1900 Census for Juan and Fortunata Zamora - San Antonio, Texas

1900 Census for Juan Zamora - San Antonio, Texas

This Census for San Antonio, Texas from 1900 tells a lot about some of the members of the Delgado and Zamora families which can be found on this site.  First of all, we see Juan Zamora (spelled on this particular census "Samora") living, with his family, at 401 South Concho.

Samora, Juan - head
"    Fortunato - wife (note the misspelling of Fortunata's name)
"    Maria - daughter
"    Manuel - son
"    Julio - son
"    Santos - son
"    Feliberto - son
"    Encarnacion - son

We can see each of their race, sex, birth month and year as well as their age.  We can see that Juan and Fortuanta have been married 12 years by this time, which gives us an approximate marriage year of 1888.  We can see that Fortunata has had 7 children, but that only 6 of them are living.  We can see everyone is from Mexico, as well as their parents and that Juan and Fortunata came to the United States in 1899 and have therefore only been living in San Antonio for about a year.  He's working as a laborer, there is no job listed for Fortunata, which was common for the time, and the kids of school age are in school.  We can also see that none of them can read, write, or speak English.  Now, this could mean they couldn't read or write, period, but it could also mean that they could not read or write English.  We can also see that they rent their house.

Now, that could be the end of the information we are able to take from this particular document, but we must not overlook the other people who appear to be living at the same location.  Below Encarnacion's name are:

De la Cerda, Micaya - boarder - F - 66
Delgado, Francisca - servant - F - 22

If this was the first time we'd seen these names, we would probably be pretty confused as to why the Zamora family has taken in a 66-year-old woman to live with them.  Further research, however, tells us that, though the given name is mispelled, "Micaya" is in fact, Fortuanta's mother, Micaela Cerda (her maiden name) and Francisca Delgado is Fortunata's sister.  Why they are listed as a boarder and a servant are anyone's guess, but probably simply the census taker's doing.  If we scroll right, we can see that Micaela Cerda actually came over in 1897, so perhaps the Zamora family came in 1899 to join her.

Further inspection of this census reveals that two of Fortunata's siblings and their families are also living at the same location.

Delgado, Benito - head - M - 39
"    Francisca - wife - F - 35
"    Jose - son - M - 11
"    Gregoria - daughter - F -3
"    Covita - daughter (mispelled on this census, should be Jovita) - F - Not even 1 month old yet

And:

Delgado, Francisco - head - M - 27
"    Francisca - wife - F - 27
"    Manuela - daughter - F - 2

We can see both of Fortuanta's brothers came over two years prior to the Zamora family, in 1897.  In fact, the code "PA" under the citizenship column means that Benito Delgado had already filed his first papers on the path to citizenship in the 3 years he had lived in the United States.  Like Juan and Fortunata, he could not speak English, but his son, Jose could.  We can also see that Benito and Fortunata's brother, Francisco, a tailor, could read, write, and speak English as well.

1909 Map of San Antonio, Texas

It should be mentioned that the area in which this family lived in 1900, which is just south of what is now the Historic Market Square, had a very large population of immigrants and was a very popular bohemian-type area at the turn of the century, full of artists, musicians, etc.  Note the occupations of others on this same street in the 1900 Census above: "Sculptor, Poet, Harness Maker, Stone Cutter, Barber, etc... all artisans.  Unfortunately, the more popular a place becomes, the more people that want to live in that place, and sometimes over-crowding results, which simply means there are too many people living in too small an area.  With over-crowding, crime sometimes follows, which is what began to happen to this area by the start of the new decade.  And, as mentioned in historical San Antonio Blue Books, the area around South Concho St and Matamoras St became known as a "red light district."  Luckily, if you find each of the above mentioned families in the 1910 Census, they have all moved away from the area, smartly deciding to move their children away from the situation.

By 1910, it appears Juan and Fortunata had already separated, and she had moved, with her children, north of the Market, onto North Laredo St, right where it bends at 707 North Laredo.  You can find the approximate location in the map above, as Interstate 10 now runs through the approximate area.  (Amazingly, I just found a picture of the actual house.)