Sometimes not.
I talked to the man that bought this XIP chip in 1955.
He did not want to talk to me and denied buying it.

Had the same thing happen to me with an Indiana illegal last week.
Talked to the daughter of the man that bought the chips. Her daddy was a god fearing, church going man and would never have bought gambling chips.
BUT: He did!! The librarian in Terre Haute confirms the address was a known gambling hall. She read me a newspaper article from 1938 and gave me the daughters phone number.
Sometimes people do not want to hear about the past. I have been hung up on, more times than I can count when it comes to researching Illegals.