On April 9, 2005, 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, Frank Balistrieri, John Balistreri, Fran Marino Coloboth, Mave Freyberg, Tina Favero(4452), Lisa Joecks, John and Arlene Jorgensen, Maribeth LaMarca, Filomena Lea, George Koleas (1527), Jackie Maggiore (4391), Vincent D’Orazio(3418), Domenica Podewils, Marie Roth (766), Jean and Steve Scalzo, David and Tana Salvaggio (4835) Ann Skoczynski. Also in attendance were guests Peter Gumina and
Niemiec and new members Colleen Bettini, Ruth Baldini Hendrickson, Linda Marino Peters.
Colleen Betti’s family is from Casine and Nesale in Sestola, Modena, Emilia Romagna. Her surnames include Bettini, Bonacorsi, Biolchini, Bonucchi and Zapaglia. Ruth Baldini Hendrichson’s Baldini family is from Senigallia, Anacona, Marche. Linda Marino Peters family is from Santo Stefano Di Camastra, Messina. Her surnames include Bartolotta, Bosica, Cappadona, Cerniglia, Coloboth, Farina, Franco, Giardina, Gregorio, Maglio, Marino, Merlo, Olla, Piscitello, Torcivia, Turdo, Valenti.
Pointers In Person, Chapter 27, Chicago North, is planning "Italian Roots", an Italian Genealogy Conference on Saturday, September 17th, 2005, 9:00a.m. to 4:15 p.m. at the Italian Cultural Center, 1621 North 39th Ave. Stone Park, IL 60165. The conference is a rare opportunity to spend a day learning from the best and most knowledgeable Italian genealogists in the area. There will be two tracks of speakers so you can choose which presentations you would like to see. Conference registration is $40.00 and includes five one-hour presentations, an excellent family-style Italian lunch, a syllabus with material from all ten presentations, and also a chance to view the Italian Cultural Center exhibits. Topics will include; Beginning Italian Genealogy; Internet Resources; Oral History; Working With Italian Records; Building Your Italian Pedigree; Preparing For Your Genealogy Trip To Italy; The Origin and Meaning of Italian Surnames; How To Get The Most Out of Your Family History Center, Chicago Resources for the Italian Genealogist and Using Passenger Arrival Records. For more information and a registration form go to http://www.chicagoitalian.org/ . Please register as soon as possible to make sure you can attend.
The conference date conflicts with our next
meeting on September 17, 2005. Because so many members at our meeting plan
to attend the conference, our meeting will be cancelled. We will hold a
meeting on the bus or at the conference instead.
At our meeting, we decided to charter a coach bus to take members to attend
the conference. We can take 47 passengers. We will pick up at the park and
ride lots located at Watertown Plank Road in the southside lot, College
Avenue in the southwest corner and in Racine at Highway 20, Ives Grove, west
of the interstate. We will also have the bus take guests to the Woodfield
Mall in Schaumburg, Illinois while we are at the conference. The cost is
$15.00 per person. If you would like to sign up for the bus, we will
reserve seats on a first come first served basis. Please send cash, check
or money order made out to George Koleas to W156 N10640 Cobbler Lane,
Germantown, Wisconsin 53022-4107.
Festa Italiana in Milwaukee Wisconsin will be July 21 through July 24, 2005. The focus of this year’s Festa Italiana will be the Piemonte region. We have offered to help by providing display material in the form of posters. While our display last year was well received and well attended, the return contacts were minimal for the time and effort we expended. We will not ask for a display table or display space.
Michael Alioto has concluded that after last years successful reunion for families from the Santa' Elia, Santa Flavia, Porticello, Solanto, Solunto, and other towns located around Palermo, with attendees traveling here from all over the country, it was not the right time to hold another reunion again this year. Surnames from this area include Alioto (also Aliota, Arioto and Galioto), Balistreri (also Balistrieri), Bellanti, Busalacchi, Dentice, Machi, Tarantino, SanFilippo and many other related families. Many of our members continue to research these surnames.
Anthony Alioto from San Francisco contacted us. He writes: “I saw your article in the winter edition of Pointers in which you referred to www.virtualitalia.com. For your information, we are the moderators of the Italian Law Forum within this site as well as contributing editors on articles in its Features section. You may wish to take a peek. Also, I thought you should know that we are about to launch our sister web site that I thought you might find very interesting. It has several objectives. One of them is: "breaking through the genealogy "brick wall"" through family real estate records in Italy. How? On a typical title report one's family members are often listed as co-owners along with their birth dates and places. How does it work? Here is a sneak preview of our beta site. See the examples to find the relatives holding title. (Of course, since these are official State reports from Italy you need some basic Italian to get by. For those of you who only speak Siclian, we have provided a usefull glossary of terms.) http://www.sevim.it/italianlaw/index.asp I plan to have a booth in Milwaukee at Festa Italiana this July.” Anthony’s website is www.italianlaw.net
Karl Roussin kroussin@fidnet.com wrote another interesting message to a Pomeranian mailing list
Pommern-L@genealogy.net . He writes: “Check out this following site that has about 600 CDs for info, that the volunteers will do a lookup for you. They have some instructions , for you to check out the Family Finder Index page before you ask a volunteer for a lookup. When you click on the link http://www.loricase.com/CDs/cdlist.html , you will have to check three message windows before the site opens.
If you are interested in Milwaukee nostalgia, check out http://www.retrocom.com/retromilw/milwretro.htm,
http://www.retrocom.com/retromilw/retromilmem.htm, or
http://www.onmilwaukee.com/buzz/articles/100memories1.html, or
http://www.onmilwaukee.com/buzz/articles/100memories2.html
Filomena Lea attended a picnic called Rendese Summer, held by the Toronto Rende Club on July 25th 2004, in Woodbridge, Ontario, Canada. Filomena’s relatives were from Rende, Cosenza. Filomena reported that she was welcomed and enjoyed the opportunity to meet with people who had relatives that shared her heritage. The club once had over 800 members, but now has 200 members.
Marie Roth (766) suggests that many Italian towns now have websites that have interesting information about the town’s history that may provide insights about where your ancestor lived and the conditions in the village.
Steve Scalzo is asking if any members can provide instructions on how to edit a VHS video and transfer it to a DVD.
Vince D’Orazio (3418) described how he was contacted by a person who thought his son may live in Vince’s home town. Vince made the contact. The son had been told that his father had died in Vietnam. The family is now in the process of reuniting.
Some immigrants earned their citizenship by fighting in the American Army during World War I. To locate these ancestors you can try to locate their draft registrations. Their military records would be on file in St. Louis, MO.. http://www.archives.gov/facilities/mo/st_louis/military_personnel_records.html
We discussed the location of naturalization records. The first place to check is the Milwaukee County Historical Society, where you can look up immigrants in a card file. Some records are at the Society. http://www.milwaukeecountyhistsoc.org/rlibrary.html Other records are at the Milwaukee County Courthouse. Still others are in the National Archives in Chicago. http://www.archives.gov/facilities/il/chicago.html
To keep our website accurate, members are asked to review the website surname list to update and correct surnames and locations. The surnames of any inactive members will be removed and stored in an inactive file.
Our next meeting will be held on Saturday, November 12, 2005 at the Italian Community Center, 631 E. Chicago Street, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, starting at 10:30 a.m. and concluding at noon.
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)
