POINTers in Person

For more information Contact Us.

Chapter 20 of POINT (Pursuing Our Italian Names Together) meets monthly in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania except December and January and in the summer. It is a wonderful group of people interested in finding their Italian roots and exploring the rich culture of Italy. For more information: www.rootsweb.com/~papip20

Three Pittsburgh POINTers went to the National POINT Convention held in Salt Lake City, Utah October 10-12, 2002. Along with enjoying the diversified lecture topics, research in the world's largest genealogical library was facilitated by having Italian experts on hand for over a week to answer any questions. If the ancestral town's records were on microfilm at the library, it was possible to research birth, marriage, and death records for many generations. Of course the records are written in Italian and so the personal help and the aid of word lists enabled researchers to understand what the records stated.

Elissa Powell (left above) and Marie Capezzuto (right above) in front of Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah. It was nice to see some really blue skies before heading indoors again.

Author and lecturer Sharon DeBartolo Carmack, CG shared a lunch table with Kathy Rosella and Marie Capezzuto. They enjoyed the luncheon lecture by author Trafford Cole of Italy.

Among the 150 attendees of the conference, Mimi Torchia Boothby and Elissa Scalise Powell met for the first time. They may be cousins as they are researching their families in the same small town of Sersale, Catanzaro, Calabria. Mimi's webpage contains an ongoing project to index the birth and marriage records of this town at http://www.sersale.org/sersale.htm

Among the lovely sights of downtown Salt Lake City there is no lovlier picture than a group of genealogical friends in front of the world's largest genealogical library... unless it is the sight of that long-lost ancestor's birth record! Left to right are: Marie Capezzuto of Pittsburgh, Kathy Rosella of Pittsburgh, Marie and Bob Melchiori of Vienna, VA, Elissa Powell of Pittsburgh, Lynn McMillion of Alexandria, VA, and Diana Smith of Cleveland, Ohio.