On April 12, 2003, PIP Chapter 22 met at the Italian
Community Center, 631 E. Chicago Street, Milwaukee, Wisconsin at 10:30 a.m.
The following
were in attendance: Frank Balistrieri, Ginny Balistreri,
Laura Lancione Bearskin, Nancy (4317) and Dick Boudreau, Joe Dentice,
Vince D’Orazio (3418), Tina Favero (4452), Mave Freyberg, Elsie Fucile and
her guest., Olga Fucile, Dani Graf, George Koleas (1527) Filomena Lee, Jeff
Nesta, Marie Roth (766), Tanna Salvaggio,
and Pat Therkelson (2356) and new members Michael Aliota, Janice Aliota, Adele
McGrath, Sophia Gasbarre Michalovitz, and Vicenzo Tarantino.
Our 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. New member Michael Aliota contacted
us because of one of our Italian Times articles.
He is now sharing information with other researchers. If
you have ideas for articles or have a query concerning family information you
are looking for, please let me know. I
will compile the information and send it to the Italian Times for publication.
Anthony
Alioto also contacted us about the article we had in the Italian Times
that related the story of the journey from Milwaukee to San Francisco by some
members of the Alioto family. Anthony is an attorney in San Francisco. He is a
member of the family we referred to in the article.
He specializes in Italian
inheritance law (le successioni), Italian pensions, and assistance on
Italian legal and accounting translations.
For more
information, see his web site at www.italianlaw.net.
We are beginning to share information with Anthony.
The
Wisconsin State Historical Society budget is facing drastic cuts. We received
a letter from Jack Brissee, President
of the Wisconsin State Genealogy
Society, giving details about the cuts and asking if we could write letters
and attend a Joint Finance Committee meeting in our area. This letter was
distributed to members with E-mail. I
attended the Joint Finance Committee meeting at Washington High School in
Milwaukee on Monday March 31, 2003 and submitted a letter of opposition.
When writing letters, we should not ask that the Society be exempted
from tax cuts, but rather that the size of the cuts be reduced.
The
National Genealogical Society conference will be held May 28 to 31, 2003 in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. PIP
Chapter 20 will have a display at the conference and asked for information
about our chapter. We will send
them information to hand out to interested attendees.
The
next POINT conference will be in Kansas City, Missouri from Thursday, October
7 to Sunday October 10, 2004.
Joe
Dentice showed us a book, written in Italian by Nicolo Lococo entitled
“Paesi di Mare, Porticello, Santa Flavia via Ondarroa”.
Porticello and Santa Flavia are near Palermo in Sicily. Ondarroa is in
the Basque area of
Spain.
Porticello and Ondarroa are sister cities. This beautiful book contained many
pictures depicting the subject villages from the past and present. The book
provides many details about families, such as the Dentici family, with
connections to these villages.
Joe
Dentice described how one of his family members had moved to Spain and
established a sardine fishing business. He started by teaching the Spanish
about fishing for sardines and anchovies, built fishing boats and transported
his catch by mule. He began packaging sardines in barrels and eventually
established a cannery and a lithographer to make the labels for his sardine
cans. The book had a picture of
the Dentici sardine can label.
Stephen
P. Morse’s alternative Ellis Island search site can be reached through a new
web site at www.stevemorse.org
The
National Archives and Records Administration has opened a website at http://www.archives.gov/research_room/genealogy/
It describes what resources they have and how to search their holdings.
We
discussed the process for establishing dual Italian citizenship. To be eligible
·
your father was an
Italian citizen at the time of your birth and you never renounced your right
to Italian citizenship;
·
your mother was an
Italian citizen at the time of your birth, you were born after January 1, 1948
and you never renounced your right to Italian citizenship;
·
your father was born in
the United States, your paternal grandfather was an Italian citizen at the
time of his birth, neither you nor your father ever renounced the right to
Italian citizenship;
·
your mother was born in
the United States, your maternal grandfather was an Italian citizen at the
time of her birth, you were born after January 1, 1948 and neither you nor
your mother ever renounced the right to Italian citizenship.
Further
details can be found on the Chicago Italian Consulate website at:
http://www.italconschicago.org/english/citizenship.htm
Tanna
Salvaggio discovered by asking her cousins, that they had relatives in Ohio.
She found relatives in the 1930 Ohio Census. After checking probate records,
she found the name of someone that was still living.
Tanna wrote to them and in return found the family of the sisters of
her great grandmother to 1700.
Our meetings for the rest of 2003 will be on Saturday’s, September 13 and November 8, 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 next meetings.
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
