Welcome to the website
From Vysočina Region (Czech Republic) to the United States of America!
The website is mainly based on the work with the Ellis Island Passenger Search database and the initial heuristic phase of my research on the topic of migration from the Highlands to the USA, especially at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. The website aims to show the indispensable informational potential of working with this database on a limited sample of found migrants and to list in one place as many individuals as possible from various municipalities of the current Vysočina Region.
The website will be gradually improved and enriched with additional materials, examples from municipal chronicles, authentic historical photographs and postcards. If you have materials about the mentioned migrants and municipalities that you would like to share on the website, please email me and we will agree on the details.
.Kontakt
Mgr. Ondřej Neubauer
historian, popularizer of history, pedagogue, author
More information about the author of the site HERE
What information can be found in the Ellis Island Passenger Search database:
Ellis Island database search results so far (as of spring 2023):
found 40 municipalities and over 130 individuals who, either alone, with friends, acquaintances or with family, went across the ocean and went through registration in New York
the average age of the mentioned migrants from Vysočina was between 15-23 years, of which 75 men and 58 women
unmarried persons predominated among the migrants
examples of entire families, e.g. from Batelov (Smejkalov family), Golčův Jeníkov (Prchalov family) or Krucemburk (Musilov family) etc. • most often sailed from the port of Bremen (transport Spol. Norddeutscher Lloyd)
destinations (most frequently found): Chicago (43), Omaha, Nebraska (37) and New York (22)
mostly in the years 1902-1914, especially 1910 and 1911
Other future goals of the project:
create a second language version of the website (in English)
contact the mayors and chroniclers of municipalities or communities in the USA and thus find more details about the mentioned migrants, especially information about their activities in the municipality of origin and subsequently in the USA, where exactly they settled, or who their descendants were and in what field they worked, or they even became famous
connecting and preserving stories that would otherwise be forgotten
publish the list and subsequent analysis or study not only as a website, but also as a book or brochure
to enrich the otherwise much broader historical topic of migration from Europe to America at the end of the 19th and the first half of the 20th century