These minutes were sent to members with e-mail on 9-12-2007
On Saturday, September 8, 2007, 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, Ruth Hendricks, Rosemary Joecks, John and Arlene Jorgensen, George Koleas (1527), Jim Pingitore (4053)and Lorene Pingitore, Barbara Roberts (1202), Marie Roth (766) Steve and Jean Scalzo, Tanna Salvaggio (4835)and David Salvaggio, Lynn Thrasher and Joyce Weber (4438)
New members: Jeni Norton, Richard Zanoni
Frank Balistrieri called to tell us that, although he wanted to attend our meetings, his health did not permit it. We offer our prayers for him for a recovery that will allow him to be with us again.
Our Calabria Genealogy display at Festa Italiana , July 19 to July 22, 2007 was well received. We received a thank you from Culture Committee Chair, Anna Pitzo. I would like to thank all of those who submitted family trees and other information for the display and those who answered the call for volunteers at the culture committee tent. In 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
New members are researching the following:
Richard Zanoni is researching Zanoni from Moncovo di Ton, Trentino, Valle di Non http://en.comuni-italiani.it/022/200/ and Tretter from Tuenno, Trentino, Valle di Non http://www.trentinoheritage.com/tuenno.htm and http://www.trentino.to/home/index.html?_lang=en Jenni Norton will be sending us her surnames for inclusion in our database.
The search engines created by Stephen Morse have helped many genealogists, particularly if you know that your immigrant ancestor arrived at Ellis Island, but you can not find them at www.ellisislandrecords.com. He is well known for creating the "One-Step WebPages" for easy searches of the Ellis Island database, among dozens of other databases located at http://stevemorse.org/. Stephen Morse will be speaking at the 29th Annual Polish Genealogical Society of America Conference "Bridges to the Past", held the weekend of September 28-30, 2007 at the Schaumburg Marriott, Schaumburg, Illinois.
Members of Milwaukee County Genealogical Society, MCGS, are planning a trip to Salt Lake City from Oct 7th to Oct 14th 2007. They will stay at the Best Western Hotel. The price is $725.00 for a double and a single is an additional $310. The price covers plane fare, the hotel, transfers to and from Airports and luggage handling at the hotel. Plus, there is a Banquet Saturday night. To sign up, go to the MCGS web site http://www.milwaukeegenealogy.org/trip_2007.html .
Barb Bombaci (5064) sent a note to pass on that she found a website at www.mydailyphrase.com , which contains 100 5 min. lessons in Italian. She downloaded them onto an ipod via itunes (free) Barbara says that are great to listen to. There are no books. They are a good introduction to Italian for travelers.
Richard Zanoni recommends the book "Closet Italians: A Dazzling Collection of Illustrious Italians with Non-Italian Names" The mini-biographies are presented chronologically and each lists the person's commonly known name, birth and death dates and "real Italian name." The book is published by Xlibris Corporation ISBN-10: 1413461441 or ISBN-13: 978-1413461442.
Watch for a movie called "The Golden Door". In Italy, it is entitled "Il Nuovomondo." It is about a family making the decision to emigrate to America, the voyage and arriving in America. The director is Emanuele Crialese. The producer is Martin Scorsese. For more information, go to http://www.goldendoor-movie.com/
Dan Niemiec (2304), Co-chair PIP Chapter #27 POINTer reports that his chapter
is working on a special meeting in November in Chicagoland. One of the
features of that meeting is a photo exhibit of old family photos of Italians,
taken in Italy or in the states. If you can help, please scan to .JPG. BMP or
TIF format. Dan will be printing them for the exhibit. They need to be large
enough to print as 8x10. Please send you pictures and questions to
famigliabari@comcast.net
From a posting on PIE came a recommendation for Denis Mack Smith's "Italy: A
Modern History" published by University of Michigan Press, 1959. ISBN-10:
0472108956 ISBN-13: 978-0472108954. It contains many historical facts
including "The 'Southern Problem' and Emigration" (pp. 230-242,) which
includes emigration information.
Also from a posting on PIE, Italian Premier Romano Prodi is pushing for the routes used by medieval pilgrims to reach Rome to be revived for modern-day walkers, religious or otherwise. Prodi, got the idea 13 years ago when he cycled along the pilgrimage route to Santiago di Compostela in Spain and realized that his own country had many pilgrim ways as well. For more information go to http://www.lifeinitaly.com:80/news/news-detailed.asp?newsid=6117
We all know the importance of recording our family history while our relatives are still with us. Help is available to record your family stories. The American Folklife Center was created by Congress in 1976 and placed at the Library of Congress to "preserve and present American folklife". The Archive of Folk Culture will be the repository for the StoryCorps collection. For more information on the center and its activities, visit its Web site at www.loc.gov/folklife.
