First a little about myself. I was born at Unity Hospital in Brooklyn, NY and lived most of the early part of my life in South Ozone Park and Rosedale, Queens, NY. I moved to the San Francisco, California (Petaluma ) area in 1970, where I have lived since. My mother, Calogera "Lillian" Sacco, was 100% Sicilian. My father, James William Burton, was primarily of English background. I attended St. Theresa of Avila in South Ozone Park, NY, and hope to attend the STAS 50th Reunion in 2011. I then went to Archbishop Molloy High School in Briarwood, Queens NY. I had five brothers and one sister -- I am the youngest. Some of my surviving family still resides in New York or Pennsylvania.
I worked for the US Postal Service since 1968, retiring in November 2004. My route in the Pacific Heights area of San Francisco (Marina Station) on Route 2305 since 1980. For the last few years (prior to my retirement) I had been on a special joint Labor/Management Detail working on automation in the USPS. Throughout my career, I have been active in the National Association of Letter Carriers at various levels of their structure. I have been a Full-Time Local President (San Francisco) and the Director of Education for the California State Association of Letter Carriers. As a National Representative, I had one of the best records for advocacy at Arbitration Hearings. In addition, I have edited our local union newspaper THE VOICE.
My wife, Catherine Balestrieri Burton, and I enjoy our travels throughout Europe, and usually visit our Sicilian Relatives at least once every three (3) years. Her family comes primarily from Sant'Elia near Palermo, and from Sant'Agata in Messina Province.
I became interested, and then engrossed, in genealogy after my now departed cousin, Dolores Gillen, started doing some serious digging into our Sacco family tree. Much of the information that is currently in my files (on Sacco) are the results of her efforts. I use a FREE genealogy program from the LDS called PAF 5.2 for Windows. I have found it far more powerful than any other "pay" program and it seems to be the standard for most professional genealogists. You can download it for free from their webpage . As a "spin-off" to the genealogical research, I started a Sacco Family Newsletter, that was mailed to virtually all known direct relatives in the USA.
My computer interest started with an Apple II. The latest system in our home network is a HP M8000n system with an Athlon x2 4200 processor, 4 gigs of memory, one 500 Gig hard drive (and several external drives) and a 19" LCD monitor. It has all the necessary "bells an whistles" to help me edit video for my local TV Show "Our Petaluma!" We also use (since Dec. 2002) a "custom" Compaq Presario 8000 Pentium IV 2.53 ghz with a HP 2000i DVD+R burner and an ATI All-In-Wonder 128 meg. 8500 videocard. We also have a Minolta/QMS 2300 Color Laser printer, a HP 5530 Scanner, and a Samsung 17" LCD. Our home network also includes our older "custom" Micro Pro system with a Pentium III 500, 256 megs, ATI All-in-Wonder Rage 128 video, DVD, V95 Optiquest 19" Monitor, etc. Our emergency backup system is my old Quantex . I also have a Mustek 8000SP flatbed color scanner, an Epson Photo 870 injet printer, an Epson R220 injet printer, an Epson 850z Digital Camera (I still LOVE this camera!), and a Lexmark 4029 Laser (needs to be fixed or any takers?). I am the volunteer webmaster for the California State Association of Letter Carriers (CSALC), Golden Gate Branch 214, NALC , the Sonoma County Genealogical Society and the National Sicilian American Foundation.
The award was for my series: " Reminiscing " printed in The Voice of GG Branch 214.
The "Western Labor Communications Association" had awarded me their Second Place Award "For outstanding achievement in the field of labor journalism in the category of 'Best Series... for calendar year 1996'." That award was for my first three articles on "Computers and the NALC"
In addition, I also was awarded their Third Place Award for 1997! Return to Top of Page
Please Sign my "Guestbook" Grazie!
Hot Links My Music Files My Postal Route Genealogy - My family Photos of Family and Friends NALC (National Association of Letter Carriers) Italian and Sicilian History , Travel , Language , Cultural Links
General Genealogical Links, my SCGS link page!
I last updated my online Genealogical Database January 5, 2006. CLICK HERE to view/search my entire Family Tree!
Secondarynames: Anthony, Aubrey, Benninger, Boytin, Dunkerly, Edsell, Green, Greene, Griesemer, Higgins, Kitchen, Knelly, Koehler, Lawn, Llewellyn, Ogin, Parsons, Reiter, Ruth, Santee, Shaffer, Shelly, Snyder, Swank, Welding, Young.
"Click Here to sign my Guestbook"
Click Here to View recent Guestbook entries!
Comments and suggestions are always welcome!!! This page was last updated on February 20, 2008
Spence@SpenceBurton.com
© February, 1996 All Rights Reserved -- permission to copy non-personal information (excluding "coded" calendars and graphics, except for link purposes) is given, as long as appropriate recognition and written notice is given to the author. No personal information from GEDCOM files etc. may be copied in ANY WAY, without my express written consent! This page is best viewed with Mozilla Firefox, with a screen resolution of 1024x768 pixels! Links provided by me on these pages DO NOT necessarily imply my endorsement or agreement with any views contained on them.