The Kull Family Website

Silas Watts Lucas and Family
about 1891

You never know where and when you’re going to get a new tidbit in your family history research.

I was browsing through Findagrave.com last month and found the picture above posted on the Silas Watt Lucas memorial page.  This is the only picture I have seen that has my great-grandmother, Alice Lucas White (at the far right), as a child.  A caption with the picture noted,  “See the Grace Armantrout Museum FaceBook Page for more Lucas family photos.”  Since the museum is near the small town of George West, Texas, I was curious how this picture ended up there.  To my knowledge,  none of the folks in the picture had never lived anywhere near that.  I sent a note to Kevin Mackey who posted the picture at Findagrave and got this response: Continue reading »

I was recently going through some boxes of photos in my basement and found a booklet entitled “Pioneer Profiles” (F. Johnson, Ed.). This was put out by the Madison Crossroads Homemakers Club in conjunction with the “Alabama Reunion 1989″. In their words: “It is hoped that this booklet will cause an awareness and appreciation of the rich heritage afforded by this community.”  It is a collection of histories and stories from the area one of which was submitted by my mother. The following is excerpted from that story.

The Homemakers thank Mrs. Lavetta Kull for the following insight (both historical and humorous) into the family/heirs of Max Julius Kull.

Max Julius Kull (known in America as Julius Max Kull) of Lenzburg, Switzerland arrived in America aboard the ship “Weimar” (a steam assisted sailing vessel) in 1892.  [NOTE: My information is that he actually arrived earlier around 1888 with his mother and brother.  There is a record of an 1893 arrival for Julius and his brother Fred but this was their return trip from Switzerland after going back to settle affairs after their father’s death in 1892.]

Kull farmhouse

He settled in Chicago where he worked for Pullman Company. I have heard him tell the story about a land agent from Madison County, Alabama coming to Chicago to get settlers to come to Northwest Madison County. He and his friend Michael Ghidotti, an Italian, came to Madison County in the early part of 1895. He said when they arrived in Madison County and saw all the sage grass they thought this must be very fertile land. He laughed when he told this for he said he learned this was not true. He and his friend homesteaded adjoining farms on Stateline Road. The farm Julius acquired (158.5 acres) had been entered by someone else who failed to prove his claim. Julius bought the improvements and took up permanent residence on June 28, 1895.

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It took longer and was more complicated than I anticipated so I feel a little battered and bruised like this sign but I hope I have everything working well enough to re-enable logins and registrations.  I still have some of the old pictures that need to be relinked but on the good side there are a lot of new ones here.

You will notice that the URL has changed from www.kull.ws to www.kull.us.  I was not intending to do that but I had to at least temporarily for technical reasons that will bore everyone but the tech-geeks.  It may eventually change back but for now, if you accidentally type in the old one, it should still route you here.  Most people will need to re-register for full access.  I did keep the accounts set up for anyone who had been a recent visitor.  If you are one of those, you should have already received a note from me.

As mentioned in my last post, the main genealogy software has been through four major revisions since I  last actively worked on the site.  There are a lot of new features that will hopefully make your visits more interesting.  A few of note: Continue reading »