On Saturday April 25, 2009, 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 and their guest Ralph Amateis, Ginny Balestreri, Nicola Berte, Barb Bombaci (5064), Marlene Brinn, Nancy Sibrigodio Bushman, Kris Bushman, Joe Dentice, Bonnie Dompke, Donna Huck, Lisa Joecks (5065) and Rosemary Joecks, Catherine Jones, George Koleas (1527), Harold and Pauline Kuehnel, Marie Roth (766), Barbara Roberts (1209), David and Tana Salvaggio (4835), Also in attendance were New Members: Patricia Greco and her guest Rosalie Greco and Lee Loveall.
Patricia Greco is researching Greco, also seen as Grecoina and Greconia, Giofaglione and Reina from Santo Stefano Quisquina, Agrigento, Sicily.
Lee Loveall is researching I am researching my family name Magestro also Magistro and Maggistro from Piraino and Santa Maria de Fiume and Sant' Angelo de Brolo, Sicily. His Magistro/Magestro family began settling in Milwaukee's Third Ward in 1903 with Carmelo Magistro (Charles) (1886-1967). His brothers Vincenzo (Vincent/James) (1879-1931), Francesco (Frank) (1884-1958) and Antonio (Tony) (1891-1957) joined him later.
We had some problems with our last e-mailed minutes. About half of our members received the e-mailed minutes and half did not. There did not seem to be any recognizable pattern to explain why this happened. I suspect that one reason could have been be the number of links in our last minutes. This may have triggered programs that blocked the minutes. I will try to limit links in future minutes and provide descriptions instead. I always send out minutes within one week of our meeting. If you do not receive minutes after one week, please contact me.
We have discovered that our website provider, Geocities, will be absorbed into Yahoo.com. It is not clear if that change will require us to relocate the location of our website. If it does, we will move to another location. If you have any suggestions for a free website host, please contact me.
At Festa Italiana , July 16-19, 2009, we will be providing a display on Sicilian Genealogy. As a part of our display, I would like to display Sicilian family trees. If you would be interested in having your family tree or any other Italian genealogical materials displayed, please send me a scanned .jpeg image , .pdf, .rft or Word document. Due to the nature of an outside display, in a hot and possibly humid environment, I will not be using originals. I will be making copies and laminating items for the display. Please consider if you are able to volunteer time in the Culture Committee tent during Festa Italiana, If you have any concerns about volunteering, please let me know and I will pass them on to the Italian Community Center, (I.C.C.), Culture Committee.
Michael Aliota continues planning the Sicilian Family Reunion at the Italian Community Center 631 E. Chicago Street Milwaukee, WI 53202 with a Dinner on Friday, September 18th, 2009 at 6:30 PM and a Breakfast-Saturday, September 19th, 2009 at 10:00 AM.. The Sicilian Family Reunion is open to anyone with a Sicilian Family Watch for an article with details in the Italian Times.
This is a good time active members of POINT who have been thinking of ordering the POINT Italian Surname Data Base to do so. The CD costs $20 and the print Directory costs $40.00. Since reinstating the data base, POINT has added some 400 new ITALIAN surnames, and also eliminated a number of surnames that were submitted by POINTers who are no longer active. To order go to the POINT website at point-pointers.net.
Tom Militello, the founder and leader of POINT, officially endorsed the Ancestry Worlds Archives Project. The Order of the Sons of Italy in America (OSIA) and other genealogical societies have also endorsed the project. This is a transcription project. If you have the time and you choose to join the project, you will be sent data to input. Italian records that will be available for the World Archives Project include civil registration records, in particular marriages and deaths, from different provinces across Italy. The project is starting off with the province of Verbanio-Cusio-Ossola in the Piemonte region, and will continue with records from the provinces of Pavia, Varese, Casale Monferrato, and Siena. There will also be records from the regions of Sicilia and Calabria. You do not need to be an ancestry subscriber in order to participate. To learn more go to ancestry.com, click on the “Community” tab, then select “World Archives Project” on the right hand side of the page. If you would like a PowerPoint presentation about the project, please let me know and I will e-mail you a copy.
