More Questions than Answers

The death certificate came back yesterday. And, well…

Hmmm.

The Good News

I think this Frank [Xyz] is one of our own. Why:

• Listed as “Informant” they have the name “E. Xyz,” and his address is 13414 Houston St., Chicago.
• My Great-Grandpa Xyz came to America from Croatia in 1913 (the year before all this). The ship manifest from Ellis Island says he was going to live with his brother Emmanuel Xyz, whose address was 13410 Houston St., Chicago.

That’s pretty dang close. The difference could be something as simple as a clerical error or Emmanuel finding cheaper rent a few doors down.

The other good news is that Frank is buried at National Bohemian Cemetery, which is not terribly far from me. I’ve actually been there before--I just didn’t know one of my relatives was, too.

The Tricky News

(Click to enlarge)

He’s listed as single, which our Frank wasn’t. Yes, it’s a biggie, but hold on to that thought.

There are a lot of blanks on this form--specifically, all information about his parents and his birth date is filled in as “unknown.” Simple enough, but…they had an informant. One who knew enough to say that Frank had been born in Austria* and had lived in the United States for two years. So why would he clam up about all the other stuff? Stuff he almost certainly knew about his brother?

The Thrilling News

Cause of death. Cue the organ.

“Asphyxiation by gas (suicide and murder)”

Dun dun DUN!!!!

We knew the gas part already, but the suicide-murder thing was something I had imagined only in my head. It just seemed a little too “True Story Magazine” to imagine a lovers’ quarrel that ended with one person asleep and the other all, “If I can’t have you, no one can…” The newspaper had called it an accident. But maybe it was something darker after all. And it begs the question: Was Frank the murder...or the suicide?

Dun-dun-DUN indeed.

That, I doubt we’ll ever know. But I will contact the police department anyway. Maybe they still have a file or a record somewhere.

My guess is that the suicide aspect, and the general scandalousness of the whole situation--dead unmarried woman, hotel room--explains all those “unknowns” on the certificate. Emmanuel may have wanted to spare the family any further shame. It may--may--even explain him being listed as single rather than married. That's a lot of mays and ifs, I know. But it was a different time.  However shocking this might be today, it was infinitely moreso then.  Remember--until I stumbled on this, no one in my family had ever even heard about this incident. Shame could very well be a factor.

Or maybe this Frank is just another Frank in the family, a distant and ne’er-do-well cousin with the same last name who came to America, met a girl and…or did I read that in True Story? I can’t remember.

Either way, time for more research.

*In 1914, “Austria” didn’t mean what it does today. It meant Austria-Hungary, which covered a whole lot of ground, including Croatia, where this part of my family is from.