These minutes were sent to members with e-mail on 4-23-2008
On Saturday, April 19, 2008, a meeting was held at the Italian Community Center, 631 E. Chicago Street, Milwaukee, Wisconsin at 10:30 a.m.. Those in attendance included: Members: Larry and Glenna Amateis,, Rosemary and Lisa Joecks (5065), John and Arlene Jorgensen, Donna Huck , George Koleas (1527), Jeff Nesta, Harold and Pauline Kuehnel, Steve and Jean Scalzo, Barbara Roberts (1202), Marie Roth (766 ), and Tana Salvaggio (4835 ).
Randy Croce, of St. Paul, Minn., will be in Milwaukee on April 26, 2008, making a presentation on Italian immigrant stone workers in Wisconsin to the annual conference of the Wisconsin Labor History Society from 11:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. at the Golda Meir Library on the UWM Campus, 2311 W. Hartford Ave. The admission for the day-long conference, "Immigration, Unions and Workers" is $25.
There is a conference in Stone Park (same location as the Italian Genealogy conference in 2005) entitled "Reconstructing Italians in Chicago: 25 Authors in Search of Roots and Branches". This is not a genealogy conference, but interesting if your family is from the Chicago area. The Conference will be held May 8-10 from 9:30 am- 9 pm at Casa Italia, Stone Park, IL, To join an e-mail list and for info about the event e-mail Dominic.Candeloro@gmail.com or phone 847-951-9109.
The Wisconsin State Genealogical Society Fall Conference will be held Saturday, October 11, 2008 at Holiday Inn Express and Janesville Conference Center, Janesville, Wisconsin. Check the Wisconsin State Genealogical Society website for developments at http://www.wsgs.org/ .
Lisa Joecks (5065), attended the Wisconsin State Genealogical Society Gene-A-Rama held April 11-12, 2008 Plaza Hotel & Suites Conference Center, Eau Claire, Wisconsin. The main speaker discussed how to identify the dates of photographs
Vincent D’Orazio (3418), wrote an article entitled ”My Genetic Odyssey”. The article appeared in POINTers, Volume 22, Number 1, Spring, 2008. Congratulations Vince on publishing your article.
Our friend Peter Bellanti is asking for our help. Does anyone have information on the family of Angelo Cefalu, born about 1830, who married a Maria Cefalu? Angelo and Maria Cefalu, are parents of Pasqua Cefalu. Pasqua married a Nicolo D'Amato, who heads up a family that settled in Milwaukee.
Val Schleicher had sent us a contact last year from Jo Ann and Louis Sanfilippo, asking for information on their family. We placed a query for them on our website. We have since received a communication from Emanuela Sanfilippo, who writes the following: “My father was from Bronte, Sicily. He was born Alfio Sanfilippo. His father’s name was Filippo Sanfilippo who was married to Teresa Cirimbolo Prestifilippo. I remember my grandmother told me a story about some family members who left Bronte for the USA. I only know that they lost any contact with them. I was surfing the internet and I found this website. I notice a query from Jo Ann and Louis Sanfilippo and the first thing the caught my eyes was the name of the city Bronte. It's a small town, about an hour away from Catania (the city), under the mountain Etna. I am thinking that I may be somehow related to them. My father passed away three years ago, but my uncle (his brother) is still alive and maybe we can help Jo Ann and Louis’”.
Vincent D’Orazio (3418), sent us a contact he had from Dee in Texas who wrote: ”I am searching for the town my grandfather originated from. I found a form with the town, San Leo as his birth place. Has anyone seen or heard of the names DeMarino-DeMarini-Bleno in this area? My Great Grandfather was Francis, Great Grandmother was Anna. My Grandfather was Giuseppe DeMarino and arrived in the USA around 1907-1911. He settled in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was married to Armida Papi Please, if anyone has ever heard of this name, please e-mail me. I have searched 14 years now and plan on visiting Italy in June 2009 with my daughter and grand daughter. I would love to be able to meet my Italian family and have my family meet them. Thank you all in advance. Sur-names: DeMarino, Papi, Bleno, Naldi, Michelena”. Dani Graf also received an e-mail from Dee and is also trying to help her.
Please let me know if you have any information on any of the above families and I will pass the information on.
Marie Roth (466) described her experiences with Matteo, a young man who made contact with us and her based on finding that she was researching the Borre family in the town of Zerba on our website. Matteo originally had seen a posting from Marie’s sister, who has since passed away. But when he found that her e-mail was no longer active, he continued to search and he found us and Marie through our website.
You can get a free, no obligation, 56 page preview issue of a new genealogy publication titled ‘Discovering Family History’, aimed at new genealogists. Although it is aimed at new genealogists, it has a lot of good information. No matter how experienced you are, it is always good to go back to the basics to make sure you have not missed anything. For the free issue, go to: http://www.discoveringfamilyhistory.com/ .
