Hi guys Ive been reading this forum for the past week this is my first post. Im from right outside of philadelphia. Last week on thanksgiving i found out that 2 of my cousins are very close associates to joey merlino ( one of them has been described as joeys close associate in numerous newspaper articles). This came as a huge surprise to me and sparked back up a huge interest in the mob and thats what led me here.

Thats not my reason for the thread but finding that out brought back a question I had since childhood. my grandmothers maiden name is Gambino. I
have a few uncles and cousins with the last name Gambino. None of them are in the mob ( the other cousins I spoke of are on my moms side and gambinos are on my dads, how ironic). Im100% italian and i used to ask my dad if we were related to the mafia and he said if we are then it is a very distant relation but he wasnt sure. He also said that years ago a bunch of italian guys in suits knocked on our door and claimed to be from a furniture buisness, they said they seen our name in the phone book and that if we ever needed anything to let them know.

Now I know gambino is not a common name My question is is there a way I can trace back my family tree? Like a website I could go on to find out if im distantly related to some old mobsters. Also how many mobsters actually had the last name gambino.