My great-grandfather's name was Rudolph (maybe rudolf) hoffman, and apparently was a member of the Chicago Outfit. I heard this from my mother. I always figured we were german, but looking back to it, my grandfather had black hair, dark olive skin, dark circles under eyes. My mother also has these qualities with fairer skin, and I also have a similar complexion to her. My mother said he didn't just work for the outfit, he was IN the outfit itself. My question is, does this insure my great-grandfather was 100 percent Italian, if not, do you guys know have any information on that last name affiliated with the outfit?

Thanks for the time,
Jon

Edit: I'll post a picture of my grandfather tomorrow so you guys can see why I am pretty sure he is Italian.

Giacomo, There are lots of knowledgable Chicago guys on here, I'm sure some of them can provide some insight for you.

Hoffmann is not an Italian last name. Rudolph is not an Italian first name at all. So he was not a part of the outfit or Italian mob in Chicago.

When Italians would go to the United States they would change their last names or have them changed by either spelling it phonetically in English, adding letters, or dropping a letter.

They would change their first names into the American English translations of them like "John" for Giovanni.

You do know that it's entirely possible to be German and have dark hair, a dark complexion, and dark circles. Those are not traits of most Italian people. If you have been to both Germany and Italy you'll see people with all sort of complexions in both countries.

Your great-grandfather was not part of the outfit or Italian mob. If he really was he would not have told his family, his daughter, or he would have done something else and just said he worked doing that.

If you want to pm me more details, such as his years of birth and death, wife's name, etc., I'll do some research and get back to you. Not many people will do that for free.

So where is the pic?

Doctor twink, how can you flat out say his grandfather wasn't in the outfit? How would you know just curious?

Many different Europeans have olive complexions. It's not an exclusive feature of southern Italians.

Please, more threads on skin tone .