Cicilaitis Family Timeline

Research roadmap

What to investigate next

Priority #1 — Church records

Visit or contact Saint Casimir Catholic Cemetery & St. Michael Parish

Stella was buried at Saint Casimir Catholic Cemetery on January 31, 1915 — just two days after she died. In this era, infants who died shortly after their mothers were frequently buried in the same plot or a nearby grave in the same section. If Joseph Jr. died in those first weeks of life, the answer may be in that cemetery. St. Michael Parish in Chicago recorded Stella's death and likely held baptism and burial registers for the whole family. These parish books are often more complete than civil records and have not yet been checked.

📍 Saint Casimir Catholic Cemetery, Chicago, IL 🔍 Search FindAGrave — Saint Casimir ⛪ St. Michael Parish, Chicago — request registers

Note to self: Call or write to Saint Casimir Cemetery office and request a plot search for "Cicilaitis" and "Cicelaitis" in the 1915 section. Ask specifically whether any infant is buried in the same plot as Stella Petrauskas Cicilaitis (d. Jan 29, 1915). Contact St. Michael Parish for baptism and burial registers from January–June 1915.

Cook County death index, 1915–1920

Search for Joseph Jr. under every phonetic spelling of the surname. Lithuanian names were routinely mangled by clerks — try all variants below.

Cicilaitis Cicelaitis Ciclaitis Cecilaitis Szilaitis Petrauskas Piotrowska

1920 & 1930 U.S. Federal Census

Joseph Jr. would have been ~5 in 1920 and ~15 in 1930. He does not appear in the 1920 household with his father and Walter. Search for him living with an aunt, uncle, neighbor, or in an orphanage or Catholic institution in Cook County.

Joseph Cicilaitis, b. 1915 Joseph Petrauskas Cook County orphanage rolls

Cook County birth certificate — full copy

The FamilySearch index entry is a transcription. The original certificate may contain the family's home address, the attending physician or midwife, and witness names — all of which can open new leads for tracing what happened next.

Citation: "Illinois, Cook County Birth Registers, 1871–1915", FamilySearch (ark:/61903/1:1:N76G-FWL : 18 Jan 2025), Entry for Joseph Cicilaitis, 23 Jan 1915.

FindAGrave — search the Cicilaitis name at Saint Casimir

Stella's memorial (ID 251651319) is already on FindAGrave. Use the "others buried nearby" and "same surname in same cemetery" features to check whether any infant Cicilaitis is recorded at Saint Casimir. Also search under Petrauskas — Joseph Jr. may have been registered under his mother's maiden name.

baby Cicilaitis infant Cicelaitis Joseph Petrauskas

Working hypothesis

85–90%

Joseph Jr. most likely died in infancy

Based on all evidence gathered so far, the strongest hypothesis is that Joseph Jr. died in the weeks or months following his birth — possibly days after his mother. He is absent from the 1920 census, no death certificate has yet been found (common for infant deaths in this era), and maternal death within days of delivery made newborn survival extremely precarious.

Born Jan 23, 1915 Mother died Jan 29 — 6 days later Absent from 1920 census No death certificate found yet High infant mortality era