The StoryCorps, has come to Milwaukee. The Milwaukee Public Library’s Central Library is the location of the first Outpost booth for StoryCorps, StoryCorps will be recording in Central Library’s Oriental Room until Jan. 24, 2008. StoryCorps facilitators help interviewers figure out what questions to ask and handle all the technical aspects of recording the memories of family members or friends. After the hour-long session, participants receive a copy of the interview on CD. With the participants' permission, one copy goes to the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress and one copy stays with Milwaukee Public Library. A donation of $10 is suggested. To learn more about StoryCorps and how to interview a family member or friend, go to http://storycorps.net/ or call them toll free (24 hours a day, seven days a week) at (800) 850-4406. http://www.mpl.org/file/storycorps.htm
In case you were wondering if queries are useful, since our last meeting, we received three communications. One was for Filomena Lea concerning her Lo Celso family from Rende, Cosenza, Italia. The other was for Antoinette Alioto Canepa of San Francisco, California, who wished to be anonymous, concerning Alioto, Balestrieri, Tarantinos and Machi. We received a letter from Joyce Gillette, (5000) She is researching the Pellegrini name in the Pistoia Region . Her contact was passed on to Bea Pellegrini-Johnson.
Vincent D’Orazio (3418) writes to us from China. Vince writes: "Ni Hoa" from Tianjin, China. We have settled in here and have begun our teaching duties at the medical university. So far we are enjoying our experience. In the city of Tianjin there is an area called, "The Italian Concessions." After a war with China in 1900 France, Britain, Italy, Germany, and Russia obtained areas in the city of Tianjin and Shanghai where the merchants lived. Britain also acquired Hong Kong. These merchants built large mansions which are being restored today as historical sites. There was quite a sizeable Italian community (about 600) here even during WWII. Italy had some navy ships here and a garrison of soldiers during WWII to protect the Italian population. Today, there are still a few Chinese-decendants of Italians who married Chinese women- with Italian names.
What I am writing about is a man I recently came across by the name of Paul Canonici. He wrote a book called, "Delta Italians: Their Pursuit of a Better Life." It's about the Marchigiani who immigrated to Mississippi in 1895 and picked cotton in Mississippi and Arkansas and the hardships they endured. He also talks about the Marchigiani community in Milwaukee. Tim's (he's one of our members) family came from the same area of Marche (Senegallia/Ancona) that these Mississippi immigrants came from.
We discussed ways for our new members to get started. We recommended Personal Ancestral File (PAF) as a starting point for genealogy software. PAF is available for free along with a free companion chart creator. The free downloads are available at the Family History Library site located at http://www.familysearch.org/ . At the same site, you can get a number of free resources, including an Italian Genealogy research guide. Select “Search”, then “Research Helps”, then “I” for Italy and scroll down to the guide. We also recommend that new members contact their local library to find out if the library provides free access to Ancestry or Heritage Quest sites. For passenger arrivals to New York we discussed http://www.castlegarden.org/ and http://www.ellisislandrecords.org/default.asp Other useful sites include Wisconsin Genealogy Mine at http://home.ptd.net/~nikki/WI.htm and http://www.linkpendium.com/ . When on the web, always be careful. Some of the links you will find are free and some are to paid services. To learn more about how to research your family history, the Milwaukee County Genealogical Society holds beginner classes. These classes are also good as a refresher for experienced genealogists. For details go to http://www.milwaukeegenealogy.org/classes.html
Another way to find ancestors who may have not naturalized is Alien Registration. There was a program during World War I, but it was meant to register enemy aliens. Italians were not enemy aliens. During World War II an Alien Registration Program began 1 July 1940. Every alien resident of the USA had to register at a local post office. Aliens entering USA had to register when they applied for admission. All aliens over 14 fell under this law. Forms filled out by aliens were sent to INS, along with a registration number. They are known as "AR-2" files . Registrations from 1940-1944 are on microfilm at INS. To obtain copies of AR-2 Files, you must submit a request identifying the immigrant by name, date of birth, and place of birth to the INS Freedom of Information Act program. For a description of alien registration and naturalization records, go to http://www.infoukes.com/genealogy/primer/naturalization.html
Our next meeting will be on Saturday, November 10, 2007, 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, January 12, April 19, 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..
Submitted by George Koleas (1527)
