The Czachorowskys | From Prussia to Chicago: 1870 to 1880

The Czachorowskys are a conundrum. They seem to simply 'appear' in Chicago around 1868. Claiming to be from Prussia I have yet to determine their actual origins. Or their point of entry into the United States. Or why they chose Chicago. As I set out to research one family I discovered others. Curiosity getting the best of me, this turned into the study of five Czachorowsky families living in Chicago c. 1870.  It is my hope with this series to make some discoveries to either link these families together, or prove they are not related. This is a real-time research project, I have not worked on this cluster before. I plan to share my discoveries and my frustrations in hopes that more eyes on the evidence will result in some sound conclusions. Join me as I explore these families, maybe we'll make some discoveries together!

In researching this group of families I began to get confused.  I discovered that the names Frank, Bernard and Leo were used by all the families, Frank being the most common. I began to confuse one Frank with another. What I needed was one of those big boards you see on TV detective shows, so I could lay out all my 'suspects' and get a good visual of who belonged where.  

What I needed was a mind mapping program.

Down the rabbit hole I went .....

Surfacing several hours later I decided on good old pencil and paper to keep this train moving along -  - that software quest will have to be taken up another day.

OK. Here's my rough map:

I focused on the men since I was only looking at the Czachorowsky surname. As you can see Bernard is a dead-end for the moment, and both Leo & Anton had enough children to make things confusing! You can see the use of Frank, Leo and Bernard on both family lines.

Interestingly, searching all the US census (1790 - 1940) records for the surname 'Czachorowsky' (and it's variations) the first time the name appears anywhere is in Chicago in 1870. By 1900 it appears in New York with one family living in Albion; in Wisconsin with one woman living in Milwaukee; in Delaware with one family living in New Castle Co; and in Ohio with one family living in Cleveland. The only family spelling it with a 'y' is the Chicago group.

Now, let's look at the 1870 map and where the three original Czachorowsky men are first recorded living. (The mystery Frank does not appear for the first time until 1880.)  

Granted, Chicago was a lot smaller than it is today, however the population in 1870 was close to 300,000! Notice that these three men lived within blocks of each other. Bears further investigation, I think.

Looking at the census records, Bernard is the first to show up. The 1870 census record shows a woman named Mena Czachorowsky residing at the same address, 12 years younger than Bernard, her occupation: keeping house. This census records both Bernard and Mena as being born in Poland. Bernard lists his occupation as a carpenter. Mena could be a sister, or a wife. The census does not list a 'marriage month', but it does not list a 'birth month' either - and 'Poland' is incorrect. So, the only take-away from this is that Bernard was in Chicago in 1870. Interestingly, every other family on this street was a Prussian immigrant.

There are no other Czachorowskys recorded in any US census in 1870.

The 1870 Chicago city directory lists both Bernard and Anton. (But no Leo) Pay no attention to the spelling, there are so many reasons it's wrong. Illiteracy or a typesetting error come to mind. Or miscommunication - the Czachorowskys certainly wrote and spoke German. Our best clues are the addresses. Bear in mind that during this time in Chicago history street names and addresses were in flux. As the city expanded and more houses were being built houses often needed to be re-numbered. It wasn't until 1909 that things solidified. (Heck, the house I live in had three different addresses in the course of it's life - but never budged from it's present location!)

However, Leo did appear first in the city directories! Here he is in the 1868 edition:

He is boarding on south Jefferson, working as a clerk for Adolph Huebner (a grocer).

Here is Adolph Huebner's listing:

Seems Leo was working for and living with Adolph when he first arrived in Chicago. Did he know him? Another question that has no answer - but perhaps something else to investigate further.

By 1872 all three men are listed in the Chicago city directory:

Anton is still on Morgan, Bernard is still on Mitchell, Leo has moved to Canal. One of the reasons I love city directories is they are published annually. You can find people more readily than relying on the census alone. And you can watch them move around, too!

Leo was said to have been married in 1869, according to the hand drawn family tree. In researching sideways, searching for Leo's in-laws, I found his future mother-in-law in Chicago in 1864.

Huh. Will you look at that. Canal Street.

Here are the trio in the 1878 city directory:

No, Bernard did not move. Mitchell was renamed West 14th Street.

Here they are in the 1880 city directory:

Looks like Anton has moved to Maxwell Street!

Interestingly, Leo, (F Louis here), is the only Czachorowsky recorded on the 1880 census. Chicago or any other US city.

Here's a map of Chicago 1880 showing the addresses and location of our trio:

Of note, the Great Chicago Fire. 1871. Most of the Czachorowskys narrowly miss the fury. They fortunately settled just on the outskirts of the great tragedy as seen here:

However, it is quite possible that Leo was affected. 425 S Canal is just on the edge of the burned area - approximately at the corner of Taylor and Canal. Almost the epicenter! The fire started on DeKoven Street - one block southwest of Canal and Taylor. The fire spread northeast up along the lakefront. Another piece of the puzzle and an avenue of research .....

