September 11, 1999 Meeting Minutes

POINTers IN PERSON Minutes
Milwaukee, Wisconsin

George Koleas (#1527)

Pointers In Person, Chapter 22, met at the Italian Community Center, in Milwaukee Wisconsin, on Saturday, September 11, 1999.  Present at the meeting were, Charles and Madeline Carome (930), Stan and Lois Cozzuli, Tina Favero, Mave Freyberg, Jean Karls, George Koleas (1527), Marie Roth (766), Marie Raaf, Vincent D'Orazio (3418), Susan White and her daughter Cynthia Lewandowski, Ginger Schmidt(2471) and new members Laura Lancione-Bearskin, Lisa Zeilinger, Pat Moon, Jeanne Fiumefreddo, Danita Wendorf and Silvana Bastianutti. Our total membership continues to grow. Some members can not attend meetings, but are receiving all minutes by either e-mail or U.S. mail.

Susan White reported that her sister and member Margaret Schutz (2149) was very ill and unable to come to the meeting. We all wish Margaret a complete recovery and look forward to seeing her again at future meetings.

We began by reviewing correspondence we have received since our last meeting. We have been receiving contacts from individuals who have seen our articles in The Italian Times and postings in the Milwaukee County Genealogical Society Newsletter, asking for help with their research.  George Koleas has been contacting the member researching the surname sought by the individual to try to assist in the sharing of information.

Then, we reviewed and updated our surname database.  As of September 11, have 232 surnames in our database.

We established our meeting dates for 2000.  We will meet Saturdays, January 15, April 8, and  September 19.  All meetings will start at 11:00 a.m. and will be held at the Italian Community Center, 631 E. Chicago Street, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Italian Community Center historian, Mario Carini is working on a follow up to his book entitled,  "Milwaukee's Italians; The Early Years".  The Italian Times published a request by Mario for information for his book. We are asking members to consider filling out the information that he asks for.
Members should enclose a brief note so that Mario knows that the information being sent is from a member of our group.

New member Laura Lancione-Bearskin, told of a recent success she had.  She went to the site www.InfoSpace.com, and  checked "international" for the international directory. Using her knowledge of Italian naming patterns, she entered a name and a town that she though might belong to a family member. When she submitted  the information, she found a name and address!  The service allowed her to send the person a note.  Her note reached its location, got passed around and in return, she got a packet with her family tree filled out to 1650!  This shows not only the power of the Internet, but also the importance of knowing your family's village and learning the naming patterns. The group discussed naming patterns and agreed on the following. The first son was named for the paternal grandfather, the first daughter was named for the paternal grandmother, the second son was named for the maternal grandfather, the second daughter was named for the maternal grandmother. Afterward, the naming pattern followed by using the names of the parents' brothers and sisters.

Marie Roth (766), Vincent D'Orazio(3418), and  Susan White all reported on their recent trips to Italy. Marie Roth visited Ferrazano, Campobasso.  She had arranged with the parish priest to view the records.  She came armed with three Mac laptops and two assistants. She was able to transcribe marriage records from 1620 to 1808. She gave the priest three copies of her research, chronological and alphabetical by groom and by bride.  She was then able to enjoy the festival of Santa Antonio from a balcony with wine and cherries. Marie brought her research for members to review. Vincent visited family in San Bennetto, Marche . Vincent, who makes frequent trips, has researched his family to 1520.  Susan White and her sister Margaret Schultz (2149) traveled to Stresa, while on a tour of the region.  While there, they had the services of Francesco Alelpo. He did a wonderful job for them. He helped them locate their ancestral village and the gravesites of family members.  They highly recommend him to anyone visiting the area.  His business name is Servizio Taxi Ielpo, Tel. + 39 335 6610991, Fax + 39 0323 00 33006, home Tel. + 39 0323 31971, Viale Siemens, 24, 28838 Stresa (VB) Italy.  Susan brought pictures of her trip to share.

We discussed the recent series of articles WARTIME VIOLATIONS OF ITALIAN AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES: WHAT WERE THEY? By Larry DiStassi, posted on PIE concerning the persecution of Italians during World War II.  Vincent reported that he did not witness any persecution, but told of his recollection visiting his father's brother at an American Prisoner of War Camp for Italians in Perry, Ohio and Mexico, Missouri, where he felt the treatment was very good. After Italy was liberated, his uncle worked in an arsenal until the end of the war.

New member Jeanne Fiumefreddo, explained that one of her relatives had fought with Garibaldi, but she was having difficulty finding information about him and noticed that information about Sicilians who fought with him is very scarce. Vincent D'Orazio's (3418) great, great, grandmother was a cook for Garibaldi. Information on Garibaldi is posted at http://www.sc.edu/library/spcoll/hist/garib/garib4.html.
At www.italgen.com, you can find a list of 1089 people given by the Ministry of War, published in the "Giornale Militare" (Military Journal) in 1864 as a result of an inquiry by a State Committee. This Committee had been created to determine, through proofs and witnesses, the names of the volunteers who actually landed at Marsala on May 11, 1860.

We discussed the Italo-Albanian Italians, or Arberesh, who settled a number of towns. George Koleas (1527) is researching the Costa family who came from one of these towns, Palazzo Adriano, Palermo. There is an excellent site created by John Cusimano located at http://members.aol.com/itaalb1/web/arberesh.htm.

Ginger Schmidt brought copies of the National Italian American Foundation, NIAF, magazine to share. Ginger is a member. The purpose of NIAF is to preserve and protect Italian American history and culture.

We exchanged recipes brought by members.  Jean Karls brought an old article about her grandmother that contained some of her grandmother's recipes to share.

Tina Favero has a homepage. It is located at www.ameritech.net/users/borgof/index.html

We concluded with a great lunch served by the Italian Community Center Staff and a lot of lively discussion and sharing of research tips.

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