The spring Milwaukee County Genealogical Society’s Biennial Genealogical Workshop Was held on April 18, 2009, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It was a very good workshop with very helpful sessions.
Debbe Hagner made a presentation on “Taking Advantage of the Internet’s Genealogical Resources”. Various web resources were reviewed. The biggest change involved Familysearch.org. Familysearch.org has a new pilot with scanned images from their collection. Click on “Search Records” and scroll down to “Record Search Pilot”. On this page, you can also learn about their indexing project.
In her presentation, she also announced that the Personal Ancestral File, PAF, program would no longer be supported. If you use this program, you may want to look for an alternative. You can continue to use PAF, but remember that your will not be able to get tech support or any updates.
Debbe Hagner also discussed social networking sites such as Facebook, My Heritage, OurStory and others. There is still a question on how useful these sites are for genealogy, except for reunions and providing a place for families to stay in contact.
She also explained that, whether you are posting a query on a website or sending it to a genealogical publication, queries must describe: Who are you looking for?; When did the event you are interested in take place?; Where did the event take place?; and finally and What do you want? Queries that don’t provide enough detail or fail to ask what is wanted, do not get answered.
Debbe Hagner also presented on “How to Develop and Record Genealogical Citations to Your Records”. The presentation pointed out that citations identify where you found your source, so you or anyone else could find it again. The citation needs to contain enough detail to make this happen.
Mike Karsen presented on “Deep Roots: Creating Your Family Legacy”. This presentation was about putting your research to use by writing your family story, based on what you have compiled. Many of us have family who do not care about the records, dates and places we have been compiling. These same family members may care more about hearing the story of their family. This can lead to family members remembering new details that could help your research and enable you locate new family members. You can start by writing the story of just one ancestor, or the story of how they came to America, or what the war years were like for the family, or any story that you like. By continually writing and sharing small stories, eventually you will have compiled the full story of your family. That full story will be your legacy to your family.
The Milwaukee County Genealogical Society, MCGS, Beginner Classes will meet once a month, starting in September 27, 2009 and run through June, 2010. Classes are held on Saturday mornings from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. at the Milwaukee Public Library, in conference Room 1, at 814 West Wisconsin Avenue, Milwaukee, WI. For details go to milwaukeegenealogy.org and click on “Classes”.
Vincent D’Orazio (3418) helped James Santi by translating two letters from Urbino and Pesaro concerning his Fuligni family. The translations helped James identify his grandmother’s surname, Orazietti.
Marie Roth (766) is helping Gretchen Miller with her research on her DeCerce family from Ferrazanno/Campobasso.
Peter Bellanti informs us that he was contacted by Tony Balistreri from Canberra, Australia. A copy of his uncle Gaspare's death certificate, filed in Santa Flavia, was reported by Salvatore Tarantino and Pietro Cefalu and was witnessed by Andrea Busalacchi and Giuseppe Machi. Those of us that are related to these families have a new Australian Cousin.
An Italian American
Museum has been created in New York City. This educational and cultural
institution is dedicated to recognizing, remembering and celebrating the
contributions of Italian Americans to the American way of life was long
overdue. For further information on the Museum go to
ItalianAmericanMuseum.org
Grace Olivo reported on PIE that Madonna has made a substantial donation to
the quake-stricken central Italian city where her roots lie. Madonna, 50,
whose birth name is Madonna Louise Ciccone, has given 500,000 pounds
($750,000) towards the relief and reconstruction of L'Aquila. The Ciccones,
the hitmaker's paternal grandparents, lived in the village of Pacentro near
L'Aquila until 1919.
The Italian Community Center has also set up an account to collect donations for earthquake relief. Make checks payable to “Italian Community Center, Inc. Earthquake Relief Fund” and mail it to National City Bank, 411 East Wisconsin Avenue, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53202, or take it to any Milwaukee area National City Bank.
Our next meeting will be on Saturday, September 26, 2009, at the Italian Community Center, 631 E. Chicago Street, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, starting at 10:30 a.m. and concluding at noon. Our last meeting in 2009 will be, November 14. 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)