The May 2008 issue of “Internet Genealogy” has an article entitled “The 20 Best Sites for Italian Genealogy” by Donna Pointkouski. This is a very good magazine. With the demise of Ancestry’s “Genealogical Computing”, it is the only magazine that fully covers new developments and techniques for your research on the internet. For more details, go to: http://www.internet-genealogy.com/ . The following is the list:
Italy Gen Web; http://www.italywgw.org/, Archivi Portal; http://www.archivi.beniculturali.it/sitoenglish.html, Italian Genealogy Online; http://www.anzwers.org/free/italiangen/, Italian Heritage and Genealogy Home Page; http://www.daddezio.com/italgen.html, Italian Genealogy.com; http://italiangenealogy.tardio.com/, Italian Genealogy Group http://italiangen.org/; Jewish Genealogy in Italy; http://www.italian-family-history.com/jewish/genealogy.html; Italy:Tips for Reading the Records; http://www.werelate.org/wiki/Italy:_Tips_for_Reading_the_Records_research_guide, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; http://www.familysearch.org/, Arcaini’s Home Page; http://www.arcaini.com/ITALY/ItalyHomePage.html, Transcribed Vital Records; http://www.sersale.org/comunes.htm,The Italian Hertitage; http://www.theitalianheritage.it/?lang=english, Italian to English Vocabulary; http://www.roangelo.net/vocabula.html, Italy Maps; http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/italy.html, Gens; http://www.gens.labo.net/en/cognomi/, Italian Ancestry; http://www.italianancestry.com/, Pursuing Our Italian Names Together, P.O.I.N.T.; http://www.point-pointers.net/home.html, Pursuing Our Italian Names Together E-Mail; http://www.cimorelli.com/pie/, Il Circolo Calabrese; http://www.circolocalabrese.org/, and Italian Genealogy and Heraldry Society of Canada; http://www.windsor-communities.com/italian-club-ighsc.php
This kicked off a discussion of favorite resources from the internet.
Recalling our discussion from our last meeting, we revisited Footnote, a fee based site that has an agreement with the National Archives to digitize selected records. For details, go to: http://archives.gov/press/press-releases/2007/nr07-41.html . This site has a lot of historical information as well as some information that would be of interest to genealogists such as naturalization records. For information on their naturalization records, go to: http://www.footnote.com/page/73/naturalization-records . There are some free materials, but remember that this is a paid site The site allows you to do a limited search to try them out and decide is you think a paid subscription would be worth the cost of $7.95 per month or $59.95 per year. The website is at http://www.footnote.com/
Linkpendium claims to be the “Definitive Directory” for internet genealogy with 6,696,579 genealogy links to date at http://www.linkpendium.com/
The Godfrey Library has a variety of resources, but does charge for access. Much of what they offer is available at other sites without charge. However, they do have some unique content. You can find out more at: http://www.godfrey.org/ and decide it this site may help you.
Pauline Kuehnel describes a site at the New Ulm Library in Minnesota, where she found interesting information including pictures and obituaries. The site is at http://www.newulmlibrary.org/webpages/aboutnupl/history.html . While this is not specifically an Italian site, it shows that there are many libraries and historical societies that have holdings that may be of interest to you. Make sure that you check the historical societies from the areas that your family lived. Many sites are adding content all the time. Remember to revisit sites. Something you need may have been added since your last visit.
Steve Scalzo discussed the site Wisconsin Ancestors. This website lists genealogy research available from John Von Haden, a native of Hartford, Wisconsin, that covers all of Washington and Ozaukee counties, Wisconsin and portions of Milwaukee, Waukesha, Dodge, Sheboygan, Fond du Lac counties with some focus on Calumet, Chippewa, Clark, Marathon, Outagamie and Wood counties http://www.washcowis.com/. The website has some content that is e free and much more available for a fee. Other sites with Wisconsin information include: http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/genealogy/, http://www.usgennet.org/usa/wi/state1/, http://www.ancestorhunt.com/wisconsin-genealogy.htm, and http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wigenweb/
During our last meeting we discussed a site that specialized in Sicilian genealogy at http://www.sicilianfamilytree.com/. Also from that meeting were two websites that will help you to locate an Italian Church at http://www.parrocchie.it/index.html?CCHK=1&cercointabella=&id and http://www.chiesacattolica.it/cci_new/PagineCCI/index1.jsp?idPagina=4 Click on the map of Italy on the province you are interested in. At our next meeting we will continue our discussion of our favorite resources.
During July 17-20, 2008, Festa Italiana in Milwaukee, Wisconsin will feature Campania. We will have a genealogy display in the Culture tent. Anyone with ancestors from Campania or elsewhere are welcome to help with the display or volunteer in the tent. We have a large map and are creating materials for our display. We particularly will need family trees that display ancestors from Campania. Jeff Nesta has supplied us with his family tree. If you know of any interesting genealogical facts about Campania, please send them to me. For information about Festa Italiana 2008, go to http://www.festaitaliana.com/.
Bobby Cefalu and Peter Orlando, from the Italian Community Center, took a group to Sicily in October 2007. They are planning another trip October 3-18, 2008. You can read about the 2007 trip and learn about the 2008 trip at http://adventuresicily.com/ or by calling Bobby Cefalu at 414 352-2597. Lisa Joecks (5065), plans to go on the 2008 trip.
Our next meeting will be on Saturday, September 13, 2008, at the Italian Community Center, 631 E. Chicago Street, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, starting at 10:30 a.m. and concluding at noon. At this meeting we will set our calendar for 2009. Please mark your calendar for our final meeting of 2008 on Saturday, November 8 at the Italian Community Center. We welcome anyone with an interest in Italian Family History. If you have any questions or need additional information, please feel free to contact George Koleas by e-mail or by calling (262) 251-7216 after 7:00 p.m..
Submitted by George Koleas (1527)