The final thing I want to cover this week is church affiliation. The Czachorowskys are buried in Catholic cemeteries. So, they must have been Catholic. They most likely attended church regularly. They most likely would have been married in church and baptized their children in church. The million dollar question is which church!?! There are four possibilities based on their residences and the churches operating in Chicago at the time. Better yet, the records are mostly all online!

The bad news? The records are unindexed.

What is that you say?

They are there for the looking, you just have to look at every single record. As such I have not looked at all the records available to me. (As I said in the intro - this is a real-time research project.)

Here's where you come in! A crowdsourcing opportunity! Should you decide to play along, here are the four candidates and the links to the online records. In order of proximity to their residences. (Remember, they would have walked or maybe taken the streetcar to get anywhere in the city - things needed to be close)

1. St Francis of Assisi est. 1857

2. Holy Family est. 1857

3. Notre Dame est. 1864

4. Old St. Pat's est. 1846

Happy hunting! Let me know if you find anything - oh, by the way, some of the records are in Latin or German .....

to be continued .........

*images courtesy of Ancestry.com, Fold3, FamilySearch and David Rumsey map collection

The Czachorowskys | From Prussia to Chicago, An Introduction

Brand new year, brand new series!

The Czachorowskys are a conundrum. They seem to simply 'appear' in Chicago around 1868. Claiming to be from Prussia I have yet to determine their actual origins. Or their point of entry into the United States. Or why they chose Chicago. As I set out to research one family I discovered others. Curiosity getting the best of me, this turned into the study of five Czachorowsky families living in Chicago c. 1870.  It is my hope with this series to make some discoveries to either link these families together, or prove they are not related. This is a real-time research project, I have not worked on this cluster before. I plan to share my discoveries and my frustrations in hopes that more eyes on the evidence will result in some sound conclusions.

Join me as I explore these families, maybe we'll make some discoveries together!

Family One (primary family)

I had some basic information from a hand-drawn family tree, done by an in-law of the Czachorowsky clan. It became my starting point. None of it was sourced (of course!), so I set out to prove/disprove the documented information. This tree had been circulating around the family for several generations, and was generally taken as truth.  The original immigrant was Leo F. Czachorowsky. Sometimes known simply as L. F. He married a woman by the name of Anna Marie Junk according to the family tree. It was reported that the couple married in West Prussia in November of 1869. The date of arrival was not mentioned, nor were the birthplaces of the children of Leo and Anna. But it was a commonly held belief that most of them were born in Chicago, IL.

So, I began.

Using the U.S. census records, Chicago city directories, known burial information and the unsourced information supplied on the family tree I began to dig. This was by no means a linear search! I had to jump from census to census, then backtrack to city directories and other sources of information.

I found no record of the family in Chicago, or anywhere, in 1870.

The 1880 census revealed that the children were born in Chicago, it actually says 'Chicago' not Illinois, the first child being born in 1870 (in Chicago). Additionally, the 1880 census records Leo as 'F Louis' just to make it more fun! And Anna is recorded as 'Mary'. Both Leo and Mary report their birthplace as 'Prussia'.

OK. Prussia 1840's? That's fun too! Seems we have a bit of a brick wall building here.

The 1900 census revealed that Mary (Anna) had been in Chicago since 1861. 1861?! Leo had died in 1898 so there was no info on him, unfortunately. That census also revealed that Mary had been married for 31 years. That agrees with the 1869 marriage date - but perhaps not the marriage location.

On to city directories!

 L. F. first appeared in the 1868 edition of the Chicago city directory. He was listed as a clerk for Adolph Huebner and was boarding on south Jefferson St. Searching for JUNK revealed a variety of misspellings, mostly YOUNG, but the city directories proved the family was in Chicago as early as 1861.

The YOUNG family was operating several businesses in early Chicago. Both Mary and her mother (also Mary) were milliners and dressmakers, a son was a distiller of highwines in partnership with his uncle, his mother's brother.

Leo 'gos missing' from the directories between 1869 and 1871, Mary disappears in 1870, reappearing in 1871 in the business directory still using her maiden name - but at the correct residence, as listed on the 1880 census.

So, did they return to Prussia to marry? Great question! Still don't know the answer. Or why Mary used her maiden name for the 1871 listing.

By 1872 L.F. is listed as the milliner, and the trail grows warm again.


Families Two thru Five

As I was searching the city directories for Leo I noticed two other Czachorowskys that appeared about the same time. I was curious. It is an unusual name. Nowadays you can find it spelled with an 'i', but the 'y' has all but disappeared. As Leo just magically appeared in Chicago, maybe I would have luck researching these other two men. The first to appear was Bernard, followed by Anton. I would later discover Frank and Pauline. I can prove Anton and Pauline are brother and sister. The rest are currently unrelated as I have uncovered nothing to link them together, other than they all came from Prussia within a decade of one another. And all were born within a decade of one another.  And, curiously they all came to Chicago.

Family Two

Headed by Bernard Czachorowsky. Listed as a carpenter residing on Mitchell. Born in August 1832, he sometimes reported Prussia and other times Germany. Bernard was the first to emigrate, arriving in New York in December of 1856. It would be another decade before he showed up in Chicago.

