January 11

On Saturday, January 12, 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, Joe Dentice, Vince D’Orazio (3418), Lisa and Rosemary Joecks, John and Arlene Jorgensen, George Koleas (1527), Filomena Lea, Jeff Nesta, Jim Pignatore (4053), Joyce Weber (4438) and Susan White. Also in attendance were new members: Harold and Pauline Kuehnel

I am sorry to inform you that our member, Margaret Schutz (2149), passed away on December 4, 2007. Please join me in offering our condolences to our member and her sister, Susan White and our prayers for Margaret.

On a happier note, Vince D’Orazio (3418) was temporarily back in town after teaching at a medical school in China in Tianjin, China. While in China, Vince found himself talking to three Brazillians from San Paolo, with Italian roots in Lucca, near Piza. Vince will be returning to China soon. We wish him the best of luck. Watch for Vince’s up coming article on DNA in his research in a future edition of POINTers.

During July 17-20, 2008, Festa Italiana will feature Campania. Anyone with ancestors from Campania or elsewhere is welcome to help. We particularly will need the largest map of Campania that we can find and family trees that display ancestors from Campania. http://www.italiantourism.com/campania.html.

Filomena Lea informs us that the reunion in Calabria in 2010 has a new website at www.calabria2010.com . Calabria was a focus of your display at last years Festa Italiana.

Dani Marino Graf explained the problems she was having obtaining dual citizenship. She is searching for a document or documents that will help her connect the way her grandfather’s name was spelled in Italy and the spelling he used in America. Like many of us, her grandfather did not formally change his name in a court proceeding. Instead, he just started using a different spelling.

Pauline Kuehnel introduced herself and her husband. Pauline originally asked for help to translate a letter into Italian. Vince D’Orazio (3418) translated the letter for her while he was in China. They were able to meet at today’s meeting. The letter was to the director of the Figurine Museum of Immigration in Coreglia, Italy, which had an exhibit of her great great grandfathers sculptures. Pauline’s great grandfather, Michele Filippe Rigali was born May 26, 1841. Pauline tells us that “When he departed from his homeland of Barga, Italy he left behind his father Domenico and mother Annunziata Equi Rigali. Michele’s family consisted of Marianna born September 8, 1822; Giovanni Jacopo born June 25, 1825; Luigi Jabarino born December 8, 1827; Maria Anna born May 18, 1830; GioBatta born February 17, 1833; Maria Felicite Fortunata born May 6, 1835; Maria Gioconda born July 14, 1838; and her great-grandfather, Michele born May 26, 1841. Michele & Mary Ann had three sons born in Saratoga Springs, New York. His works at the Provincial Exhibition of Quebec, solidified his great reputation as a sculptor. His most important contracts were no doubt the 17 statues for the facade of St. Jean the Baptist Church of Quebec in 1885 as well as some of the interior ornaments of the courthouse of that city.”

The Italian Times reported that Bobby Cefalu and Peter Orlando took a group from the Italian Community Center to Sicily in October 2007. They are planning another trip October 3-18, 2008. You can read bout the 2007 trip and learn about the 2008 trip when details are available at http://adventuresicily.com/ or by calling Bobby Cefalu at 414 352-2597

The Wisconsin State Genealogical Society Gene-A-Rama will be held April 11-12, 2008 Plaza Hotel & Suites Conference Center, Eau Claire, Wisconsin. for more details go to http://www.wsgs.org/wsgsAnnualEvents/gar08.php The Fall Conference will be held Saturday, 11 October 2008 at Holiday Inn Express and Janesville Conference Center, Janesville, Wisconsin. Additional details are not available. Check the Wisconsin State Genealogical Society website for developments at http://www.wsgs.org/

Dominic Candeloro writes to us about a conference entitled "Reconstructing Italians in Chicago: Twenty Authors in Search of Roots and Branches" sponsored by The Italian Cultural Center at Casa Italia, the National Italian American Foundation, the Illinois Humanities Council, Leonard Amari and Freddy's Pizza. The goal is to produce a new anthology that will serve at the essential contemporary basic source on the topic of Italians in Chicago. The conference will be held May 8-11, 2008 at Casa Italia, in Stone Park, IL. The early bird conference fee---which includes all sessions as well as several meals and all breaks and receptions, conference materials, and membership in the pre-conference listserv is $100. Make out checks to Casa Italia and direct them to 3800 Division St., Stone Park, IL 60165. For additional information, contact Dominic Candeloro at D-Candeloro@govst.edu or 847-951-9109.

Also concerning Italians in Chicago, Modio Media News, which can be contacted at news-ItaliansOfChicago@modiomedia.com, writes “We are proud to announce “And They Came To Chicago: The Italian American Legacy”, a new documentary tracing 150 years of the Italian American experience in Chicago and nationwide narrated by Tony Award-winner Joe Mantegna is now available on DVD and contains many special features, Selected clips from the program are available for viewing on our website and on YouTube: http://www.modiomedia.com/projects/atctc/production/, http://www.youtube.com/modiomedia

As a reminder from our last meeting, Ruth Merrimann (#4887) will be giving a series of five talks on five different topics related to Italian genealogy, at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, one each morning, from Monday, August 18, 2008, through Friday, August, 22, 2008. There will be no cost. A meeting of POINTers In Person chapter leaders and representatives will follow Ruth’s talk on Friday morning, and a POINT banquet on Friday evening, at a location yet to be decided are being planned. The most current information will also be posted on the POINT website at:http://point-pointers.net . If you plan to attend, please let me know. You can represent our Chapter at the meeting.

