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how should I go about finding this information?

January 15th, 2010 Leave a comment Go to comments

My great grandfather who was born in sicily and moved to the US was killed around the early 1930s. He lived in Michigan with his family, yet I can’t find any information on him. There aren’t any death, marriage, or any other documents on him.

Since he was shot shouldn’t there be some newspaper records about the shooting? Any help would be appreciated.

Your coming up against two things the first is the era the 1930, mobsters, bootleg gin, the other is he was Sicilian, again the wall of the era. If he infact lived in Michigan there should be a death certificate and if you cannot find that then a burial certificate/record in the town he was buried. The newspapers of the time really didn’t give much space to the killing of emigrants. Sicilian and Italian Imigrants were not very well accepted and for the most part were ignored by newspapers outside of New York and Chicago. I have been researching my Italian Grandparents for over 30 years. They arrived in CA in 1847, just before the Gold Rush and the only place I found any information was in the Historical Society of one county they lived in.

  1. greatgranny
    January 15th, 2010 at 13:51 | #1

    You might try Ancestry.com. Don’t know if they can help but that is what I would do.
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  2. Joyce B
    January 15th, 2010 at 14:00 | #2

    You could post his name here and someone will come along to help.
    References :

  3. ancestorseeker
    January 15th, 2010 at 14:50 | #3

    Are you saying you ordered his death certificate from the MI county he died in and they said they didn’t have it? Same with marriage? You contacted the local library about local newspapers for news stories an a obituary. You contacted the cemetery he is buried at and no luck? What year did he immigrate? Have you tried going to a LDS family history center for Ship passenger records? What year was he born? Did he start and complete becoming a naturalized citizen?

    Or are you just looking online? At "free" sites or "fee" sites? Probably better luck with fee sites as they have the money to go to states, counties, and cities to buy records and get them ready and upload them to the net. Same with historical newspaper sites, they have the money to get microfilms of older (pre internet) newspapers and also upload them to the net. They have the money because the charge a fee to recoup expenses and be a business.

    If you don’t have the exact dates and places then you really need to find the information from a family member. Someone may have a family bible with the information in it.
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  4. Researcher
    January 15th, 2010 at 15:31 | #4

    Your coming up against two things the first is the era the 1930, mobsters, bootleg gin, the other is he was Sicilian, again the wall of the era. If he infact lived in Michigan there should be a death certificate and if you cannot find that then a burial certificate/record in the town he was buried. The newspapers of the time really didn’t give much space to the killing of emigrants. Sicilian and Italian Imigrants were not very well accepted and for the most part were ignored by newspapers outside of New York and Chicago. I have been researching my Italian Grandparents for over 30 years. They arrived in CA in 1847, just before the Gold Rush and the only place I found any information was in the Historical Society of one county they lived in.
    References :

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