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PIP
Chapter #1 Chicago On the warm Summer
night of Wednesday, July 18, thirty-three Italian genealogists gathered at
Suparossa Ristorante Italiano in Woodridge, IL for the thirty-fifth meeting of
Chapter #1. After the welcome,
Leader Anthony Lascio #1051 asked the first timers to introduce themselves.
They were Christine Williams of Aurora; Rosemary Ryant of Lombard; Marge
D’Amico of Glendale Heights; and Chuck and Gloria Otto of St. Charles. The business
portion of the dinner meeting consisted of soliciting volunteers to make
presentations at future meetings; mention of the Brigham Young University
Molecular Genealogy Project; a brief note regarding the popularity of genealogy
on the Internet among older Americans; and a pitch for POINT membership. Frank
Scalise reported on his volunteer project to index all the oral histories in
connection with the “Chicago Italians” project of 1979-1980 housed in the
Italian Cultural Center Library. His
list contains 114 surnames of Italians who gave interviews for the project.
The list was placed in the Chapter #1 library for members to check for
relatives. Program topic for
this meeting was an open session forum with emphasis on immigration. Anthony asked those
gathered for personal experiences with the Ellis Island web site.
Debbie Peters #3842 reported the many surnames spelling errors she
encountered. Others spoke about
towns which were badly misspelled; a reminder that Italian women traveled under
their maiden name; being unable to access the site; getting erroneous manifests;
not being able to see the manifest after proceeding through all the steps; ages
of aliens are one year older than actual because of the method Italians use to
calculate birthdays; and ship names not matching the manifests. Anthony conducted a
short “Who Want’s to be a Millionaire” question and answer game with the
theme of ‘Italian Immigration”. There
were no prizes. Linda Messina Holda
#2055 reported on her trip to Sicily earlier this year and how discovering
relatives lead her to a genealogical breakthrough, via a nickname. First timer, Gloria
Otto inquired about tracking down secondary records in Italy, i.e., census and
military. A number of
attendees asked questions and others reported on the current status of their
research. The Chapter #1 Web
site was referred to along with it’s current list of all the Chicago area
Italian feasts scheduled for the Summer. The meeting was
adjourned at approximately 10:00 PM Jenny Floro
Khalaf #3902 acted as recording secretary for this meeting. The next gathering
of Chapter #1 is scheduled for Wednesday, October 17 @ 7PM at Suparossa’s once
again. A guest speaker from our
group will give a presentation. Details to be announced. |
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© PIP Chapter 1, 2003 ~ Webmaster: LPRoots@yahoo.com ~ page last updated on Monday, March 10, 2003 |