an agreement with the Culture Committee that fits within our purpose statement we will send out further updates. Until then, please consider if you can volunteer.
Our website, articles and queries in the Italian Times continue to be successful in locating information about our families and interesting individuals in becoming members of our chapter. If you have a query concerning family information you are looking for, please let me know. I will compile the information I receive and send it to the Italian Times for publication. I will also post it on the new “Queries” page on our website. If you have ideas for articles for the Italian Times, please also send them to me.
Our next meeting will be held on Saturday, September 18, 2004, at the Italian Community Center, 631 E. Chicago Street, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. We will meet, starting at 10:30 a.m. and conclude the formal meeting at Noon. Those that wish to, will then go to the restaurant, order lunch and continue to share information and help one another or they may make plans to meet elsewhere. Everyone is welcome to attend our meetings. We will set our meeting schedule for 2005 at our September meeting. Our last meeting of 2004 will be Saturday, November 13, at the same time and place.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact George Koleas by e-mail at GeorgeJK676@wi.rr.com or by phone at (262) 251-7216 after 7:00 p.m.
Submitted by George Koleas (1527)
