September 9, 2000 Meeting Minutes

POINTers IN PERSON Minutes
Milwaukee, Wisconsin

George Koleas (#1527)

On September 9, 2000, PIP Chapter 22 meet at the Italian Community Center.
The following were in attendance: Nancy and Dick Boudreau, Charles and
Madeline Carome (930), Lois Cozzuli (220), Tina Favero (4452), Mave Freyberg
and her guest, Anne Vivian, Elsie Fucile, Filomena Lea, George Koleas,
(1527), Josephine Loch, Pat and Ron Moon, Phyllis Pinter, Barbara Roberts
(1202), Margaret Schutz (2149), Susan White and new members Ginny Balistreri,
Don Buck and his guest, Carla Sanfilippo, Lucia Costanzo, Jackie Maggiore
(4391), Kent Wayson (4364) and Joyce Weber.

We began our meeting by discussing our experiences with our display at Festa
Italiana.  All of our volunteers had a wonderful time.  We spoke to hundreds
and hundreds of people that were very interested in their families.  We
looked up names using the POINT directories.  Many times, people were lined
up to talk to us.  During one four-hour shift, we saw approximately 300
people.  There were two shifts a day for four days!

We talked about what worked the best and what would we change if we are asked
to return to Festa Italiana. People really enjoyed having us look up their
names in the POINT directory. They also enjoyed our large maps of Italy and
Sicily.  We need to have even bigger maps, possibly by region. We decided
that we need a card to hand out with our name, how we can be contacted, our
next meeting date and our website address.

We set tentative meetings for 2001.  We will meet Saturday's, January 13,
April 21, and September 15. George Koleas will check with the Italian
Community Center, 631 E. Chicago Street, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for
availability.  We will continue to meet at 11:00 a.m. and will meet until
lunch.  We will then order lunch and continue our discussions until 1:30 p.m.
when we will adjourn.

Nancy and Dick Boudreau and Joyce Pinter are headed for Italy.  They will
report on their trips at the next meeting. Don Buck had just returned from
Italy and was able to share some of his experiences.

Phyllis Pinter had recorded her Father's oral history while he was still with
us.  She is able to go back and gain new insights for her research by
listening to these tapes.  This is a reminder to all of us with living
relatives to document their histories while they are still with us.

Vincent D'Orazio (3418) will be speaking at the national POINT conference. 
He will also represent us at the chapter leaders meeting. We look forward to
his report at our next meeting.

Don Buck reported that missing records from Santa Elia, Palermo, have found. 
They are in with the records for Solanto.  The villages of Santa Elia and
Solanto are in close proximity, as are the villages of Porticello, Santa
Flavia and others. These are Registri della Stato Civile records from1820 to
1861 and are contained in 17 rolls of microfilm.  There are also 2 microfilm
rolls from Solunto, another nearby community, that contain Registri della
Stato Civile records from 1868 to 1880. They also may also be worth looking
at.

We discussed the problems encountered when researching female ancestors, due
to name changes. Members recalled stories of how they found their female
ancestors by checking maiden name, married name and /or even previously
married name. It was a practice for Italian women, traveling alone, to use
their maiden name. There was even an instance of a married female who was
found, not buried with her husband, but buried with her Father and Mother,
under her maiden name. Remember to check all possible names.

Elsie Fucile has had success getting information from funeral homes.  One way
to get this information is to write to Funeral Directors.  Each year, Funeral
Directors get a new Funeral Home Directory.  They usually discard the old
one.  Elsie suggests asking your local funeral home if you can have their old
copy when the new one arrives.

Member's questions were answered and suggestions were made by the members in
attendance to solve research problems.

We look forward to seeing everyone at our next meeting on Saturday, January
13, 2001, at the Italian Community Center.

A reminder to all members:

Barbara Roberts has a copy of three volumes of the Italians to America series
covering the years January 1885 to July 1890 and is willing to do look ups.

Susan Petta-Nokes is continuing her work to copy microfilm of church records
from Our Blessed Virgin of Pompeii Catholic Church.  George Koleas has a copy
of the records she has copied.  They include indexes and regular records. 
While the records are not complete, if you think your relatives were members
of Our Blessed Virgin of Pompeii, George will do look ups.

If you ask for a look up, please be patient for a response.

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