Solving the Mystery of What Happened to Uncle Nick
Perhaps the most exciting find on my family research journey was finding my great uncle Nick alive in Chicago at 36 years of age! According to the family narrative, he left home as a teenager and likely joined the mafia in Chicago. It was speculated that he died at a young age possibly in some gangster related incident. While none of that was ever proven, the fact that he was NEVER heard from again made it seem like a possible conclusion to reach. According to his brothers, he never once called, wrote or visited his family after he left Kalamazoo.
Natale Carra was born on Christmas day in 1903 in Sicily. At the time of his birth, his father Salvatore (Sam) was 29 and his mother Violetta Tiberina was 22. His parents emigrated to the United States in the mid 1910s and left him behind with his grandmother, Santa, and two brothers, Annibale (Joe) and Pietro (Pete). On November 11th, 1911, at age 8, he and his brothers boarded the White Star Line Ship the S. S. Romanic in Palermo, Sicily with their grandmother Santa. After a week and half at sea, they landed on the shores Boston Massachusetts. Their final destination being Hibbing, Minnesota to reunite with the rest of the family.
By 1920, the family had moved to Kalamazoo, Michigan and according to the US Census, Nick was 15 years old and attending school. During this time, Al Capone and other mafia figures were recruiting Italian men in Kalamazoo and other Midwest cities. In an effort to avoid being involved, they decided to drop the vowel at the end of their name and changed it from Carra to Carl to sound less Italian. When looking though the city directories and yearbooks during this time, you will see the household all going by the surname “Carl”.
Shortly after 1920, nick left Kalamazoo never to be heard from again.
After years of searching, I was thrilled to find him in the 1940 US Census living on Montrose Avenue in Chicago! He was 36 years old and working in a machine shop as a Milling Machine Operator.
While he does have a WWII draft registration card from February of 1942, unlike his brothers, Nick never served in the military.
In April of 1942, he filed his first papers to become a naturalized citizen of the United States. As listed on both his draft card and naturalization record, he was listed as 5′ 8″, 210 pounds with brown eyes and brown-grey hair.
Two years later in July of 1944, he completed the naturalization process, became a US citizen and officially changed his name from Natale Carra to Nick Carl.
After 1940, I could no longer find any records of him in Chicago and I thought his story would end there. I gave it a rest for a while until the lack of closure and the drive to find answers for our family who had always wanted to know what happened to him, pushed me to keep digging.
I decided to broaden my search nationally and look for any and all death records I could find. I came across a death record for a Nick Carl who died in Newark, New Jersey in 1980. My initial thought was that it couldn’t be him. New Jersey? Died in 1980? BUT to my surprise…it was him! Not only did his name match but so did his birth date and place!
I then had a new state to look in and I was able to locate him in the 1950 census living as a boarder in the house of George and Helen Van Over. He is listed as 46 years old, never married and looking for work.
Since 1950 is the most recent census available, I’m unable to find him in 1960-1980.
Having his date of birth, death date from the death index and since he never married or had children, I was able to send in for his death record for genealogy purposes. It arrived in April 2024 and I was SO EXCITED!
According to the record, he worked for Tobacco Machine & Supply Co in Roseville, New Jersey. Due to New Jersey law, his cause of death information had been redacted but his death was listed as an emergency and he died at the College Hospital for Medicine in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey on January 13th, 1980 at age 76. He is buried at the St. Gertrude Cemetery in Colonia, New Jersey.
His lawyer was listed as the informant on his death certificate which suggests that he died alone.
Perhaps we will never know why he left his family, never returned, never married or had children. But now we know that he lived a long life and is resting in peace in a beautiful cemetery in New Jersey where we can pay him a visit and let him know that he was dearly missed.
Solving the Mystery of What Happened to Uncle Nick Read More »