Death certificates can contain very interesting causes of death, or the “usual” causes of death such asheart disease and cancer. I discovered two certificates for my husband’sItalian side that caused quite a stir in the family when I revealed howthese men died.
First we have Fortunato Fratto. Fortunato was born about 1854 in Taverna, Italy. He immigrated to the United States 21 November 1890 andset his sights on Chicago. Fortunato died 31 January 1921 in Chicago,Illinois due to what the death certificated stated as “Hemorrhage due togun shot wound. Inquest held.” Wow! He was shot! After the initialshock of this discovery wore off I began to search for records.
Thanks to the work of Northwestern University, the Chicago Homicide records from 1870 – 1930, are in a database located at the Homicide inChicago website. Their site contains historical backgroundinformation, an interactive database, crimes of the century and muchmore. To find my Fortunato Fratto I searched the database. The searchoptions include keyword search, case number, date of offense, victimname, address, circumstances, defendant and relationship between thevictim and defendant. The database does include a note that allinformation was transcribed exactly as it appeared on the records withno corrections being made to the data input. And as we know whenresearching records, the data on the document isn’t always 100% correct.
The database shows under a search for Fratto, nothing. I had to search several different criteria in order to find his case. When Ifound it, the name was misspelled as Fortunato Fratts. Not Fratto. Theblurb that comes up with the search states, “January 30, 1921 Fratts,Fortunato – Age 55 – Fatally shot 1/29/21 during an altercation withGuisseppe Tellerino, in the latter?s home at 230 W. 25th St. Tellerinoescaped. 15 Pct., Case number: 5987, View casedetails.” Clicking on case details gives more information about thecircumstances of the homicide, victim and defendant information.
Take a look at the Chicago Homicide Database. There are lots of interesting cases. You never know what you will find.
Now, on to our second Italian, Charles Murabito. Charles was born 14 February 1882 in Trecastagni, Italy. He immigrated to the United States30 March 1903 and came to Chicago. He lived a full life, dying 27October 1933 in Elgin, Kane County, Illinois. I looked for his deathcertificate on the Illinois State Archives death certificate database.I searched by Cook County because that is where he resided. It wasonly when I opened the search to the entire state that I found apossible record for him, in Elgin. When I read the death certificate,the information matched and Charles had indeed, died in Elgin!
Elgin is a long way from Chicago, even by car in 1933, and there was a lot of farm land out that way, so what was a “city boy” doing in Elginwhen he died? His death certificate stated the cause of death was,“General paralysis of the insane.” Huh? What is that? A little Googlingbrought me to understand this was Syphilis. My jaw hit the floor when Idiscovered this bit of information. Did my husband’s family know this?More Googling brought me information related to the old Elgin StateHospital that no longer exists. This was a mental hospital where the“mad and insane” where taken from all around the area.
My husband’s family found all of this information interesting but also a bit shocking. Can you blame them? I think it is all extremelyfascinating. These are the things that make every family different andinteresting in their own way.
What interesting Death Certificate Discoveries do you have?
You can read more of my blog posts at Family History Research Tips or Chicago Family History.
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