The Archives of

Il Circolo Filippo Mazzei

Part 2

Il Circolo Filippo Mazzei chapter of PIP met at the Dolley Madison Library in McLean, Virginia on 27 January 1996. Twelve members were in attendance, which included three new members. Everyone discussed their current research project and members exchanged sources of information, to include several computer related topics.

Judy (Tavagnaco) GARDINER (#2167) reported that Dr. Militello's forwarding of a letter of authentication of membership allowed her to get a confidential information certificate from the state of Connecticut. At the group's suggestion at the last meeting, she is pursuing film from FHC to bridge a link to relatives in 1880. Finally, Judy showed us a flyer from a conference she attended on promoting Italian language and culture. While there she saw a demonstration of a CD teaching Italian and a virtual tour of the Uffizzi Gallery.

Marie (Macario) BESTUL (#1025) began researching in the 1950s, but did not make much progress at that time. She has made progress since, but is stumped going back prior to 1865. She now believes that her father's name originates in Greece or somewhere else in the Mediterranean. She has received a letter of intent from the INS for her maternal grandmother, who emigrated in 1889.

Marie also showed us information from the Abruzzi website on the Internet (abruzzolink.nautilus.it).

Salette LATAS (new) said that she is fortunate to have grandparents that saved everything, including passport and letters! She has learned that a 2nd cousin is currently mayor (il sindaco) of Sturno, Italy. She also reported that The Learning Company may produce a CD set for learning Italian interactively via computer.

Dave NATELLA (#1073) had to submit one more death certificate and is still awaiting his Italian citzenship. His mother, Dorothy, wants to know when microfilm of the city of Salerno will be available at the FHC.

Lou ALFANO (#2114) recently signed onto the Internet and is exploring the Web. He showed us an advance copy of his compilation of Italian occupation names. He hopes to publish soon and make it available.

Jim MAROLDO (#1917) informed us that he is again taking Italian language class. Buon fortuna!

John MAFODDA (#2585) has visited his father's relative in Italy. He showed us his father's boat ticket to America from 1921. The ticket declared passage to New York, but John knows that his father landed in Boston and traveled by train to New York.

Bill MENZA (#1029) passed out copies of Family Ties from a local newspaper. It mentions a kit, 'Generation Journey,' that has strategies and resources for researching and documenting family history and tips for planning family reunions.

Gina (Martoccio) MERRIS (#1846) is still acquiring more information from relatives. Verbally they say that they know nothing of importance, but when they write to her they usually send something of value.

Paul TRAUNERO (#1541) mailed out queries to three people in Quebec, Canada on the 16th of January. Then he received an e-mail query from Ezio Traunero in Quebec via Compuserve. But the date of the e-mail transmission was 12 January! Ezio was one of the three queries that he mailed. He could be the first related Traunero outside of the United States or Italy that he knows.

The next meeting of Il Circolo Filippo Mazzei will be on 20 April 96. The location has yet to be finalized. Please contact Paul A. Traunero (#1541) for more information or look for the postcard announcement.

Il Circolo Mazzei held a meeting on April 20, 1996 at the Dolley Madison Library in McLean, Virginia. Nineteen people attended and shared their research and stories since our last meeting. Helpful tips were relayed to several members and several POINT applications were distributed to new attendees. Contact Paul Traunero for more information.

Lou ALFANO #2114 passed out a list or WWW sites for the Internet, contacted two cousins via email, and has used the NYC marriage records to ascertain maiden names of some relatives.

Marie BESTUL #1025 w/spouse Alden have been recovering from a disk crash, and received some help in printing pedigrees in more compact space.

Dave NATELLA #1073 w/mother Dorothy is still awaiting citizenship confirmation, and was interested in PBS show on Little Italy.

Terri Ann MURRAY #2863 has been getting access to grandfather's family holdings which date back to 1823!

Ben IAROCCI #2394 has done a telephone listing check on his rare surname, and wishes he could read the Italian script on documents.

Judy GARDNER #2167 had an extract of her letter, carried to Italy by her father's friend, printed in the local newspaper. The article contained a plug for POINT.