Family Three A

Anton or Anthony Czachorowsky, a house mover living on S. Morgan. He was born January 1835, mostly reported his birthplace as Prussia, but Germany occasionally shows up too. He was married to Maria "Mary" Glowinsky. The couple married in Prussia and immigrated together with four young children and Anton's sister Pauline. Arriving in New York in September of 1868.

Family Three B (four)

Pauline Czachorowsky was the sister of Anton. But as she came to Chicago as an adult I decided to treat her as her own family unit. Pauline would marry Nicholas Ballmann in Chicago.

Family Five

Frank Czachorowsky. The biggest mystery of all the mysterious Czachorowskys ... as you will discover.

Over the coming weeks and months I plan to dig deeper into each Family, exploring all the documents I can find, and hopefully begin to put the pieces together to learn more about the Czachorowskys.

First up: A look at the decades and a who's who. Fasten your seat belts, this might be a bumpy ride .....

to be continued .......

Photo Friday :: A Dapper Gentleman

This series was birthed from the large old photo album I rediscovered in the back of my closet. Many of the photos are from my grandmother's side of the family. There are also unknown photos that came with the album. Story goes my dad, an avid garage saler, picked up a celluloid covered Victorian era photo album on one of his scavenges. It already contained photos of an (as yet) unidentified family. My parents put our own vintage family photos in the album alongside the mystery family's.  As children we marveled at the old fashioned clothing and settings, often wondering who these people were and what their lives were like. Of course, we thought that ALL the people in the photos were our relations! It wasn't until my mom passed the album on to me after my dad died that I learned of the mystery family residing alongside our own!

I plan to share these photos over time, sometimes they will be my family, and identifiable, others will be of the mystery family. Thanks to the world wide web, they may find their way home yet!

Enjoy!

"Uncle Milt Dicken"
"Washington IA"
"taken about 1870"

©2016 Anne Faulkner - AncestorArchaeology.net, All Rights Reserved

Frederick Colyer: A Bit Of Genealogy Karma (52 Ancestors #11)

Frederick Colyer was my 2nd great grandfather. Born in Kent, England Novenber 4, 1847 to Frederick Henry Colyer and Ann Pritchard Colyer. Frederick was the middle child, second of three children, two boys and a girl.

Now I don't pretend to know what life in England was like in the mid-1800's, but for some unexplained reason Frederick decided to leave England and head for America as a young man of 22.

In the spring of 1870 Frederick traveled to London and boarded the ship the New World bound for America. Listed as a passenger in steerage, Frederick arrived in New York June 21, 1870 to begin his new life. It is unclear as to whether he traveled alone or with companions, but I do know that his entire family stayed behind in England.

Listed as a bricklayer by trade, I'm sure the job prospects were good for a young immigrant in the later part of the 1800's. Cities were being established, the railroads were being built, America was growing and needed good skilled men to fuel the growth.

Frederick finds his way to Chicago sometime prior to 1872, where he meets and marries my 2nd great grandmother, Ann Sammon, on September 13, 1872.

It is unclear as to whether Frederick was in Chicago prior to the Great Fire, but I would suspect that if not, he arrived shortly after. Chicago needed all the skilled bricklayers they could find to help rebuild the city devastated by fire.

Frederick and Ann would go on to have two children, a son and a daughter.

Their son, Henry, died at the age of 20. Ten years later Frederick lost his wife, Ann.

Frederick's golden years were spent in the residence of his daughter and son-in-law, finally joining his wife on February 19, 1928 at the respectable age of 80.

From left to right:
Standing: Margaret Colyer Irons, Frederick Colyer,
 Agnes Irons (granddaughter), Harry Irons (grandson)
Seated: William Irons (Margaret's husband)

The interesting aside to this story is that for years no one knew who Frederick's parents were. When I started my investigation into my family, my knowledge of Frederick's lineage was zero. I posted a Family Tree to OneWorldTree (a very incorrect tree, I might add, it has since been deleted). And that was that.

For a while.

One day I received an email from a man in England who had been looking for Frederick. He was a Colyer, descended from our mutual 4th great grandfather. He was tracing the family and was always stumped as to what has happened to Frederick. All he knew was Frederick got on a ship headed to America in 1870.  It puzzled and frustrated him not knowing Frederick's fate.

Then he came across my Tree.

For several weeks we emailed back and forth furiously. I supplied him with the information I had and he supplied me with the MOTHERLOAD of family tree research I would never be able to accomplish without an extended trip to England, and the seasoned knowledge of exactly where to look. He has been compiling family history for years. I now had parts of Frederick's lineage going back to 1515! With sources!

A magical day in the pursuit of genealogy, to be sure. A rare and glorious encounter.

One of those things we all secretly wish for when we post our trees for "cousin bait".

I have not has such a windfall of success since that time, but I have been able to 'pay it forward' here and there with other parts of my family tree. To enlighten others in some small ways, the way I was so blessed to have experienced.

Whatever possessed Frederick Colyer to leave his home and family so long ago, he was finally reunited 140 years later. The world just got a wee bit smaller.