Minutes Prepared by: Barbara (Barb) Morten
The January 11th, 2020 meeting was held at the McLean Government Center,
1437Balls Hill Road, McLean, VA 22101
Note that the minutes are maintained on the website:
This meeting featured Joe Guirreri who gave a presentation on an Italian web site which contains various civil records for many Italian towns. His presentation notes will be available on the above stated website.
We also went around the room discussing our progress, or lack thereof.
Additional discussions
--‘Children of the wheel’ – this is the term used for babies that were taken to a church, or foundling home and placed in a door/wheel that allowed the person who left the baby to leave without being seen. Many children thus placed were given names such as Esposito. Search online for: ‘Foundling in Italy’, or ‘Children of the wheel’
One link is: https://www.abruzzogenealogy.com/infant...
--A discussion on how to structure our research included the following tips:
Write down what you know, starting with your family
Gather documents that provide proof for each fact you have written down.
Note that this may result in discrepancies. You may need to revise your initial list.
Decide how you want to collect and store the information you collect. It may be by family Surname, or location, or both. Make a Master List of your documents, so you know what you have and where it is.
Make a book for your family.
--Several members went to the NIAF Convention in Nov., 2019. It was free, parking was free and there were several interesting side seminars, and many vendors. The NIAF is The National Italian American Foundation, yearly meeting. The theme this year was ‘Puglia’ with displays and samples of wine, coffee, olive oil, chocolate, Nutella, cars, books, genealogy, and travel. There were speakers throughout the day and they served a free lunch. Keep this in mind for next year.
--Someone suggested that there were several ports with shipping records, not just Ellis Island, that brought immigrants to the US.
--There are several Italian Cooking sites online. One member was heartened to know that parents are teaching their children to cook/bake Italian items.
--A member suggested that if you want to go to Italy, do! Hire an Italian genealogist as a guide if you don’t feel comfortable on your own.
--The Fairfax Lib will be hosting the VA Genealogical Conference in April (17-18)
--A discussion ensued about what to do with our research before we are gone and unable to keep the kids from dumping it all in the shredder!
Hope one of your relatives is interested in your research
The Library of Congress/Genealogy Department may take the records - of course this means you will need to get your stuff in some order – see above notes!
The End of January 2020 Minutes
Our next meeting will be held at the McLean Government Center on Saturday, April 11th, 2020.
However, this meeting was cancelled due the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) Pandemic.
Hopefully, all will be well and we can meet again for our Saturday, July 11th, 2020 meeting.