Mike INGRISANO # 905 just finished writing a book that included some genealogy of the Civil War. His next book will be about his experiences in WW II.

John MAFODDA #2585 and Tom Fusco (below) discovered at the meeting that their relatives used the same ship for passage, but the records show that the ship's name was different (name has changed several times)!

Regina ROBERTS (new) is having difficulty because of various spellings of Roggerio, and that it was changed to Rogers upon entry.

Joe SPILOTRO (new) thinks that his relatives originate in Greece, by way of Split, Yugoslavia. Earlier version was Spilotros.

Jim MAROLDO #1917 has decided to forgo a dual citizenship request for now, due to his employer's concerns! (Is not Italy on our side?)

Paul TRAUNERO #1541 is awaiting replies to two letters to possible relatives. Mazzei Chapter is also hoping to represent POINT at an upcoming local Italian food festival.

Vince BONZAGNI #1893 is busy with night school, but has still found time to write correspondence to Italy.

Tom FUSCO #2292 is trying to decipher two birth certificates with the same father's name, but different mothers--five days apart!

John TROMBA (new) w/spouse Sandra came upon invitation from Hope (below).

Hope BOGORAD #1629 received a copy of a photo of a marriage in her lineage from a fellow POINTer, and related a story about her trip to see relatives in Montalbano, Sicilia.

JULY 1996 MEETING REPORT

Il Circolo Filippo Mazzei (POINT Chapter #6 - Metro DC) held its most recent meeting on July 20, 1996 at the Dolley Madison Library in McLean, Virginia. Fifteen people attended and shared their research and stories. We continue to have new members present at each meeting.

LOU ALFANO (#2114) shared the Italian Touring Club's Annuario Generale. It is a compilation of most all of the population centers of Italy, from Roma and Milano down to the smallest of comuni and frazioni.

CAROL BASILE (#1950) is researching CASABONA in Catanzaro, Calabria. She informed us that microfilming of records there stopped with 1865.

MARIE BESTUL (#1025) has her grandmother's naturalization papers from 1942 which list a ship SS Amos, arriving in 1899. Further inspection uncovered that the ship was the SS Ems. For the second time in two meetings fellow PIP members (Maureen RAINES (#2275) have shared a common ship used by relatives.

TONY CIMORELLI (new) has visited relatives in Isernia and an aunt there is a records caretaker. Tony is also the host for the POINTers In Email (PIE) homepage on the WWW on the Internet.

IRV COSTANZO (#752) is between genealogy projects. He has also visited his 'hometown' in Italy, where more than 200 names there match those in Mechanicville, New York.

SALETTE LATAS (#2633) has traced relatives back to 1731 from Sturno via the Mormon FHC.

JO ANN HOLMES (#2580) is still looking for arrival dates for her relatives with the surnames VERDEROSA and GALATRO.

BEN IAROCCI (#2374) has traced his lineage to 1797 from Molise via the FHC records. He also has been searching for his surname on the WWW of the Internet.

MIKE INGRISANO (#905) wrote for and received a picture of the Re d'Italia steamship, on which his mother made passage. Mike's 'hometown' is also Sturno and his line has RICCIARDIs like those on page 32 of POINTers Summer 1996. He also recently returned from a trip to Europe to visit sites from his time in WWII.

JOHN MAFODDA (#2585) discovered that the steamship which his relatives used is not indexed (1921). He is spending time going over the records line by line.

TERRI ANN MURRAY (#2863) is searching for TROCAMO from Milazzo, Sicilia.

MARY PALLADINO (#937) has done as much as she can for her husband's side of the family. She mentioned that the mariners museum in Newport News, VA is worth visiting and has much of the same information about steamships that the Baltimore group has.

MAUREEN RAINES (#2275) is researching the surnames CASTELLO and ARGENTA back to 1700 and is researching towns of Pedavena, Villa Bruno, Belluno and Venezia. She has discovered a cousin via POINT.

JOE SPILOTRO (new) is searching the FHC microfilms. He has found his grandparents' marriage certificate and now wants to find his great-grandparents.

