Membership

Membership To be eligible for full membership, one must have been born  in Italy or be a descendent, spouse or adopted individual of Italian lineage. However, those not of Italian descent who  want to join in our  social activities can apply for Social Membership at the Emilia Sammartino Lodge # 2831.  Members receive: Italian American magazine- a free quarterly of cultural magazine for people of Italian heritage. Sons of Italy Times newspaper- a free monthly newspaper with Pennsylvania lodge updates and columns about and for Italian Americans. Members access to OSIA. org- the national Web site full of information about issues, programs, reports and research  important to Italian Americans.  http://www.osia.org.

You will find discounts on specialty items and services of interest  to Italian Americans, including genealogy research, travel, Italian Language instruction and more. Information on special programs of travel and study to Italy. Resources for tracing one's roots and family history. Eligibility for OSIA scholarships and participation in OSIA youth programs.

  Those wishing to join the Emilia Sammartino Lodge # 2831 are   invitied to attend our monthly meetings  on the last Wednesday of the month at Rizzo's Malabar Inn, in Crabtree, PA or  request an application to Maria Martin,: clentin@comcast.net   email  Andrea Pomponi at: ziainpa@comcast.net 

  .Membership Application If you are interested in becoming a member please  print  the application form below  Emilia Sammartino Lodge #2831,PO Box391, Greensburg,PA 15601 or email to: Andrea Pomponi at: ziainpa@comcast.net or email  to: clentin@comcast.net  fill out the application and mail to Andrea Pomponi at 1515 Elm Street, Greensburg, PA 15601

Emilia Sammartino Lodge Application

The dues schedule for 2023is being recalculated. Info to be added soon.

Members will receive a dues letter w/ form around the first of the year. There will be a self addressed envelope provided to return dues. We ask all members to fill out the information form on the back of the Dues letter to include all family members. Please make sure that the names ,birthdate, phone address and email addresses are clear.

 Final dues payment is set for February 12,2023. Please return as soon as possible.

Members are from Italian Backgrounds as well as spouses and other who wish to share in the Italian

culture and traditions

The Emilia Sammartino Lodge meets at Rizzo's Malabar Inn in Crabtree,PA

Meetings are at 6PM, food available 6:30PM Last Wednesday of the month.

2024  MEETINGS

 
January 31,2024
February 28,2024
March  20,2024
April 31,2024
May 29,2024

No  meeting  in  November ,combined  meeting  xmas  dinner  December  4,2024

possible  visit  to  History  Center    in  June  26  or  27  date  to  be  fixed

Scholarships  to  be  awarded  at  April  Meeting
June, July August no regular Meetings

We  will  have  special  events    in  June,  July  and  August.  Please  check  the  web  for

dates  and  times  for  events!
(Check web site to see about summer events) 

 Pennsylvania Aliquippa San Rocco Festa August www.sanrocco.org Pennsylvania Butler Butler Italian Festival August http://butleritalianfestival.com/ Pennsylvania Downtown Uniontown Italian Heritage Festival August https://www.facebook.com/ItalianFestivalUniontown/ Pennsylvania Erie St. Paul's Italian Festival August http://stpaulrcerie.org/Festival.html Pennsylvania Norristown Our Lady of Soccorso August http://www.holysaviour.org/italian-feasts/ Pennsylvania Pittsburgh Little Italy Days August http://littleitalydays.com/ Pennsylvania Vandergrift Festa Italiana di Vandergrift August www.festaitaliana.us Pennsylvania Williamsport La Festa August http://thesons.org/la-festa/ Rhode Island Providence St. Bartholomew August https://www.facebook.com/Stbartschurch1907/  

This has become a very popular activity for many Italian Americans. Genealogy is a science, but most of all it’s the ability to build our family tree with “exact” information.

How do you access such information if it is maintained in Italy? Archives are different from country to country. In the United States, government agencies allow citizens to order specific historical documents online. In addition, there are catalogs, addresses, and instructions available online that can make research fast and easy. If records in America are somewhat easily attainable, those from Italy require a little bit more effort.

In Italy, there are three main public sources that are repositories of family information:

• Town Halls (Comuni) started to register the population only after the unification of Italy (about 1866-1873 to today’s date).
• State Archives (Archivi di Stato) maintain the so-called Napoleonic records, mostly available in the south of Italy, covering the period from 1809 (1820 in Sicily) to 1865.
• Parish churches (Parrocchie) started to record births/marriages/deaths of their parishioners after the Council of Trento at the end of the 1500s.

Assuming that you know the essential information needed to start a research project in Italy (full name, date of birth, town where ancestor was born), you could well contact one of those sources to request names and dates and easily build your family tree. But the reality is rather different.

Only town hall officials and archivists can perform such requests, but they have time constraints; officials and archivists have the obligation to serve residents and visitors first and then if they have any time left to fulfill other requests. Parish priests, on the contrary, have no obligation to perform any of such requests. In addition, they have very little time available since they are busy with their parishioners and traveling from one village to the other. In general, few speak and understand any language other than Italian, but what is worse is that they receive hundreds of requests from all over the world.

• Do not send money, except what is needed to cover the expenses to mail the response to a different country. Sending extra money will not get you any further up on the list.
• Try to request a reasonable amount of information at one time, especially when you are not sure about the names and dates that you are going off of.
• Try to avoid using online translators or software programs to translate lengthy documents from Italian to English. Be aware that some important facts may get lost in the translation, thus setting you back in your search.

The Church of Latter Day Saints has microfilmed part of these records (namely the Napoleonic Records) and is making them available through its Family History Centers. But these are difficult to understand unless you have extensive experience making sense of Italian records. Often handwritten in Latin or local dialects, old records are a challenge even for native Italians.

Using professionals trained in the art of reading and understanding Latin and Italian handwriting and the science of genealogy is essential. An experienced Italian based genealogist will have cultivated working business relationships with many of these officials. In most cases, information is gathered quickly and accurately including official registered birth, marriage, and death certificates. And most of all, the professional Italian genealogist can advise you on a course of investigation as well as when to persevere and when to give up. In many cases a complete and accurate family tree can be completed in several months and treasured for generations.

(The above information is courtesy My Italian Family. For more information on genealogy research, visit www.myitalianfamily.com, email Italians@myitalianfamily.com, or call 888.472.0171. OSIA members should visit OSIA.org’s Members Only section to retrieve a promotional code for discounts on My Italian Family services.)

Explore the world’s largest family history website at Ancestry.com. OSIA Lodge and At-Large members can now access the OSIA records collections online at Ancestry.com for free using the special link in the OSIA.org Members Only section. If you are not an OSIA member, click here for details on how to become one today.

 We are a national organization of men and women who represent the estimated 26 million Americans of Italian heritage, dedicated to promoting our culture, our traditions, our language, the legacy of our ancestors, and our contributions to the U.S. and the world.  

A Source For:

• Updates on the most pressing issues concerning the nation’s estimated 26 million Americans of Italian descent
• Statistics and demographics on Italian Americans
• Experts to interview about history, politics, economics, culture, etc.
• Official statements on the stereotyping of Italian Americans
• News from Italy on Italian lifestyle and demographics

Media Inquiries: 1.202.547.2900