First Research Results - 1900 Census

This project is going to take a very long time and include many records. I expect to begin a related tree on Ancestry.com in order to gather the records on families and also to see how the families were related to each other. For now, there are three very important files that contain the results thus far.

1. Census Detail Spreadsheet
Click here for the current state of the spreadsheet in which I am gathering all of the 1900 census information. There are 334 people included in the spreadsheet. Their names are listed alphbetically below and also are the basis for the Wordle graphic at the top left of the page. This spreadsheet is not yet complete for 1900, but it also already includes a few 1910 and 1920 references.

2. Grand Crossing Census Map Spreadsheet
Click here for the current state of the spreadsheet in which I have mapped all of the 1900 census families, street by street and house by house. The surnames of the Bohemian families (highlighted in yellow) are shown for each residence. Each of the other nationalities is shown with a separate color scheme. Be sure to read the "1900 Read Me" worksheet, since this gives the color legend for the nationalities and also gives very important information about the streets at that time and also about how the neighborhood differed from how it is now (e.g., no Grand Crossing Park then).

3. Grand Crossing 1900 Census Map PDF file
Click on the icon above for the best view of the map created in the above spreadsheet. It is difficult to see it all in the spreadsheet. So I have put it into a 4-page PDF file which you can easily zoom and scroll. This really gives a wonderful overview of the overall community in all its international flavor, while also highlighting where the Czechs first settled and where they were most concentrated. Be sure to read the "1900 Read Me" worksheet in the originating spreadsheet (#2 above), since this gives the color legend for the nationalities and also gives very important information about the streets at that time and also about how the neighborhood differed from how it is now (e.g., no Grand Crossing Park then).

There will be many things that are obvious from viewing the map. But I want to especially point how little of the area was built up in 1900. While there were many houses, there were more vacant lots than there were houses. This was a very young new community, and though it grew rapidly and is now thought of as an "old" neighborhood, there were still vacant lots in the 1950's.

After I made the map, I realized it looked familiar and that what it looked like was the set of 1895 Hull House Nationality Maps. I had not had any model in mind when I made the maps. The similarity grows out of the obvious common way of representing nationalities in individual residences. What surprised me was when I re-discovered that the Hull House maps also use the color yellow for the Bohemian families. The neighborhood shown in the Hull House maps really is the original neighborhood -- even before Pilsen -- of most Bohemian families in Chicago. It certainly was where many of the Grand Crossing families had first settled. But by 1895, most of the Grand Crossing families had already been living in Grand Crossing for 5 to 10 years, so that they are not included in the 1895 Hull House maps.

NOTE: Further research reveals a few Czech families (e. g. the Frank Krikava family) north of 76th Street and also a few west of Cottage Grove (e.g. the Kubiceks int the 7300 block of Champlain). These are NOT yet included in this page but will be at some point.

Here is a list of the surnames with the number of people for each surname in parentheses. The five most common surnames are: Sedlacek (23), Marek (17), Vesely (12), Charvat (10) and Triska (9). Note that where spellings in the census are known to conflict with those used by the family or in the city directories, the census spellings have been replaced by corrected spellings.