Il Circolo Filippo Mazzei
The quarterly meeting was held on 28 Oct 2017. There was no planned presentation, so we went around the table and shared our progress, or lack thereof. As questions came up, people offered suggestions on how to get around the lack of information or road blocks.
Discussions included:
Website: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~vapip6gs/ Facebook Page: facebook.com/groups/930431287038610/
•Illegitimacy
Talked about how to research for birth parents when little information is available.
Talked about how illegitimate children in Italy sometimes were given unidentifiable surnames, i.e. Esposito. Also, sometimes the names on the birth record were not the actual birth parents.
Discussed searching for birth parents using DNA to find possible relatives, telephone white pages, census records, old newspapers on-line, local libraries. The topic sort of fizzled when the mention of privacy came up. There is a fine line between trying to find the answers and upsetting living relatives that may not want to talk about the facts.
•The National Italian American Foundation is focusing on Sicily this year. They put on a three day event which is pricey. However, their Sat. meeting is free and will include lectures, tastings, etc. Information on the date and location will be sent via email. The closest Metro station is the Woodley Park Zoo station.
•Talked about the Jacobs Creek PA Coal Mine Explosion in December 1906. Note: I found the following site: http://patheoldminer.rootsweb.ancestry.com/darr2.html which discusses the explosion. It was in 1907, not 1906.
Many Italian immigrants settled in PA to work in the coal mines. We got to this topic, when one of our members mentioned that the reason his family moved away from PA was because one of the family died in the explosion and the remaining family did not want to work there anymore.
•It was suggested that for local information, check with the local librarian and be persistent.
•The Slavic Research Group meets the third Sat. at noon at the Kensington Family History Library (LDS). The meetings are similar to our meetings in that they discuss problems in researching the records, what is available, where to get them, etc.
Land Records
•Italian inheritance laws have changed from 'the oldest male child inherited all' to 'property was divided with equal shares going to each family member'. Reference: Trafford Cole\u2019s book, Italian Genealogical Records. On page 153, it states that 'for many centuries all property passed to the firstborn male'. However, it doesn't indicate when the rules changed.
Be sure to make it clear to anyone you contact that you are interested in the genealogy, not the possibility of inheriting anything.
•There is a Military History group that meets every Tuesday morning at the Green Acres Center in Fairfax City, VA.
•Many Italians immigrated to Australia. So, don't be surprised if you are doing a whole family name search and find some Australians.
Barb Morten
~ Our next meeting:
Our
next meeting is tentatively planned for a Saturday morning in January
2018. We normally reserve a room either at either the Dolly Madison
Library in McLean, or the Westover Library in Falls Church. Please
verify the actual date, time and place by viewing our website at: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~vapip6gs. After our meetings some of us go out to lunch at a local Italian restaurant and everyone is welcome.
Other information:
~ We would like someone to develop
a flyer to use as a handout with information about our Italian-American Genealogy Group (Washington, DC Metropolitan
Area). We would like to distribute these flyers at upcoming events to let
people know there is a genealogy group in the Washington, DC Metropolitan Area that they can join. Please submit your ideas to this Webmaster with IAGG Flyer in the subject line. Thank you.