Every Group That Built Chicago, In Order

There is a building on the near west side of Chicago that has been four different churches — German, then Italian, then a synagogue, then Baptist. Same walls. Same windows. Four peoples in eighty years. That building is not a curiosity, it is the pattern — because Chicago did not grow the way other cities grew. It was stacked. In 1830 about a hundred people lived at the mouth of the Chicago River. Sixty years later there were a million. No city in history had ever filled that fast, and it filled in layers: each group arriving at the same docks, taking the same jobs in the same stockyards, moving into the same tenements the last group was leaving, then moving out and selling the church on. This is the complete history of Chicago immigration and settlement, in the order it happened — every group that built the city, which neighbourhoods were theirs, what work they did, and where their descendants went. Plus how to trace a Chicago family through the parish records. In this video: The Chicago Portage and what the name actually means. Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, the Black founder of Chicago, and why the city took 150 years to say so. The 1833 Treaty of Chicago and the removal of the Potawatomi — and how the federal government brought Native families back in the 1950s. The Yankee speculators and the Illinois and Michigan Canal. The Irish of Bridgeport and the machine that ran the city for a century. Why the Germans were the largest group in 19th-century Chicago and why you cannot see them now. The Lager Beer Riot and Haymarket. Andersonville and the Swedes. Saint Stanislaus Kostka, the parish with 35,000 members. Why Pilsen is named after a Czech city. Maxwell Street, Lawndale and the 60 synagogues. What happened to Taylor Street and Little Italy. Marquette Park, Ukrainian Village and the steel mills. Greektown, moved twice. Why Chinese families came east from California. The Great Migration, the Illinois Central line out of Mississippi, and the Chicago Defender's Great Northern Drive. The 1919 race riot. Restrictive covenants, redlining, kitchenettes and contract buying. Pilsen and Little Village. Humboldt Park and the Paseo Boricua. Devon Avenue, Argyle Street and everything after 1965. And the 1871 fire that destroyed every Cook County record before it. Chapters 0:00 The building that was four churches 3:00 Why anyone stopped at a swamp 6:00 The first man in Chicago 9:00 The Potawatomi, removed and recruited back 13:00 The Yankees and the canal 17:00 The Irish 22:00 The largest group nobody can see 27:00 The Swedes and Norwegians 30:00 The parish with 35,000 members 35:00 Why Pilsen has a Czech name 38:00 Maxwell Street and Lawndale 43:00 What happened to Little Italy 46:00 The steel mill neighbourhoods 50:00 Greektown, moved twice 52:00 Chinatown came east 55:00 The Great Migration 60:00 The beach, 1919 64:00 How the door was held shut 70:00 Blues, gospel and Bronzeville 73:00 Pilsen becomes Mexican 77:00 After 1965 80:00 How neighbourhoods changed hands 84:00 The fire, the parishes, the records Tell me in the comments: which layer was your family, and which parish or which block? Bridgeport. Andersonville. Pilsen. Maxwell Street. Bronzeville. Taylor Street. Marquette Park. Little Village. Put the years in too — somebody reading may have grown up three doors down. Subscribe for more of the migrations that built America. #Chicago #ChicagoHistory #Genealogy #GreatMigration #AmericanHistory