Family Connections of the Chicago Grand Crossing Czech Community

Just as a European village had rich inter-connections of the families, so the Grand Crossing Czech community also had rich inter-connections. Some of the connections existed on both sides of the Atlantic. The families helped each other out, not just in the familial sense but in the community sense. The building and loan association that they established was the most visible form. But they also rented out extra rooms to each others' children and helped each other in less obvious ways.

This web page is going to grow in fits and spurts, since it requires much research to find and document the connections and to determine which are through family relationships and which grew from unrelated families simply helping each other out. Sometimes these relationships seem to be there, but their exact nature requires careful research and yet may still not be known. For example, John Hahn and his wife Fannie Krikava rented part of their house to Josef Marek and his wife Mary Kanak in 1900. But in 1910, John Hahn was in turn renting from the widow Henrietta Kanak. So is there a connection between the two Kanak families? And is there some connection between either John Hahn or Fannie Krikava to either the Kanak or the Marek families?

In order to organize these families as I learn more about them, I have expanded the Marek-Wolf tree (really a database) on Ancestry.com to be the "Marek-Wolf / Grand Crossing Czechs" tree - click on the link to view it, if you have an Ancestry subscription. For those who do not have an Ancestry account, I will try to update this page and the family connections diagram as I reach points in my research where I am able to do so.