Dee Leonard contacted us to ask if anyone was researching the Ditello surname, She is looking for Antonio Ditello born May 19, 1890 at Tricarico, Loteuza, Italy, married Maria Oliva Corbisiero born October 17, 1892 at Tricarico, Loteuza, Italy. They came to Milwaukee, Wisconsin in the 1920.

Sandra Marino-Pearsall Doubleman sandi@doubleman.us is researching Marino, Barbera, Pulizzi/Pulizzo,
Ampola, Colicchia, Lamia, Paladino, Martinciglio,Valenti, Puleo, Anastasia, Mannone, Sorrentino and associated surnames: Bonafede, Sammartano,Saladino, Pipitone, Zito, She write to tell us of her objective; “The name is Bartolomeo Bonafede,my grandmother's step-father. I'm not sure if he lived in Milwaukee or Madison, but it was one or the other in 1958. I lived in Beloit at the time and he and his wife and son came to visit us. After her mother died, he married a lady named Madelena. She was the only grandmother my mom remembered - she didn't speak English. His sons Nick and Joe are buried next to their mother (my great-grandmother) in Beloit, and his son who accompanied him was Jim. Nick and Jim lived in.Chicago. I think Jim still lives there or close by. I'd like to know Madelena's surname and why he lived in Milwaukee or Madison”

Vince D’Orazio (3418) told us about a book he was reading, The Delta Italians: Their Pursuit of "The Better Life" and Their Struggle Against Mosquitos, Floods, and Prejudice. By Paul V. Canonici. ISBN-13: 9780974558905., Published August, 2007. This book explores Italian migration to the Arkansas and Mississippi Delta regions. The author has amassed a collection of oral histories, including his own family's. Canonici describes the struggle of the Allegrezzas, Caprinis, Mazzantis, and Reginellis, for example, as they faced hardships characteristic to the Delta region, such as mosquitoes and floods.

Filomena Lea told us about a movie she borrowed from her library called “Vendetta”. It is a 1999 movie that depicts the discrimination and prejudice experienced by Italian immigrants in New Orleans.

I recently found a website at http://www.sicilianfamilytree.com/ , that contains a variety of links on Sicilian genealogy as well as history, culture and foods. The site is provided by a researcher, who rates and services are also posted. The site contained a link to an interesting article on “The Forgotten Ellis Island”. The article tells the story of immigrants who died, while in quarantine from 1909-1911, en route to Ellis Island. The article is located at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~quarantine/

If you have not tried Google Earth yet, you need to give it a try. With Google Earth you can view locations all over the Earth from orbit down mountain top level. I have used it to view my ancestral villages as well as my own home! In many cases, pictures from ground level are also posted. To obtain Google Earth, go to http://earth.google.com/ .

We discussed Italian military service. Filomena Lea told a story of how her grandmother, while taking care of her brothers and sisters, saved her brothers from being taken for the Italian Army, by making them sick when the Army came to take them. Joe Dentice explained how, when he was a child of 14 during World War II, he was taken with other boys to walk the village streets at night to make sure that everyone was following the blackout rules. It was also a common practice for children, being born near the end of the year to have births recorded as if they were born in the next year to delay eligibility for service by one year.

The best of the postings on POINTers in E-mail since our last meeting included those from:

Susan Frederick, who writes “The Golden Door”, a film about a Sicilian who emigrates to America, was released on DVD on January 8, 2008. at www.amazon.com . The soundtrack and a paperback version are also available. Susan Frederick, who provides us with the POINTers in E-mail mailing list, writes “ If anyone was planning on buying it through Amazon, here's the link that would give us credit for the sale. When you buy through Amazon by using our links or using the search box on PIE's with our code built into it, you help support our site. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000X418UY/ref=nosim/?tag=jeffersonsoftwar” For information on the film, go to: http://www.goldendoor-movie.com/

Guido Buldrini, who writes about two websites that will help you 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.

Dee Whiting, who writes “…from the North San Diego County Genealogy Society: The Mormon Family History Department has developed a new research tool along the lines of Wikipedia at http://www.FamilySearchWiki.org . Some material is based on printed pamphlets that have existed at the Family History Library for years. Unlike Wikipedia, this site does not have a search engine.

For our members who are unable to attend meetings due to illness, family or other commitments, we would still like to hear about your successes, your brick walls and any advice you would like to share. If you send me your input, I will include it in the next meeting.

Our next meeting will be on Saturday, April 19, 2008, at the Italian Community Center, 631 E. Chicago Street, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, starting at 10:30 a.m. and concluding at noon. Please mark your calendar for our meetings in 2008 on Saturday, September 13 and 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..