January 2023

Know the Signs of Organized Crime

Mafiosi and their victims have always lived side by side. The same ships that brought honest people to America also brought criminals and a unique culture in which organized crime was practiced. Clues to Mafia activity are not only in the news of their criminal exploits, but in larger patterns discoverable to the alert genealogist. Understand how political and social forces shaped the cultural values of southern Italy, learn to identify the signs of Mafia activity in the genealogical record, and gain new insight into the challenges your ancestors faced, in Italy and the United States, from the oppression and violence of organized crime.

Justin Cascio studies the families and organizational patterns of the Sicilian Mafia. The one-place study of his family’s ancestral hometown of Corleone, Sicily, has over 20,000 individual profiles, and identifies more than two hundred Mafia members and associates. Justin writes the popular website, Mafia Genealogy. His articles on Mafia families have been published by The Mob Museum (Las Vegas), Gangsters, Inc., and Informer Journal.
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Justin Cascio