MEETING
NOTES
left to right: Geneva Shay, Dr. Tom Militello (founder & President of POINT), Rose Ducato,
Leah Reed, and Dan Niemiec at the POINT National Conference in Austin Texas, 8 Oct 2000
MARCH 9TH, 2001
We are proud to announce the formation of the POINTers In
Person (Chapter #27 - Chicago North). Our first meeting was held at the
Schaumburg District Library in Schaumburg, IL, on 9 March 2001.
Twenty-three Italian genealogists, ranging from beginners to
experts, attended our first meeting.
Daniel E. Niemiec (#2304) opened the meeting by introducing
the group to its members. He discussed the meeting format, the reason we picked
our meeting dates and encouraged everyone to join POINT by showing the
quarterly journal and the Annual Directory and expIaining the benefits of
membership.
Then he introduced everyone to the chapter website at:
http://www.rootsweb.com/-itappcnc/index.htm
and expIained that we will post chapter information, lists
of conferences, websites of interest, our members' surnames
and other information on the website.
A brief expIanation of our on-line mail list at:
pipnorth@yahoogroups.com
was given, as well as a mention of PIE and other regional
lists. We aIready have 19 members on our mail list.
Rose Marie Ulizzi-Ducato (#1812), the chapter's co-founder,
talked about the unveiling of the Ellis Island database.
She recommended links and other items to be included in the
chapter website. She brought a number
of handouts about reading records, handwriting, and occupations.
After a short break (where members perused our library of
Italian genealogy books), we reconvened and each
attendee made introductory comments. Jerry Farenga (#1763) sent letters to all
people with a surname in his town. He received two letters back and they now
correspond regularly. Joy Hamm (#4275)
talked about her family names, and mentioned her maiden name. It turns out her
brother was Dan's driver's-ed teacher in high school. Small world!
Toni Garofalo (#1701) asked about finding the passenger list
record of some ancestors and how you can find that
information through the naturalization petition and declaration,
and how to find out which court they were naturalized
in. Patricia Powers
(#2531) mentioned some of the frustrations in searching for certain surnames in
Capurso, Bari.
Jim Padar and his niece, Lisa, are researching in Baragiano,
Potenza. He is related to one of Dan's cousins. Susan Lehrmann (#4074) and her daughter, Karen Bucaro (#3744),
related their experience of receiving a letter from a
fellow POINTer shortly after their names were published in
the Annual Directory and how they filled gaps in each others' research.
Diane Kinn (#1816) talked about her trip to ltaly to visit
her parents' ancestral village.
Prudie Marose brought an Italian document to get help with
translation.
Karen Bailey is trying to leam all she can before going to
ltaly in a few weeks.
Roger and Pauline MacLennan (#2835) have had less success on
their Italian genealogy than on their other lincages
due to the lack of availability of early Italian records.
Josephine Martin, Rich Davi and Kathy Ranieri are just
starting out.
Shirley Washkowiak has five other ethnicities to research
besides her Italian lines.
Sherill Crivello (#281) is working on her husband's Italian
lines.
Audrey Allen (#1772) talked about her experiences in Italy
and the professional genealogist who has taken her lines
back to the 1500s!
Our chapter will next meet at the Schaumburg District
Library, 130 South Roselle Road, Schaumburg, IL, on 11 May
2001 at 7:30 pm. For
information, contact Dan Niemiec at: pipnorth@comcast.net or Rose Ducato at:
psrmducato@aol.com