Il Circolo Filippo Mazzei (Metro DC) held a meeting on October 19, 1996 at the Dolley Madison Library in McLean, Virginia. Twenty people (including six new) attended and shared their background and research endeavors. Judy GARDNER (#2167) could not attend due to a rehearsal for her musical participation in "Baroque to Broadway." And the idea of a regional PIP was put forth. Participation with other PIPs is being surveyed.

Bill MENZA (#1029) has been writing to people that he has found doing phone disk searches. He has recently received some information via an interview with an aunt and has photographs of tombstones in the Boston area of relatives.

Vince BONZAGNI (#1893) wrote to churches in Renazzo and Taurasi and has received some copies of baptisms. He also has access to a daily journal of expenses incurred by his great-grandparents during a trip of theirs to Italy earlier this century.

Lou ALFANO (#2114) has ordered the book Our Italian Surnames by Joseph Fucilla. It contains information about Italian surname derivations. His recent trips to book sales has netted him Vocabolario Romanesco. He also provided two books as door prizes.

John MAFODDA (#2585) wrote nine letters to Mafodda people in Sicilia and received one response. He hopes that his Italian correspondent will be able to assist him. He will now write to the Stato Civile for information.

John TROMBA (#2915) brought copies of handwriting variations to share. He is currently requesting any information of his relatives from the FBI under the FOIA. He first learned of this source via an article in POINTers.

Anthony MAZZOCCOLI is a new member as a result of an invitation from Lou ALFANO. His last name was traced from Matera, New Jersey to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Winchester, Virginia. Presently he and some relatives live in northern Virginia. He plans to go to Italy in the coming year.

Dave and Dorothy NATELLA (#1073) have a Salerno phonebook that they will use to look up names for someone. Dave had an interview at the Italian Embassy in his quest for Italian citizenship. His records are now being reviewed in Italy. He is to check back with them in November concerning the outcome. We wish him "buona fortuna!"

JoAnn HOLMES (#2580) recently received some SS-5s for her uncles which record places and dates. So now she has determined that 1888-1892 is the likely period when her forbears arrived here. Unfortunately, those forms also give three spellings of her grandmother's name.

Regina ROBERTS recently visited an aunt in Hershey, Pennsylvania who has knowledge of her relations in Italy. Regina also talked to a relative in Ottawa, Canada, whom she found because of a letter from Italy that her aunt showed to her.

Terri Ann MURRAY (#2863) found her grandmother on a ship passenger list. Notably, Terri found the list from August 1, 1896 on August 1, 1996!

Linda MORAN and Earl JONES are new members and will soon be POINT members. They recently started research of their Italian ancestry. Linda is researching BIONDO from Nicosia, Sicilia and CELLA form Rezzoaglio.

Kay HOGEN-TORPEY (#2543) is a new member and between her aunt of 94 years and a phone listing believes that she has relatives in Buenos Aires. Kay also reported that her grandmother recorded their family history on audio tape at the age of 84. And she found a cousin in the US via a WWW search!

Richard CAMAUR (#3158) is a new member and told us that his mother is from north of Chiavari near Genova and his father is from north of Trieste. His grandmother arrived in 1904 to marry his grandfather, whom she never met before. Unfortunately it did not last.

Steve YASKO is a new member and is ready to write some letters to Italy. A passenger list and the 1920 census report that his great-grandfather came from northwest of Napoli.

Ben IAROCCI (#2374) thinks that he is almost done with the available records at the Family History Center. He feels that he needs to go to Italy to make any further progress. He also thinks that he may have some cousins in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Mike INGRISANO (#905) reported that a book about the Garibaldi legions is being published that will include names of his troops. He also said that he received some letters as a result of these PIP summaries.

Stephen CARFORA (#1279) recounted that his mother is from the Siracusa area while his father is from the Napoli area. A photo of their house in the Bronx (no longer in existence) won second place in the Bronx County Historical Society Photo Contest!

Our next meeting will be on January 25, 1997 at the same location at 10 am. For more information contact Paul TRAUNERO (#1541) via phone or mail or on the Internet at carda@ix.netcom.com.