Il Circolo Filippo Mazzei

The Washington, DC, Metropolitan Area Italian-American Genealogy Group held its quarterly meeting on Saturday, January 9, 2016, at the Westover Branch Library in Arlington, Virginia. There were 11 members in attendance. Marie Melchiori started the meeting at 10:15 a.m.

John DiBella gave a talk and provided handouts on the early origin and evolution of Enemy Aliens status affecting non-citizens of Italian ancestry living in the United States during World War II. He also discussed his grandfather’s situation and family status, and the fact that he twice started his citizenship process but never followed up to become naturalized. For more information about the enemy alien issue, here are two official government documents: 

1. The DoJ’s 2001, report to congress: http://www.schino.com/pdf/italian.pdf, and 

2. the Attorney General’s 1942, speech: http://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/ag/legacy/2011/09/16/10-12-1942.pdf

Following John’s presentation, we held our usual roundtable discussions by sharing our personal genealogical research accomplishments, questions and answers. We also shared news of events, improvements and changes in accessing genealogical data. A summary follows:

 ·      Use Family search along with Ancestry to find out information about what is available both by names and by locations. More info is being transcribed and digitized over time, so check back regularly.

 ·      For a free language translation, use Google Chrome or one of several others available.

 ·      Family TreeMaker will no longer be supported after December 2016.

 ·      Margaret and her husband attended the National Italian American Foundation’s (NIAF) 40^th Anniversary Gala in October. She asked to have a table for our group, but the cost was $500. One vendor offered to share his table with her.  If anyone in our group is a NIAF member, perhaps they could suggest that, at a minimum, local Italian non-profit groups could have an area for brochures and/or discussions.

 ·      Anne and Brad suggested that members with photos and files to share, send them to her and she will get them uploaded to our Facebook page. Facebook was discussed and it was noted that participation is limited.

Those interested in joining our group, go to the following link and ask to join: https://www.facebook.com/groups/930431287038610/

 ·      Barb traveled to her grandfather’s birthplace, Foiano di Val Fortore, which is northeast of Naples. She was able to see the town, went to the churches (old and new,) visited the cemetery, and the town records office. The office was being remodeled but she was allowed to look at the records where she found many with her family names. Barb worked with Joe de Simone, a member of APG (Association of Professional Genealogist,) who had done research for her prior to her trip. His son, Giovanni, who works with him doing research, spent the day taking her to the town, the Records Hall, the churches, the cemetery, and various streets that are mentioned in the old records.

 ·      Someone mentioned the difficulty of reading old handwritten script.  Barb said she has a sample of the Italian alphabet that helps in transcribing data. She will send it to Anne. 

 ·      Marie is one of the co-directors of the annual NGS research trip to Salt Lake City in January. Also some of our members plan to attend the Roots Tech conference (Feb. 3-6,) also in Salt Lake City.

 ·      We had an interesting discussion on DNA collection/uses, etc.  Some members have submitted their DNA samples and others are leery regarding the rights to the information it provides, and who might access and use their information. More answers and assurances are needed. GedMatch was mentioned as one way to share and compare your DNA results with a large existing database of test results. 

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