The Crull Name History

From Hans-Gottlob Crull ~ Hungen, Germany

Dear members of a numerous Crull's family,

As I know from our correspondence, there are lots of Crulls in America interested in the meaning of the name and in the origin of the family. As I know the story, I'll try my best to give you the answer.

There was a time of hunger and misery in Germany, actually between 1805-1808, 1860-1864 and once again 1880-1890. Lots of Germans immigrated to the United States. The first great exodus took place in the year 1810 in which lots of Germans died. Lots of people lost their jobs through the rising industrialization. So people kept immigrating in the period between 1860-1864 and once again between 1880-1890.

Among all those people were many Crulls, some were on their own, some - with their families. Nowadays it's not possible to find out anymore, which places those people originated from. Lots of documents ceased their existence during the second world war in Germany. The passenger lists are also no longer available. One can't rely on those remaining, as the names were often written with a K or G instead of C. It's very probable, that those American families which starts with K or G, originally had the starting with C. That's why it's hardly possible for the immigrants and their families to trace their ancestors. Though it is possible to find out these links for the families immigrating to the States during the first world war and later, it's mostly not the case for those immigrated earlier.

Lets have a look at the historic background for the origin of Crull's family. We've got to look at the time of people's migration, 600 A.D. There were a few German tribes in the area of Mecklenburg that time. They left during the migration at 300 A.D. Mecklenburg was scarcely populated up to the period 500-700 A.D., during which some Slavonic tribes settled down in the area. They worshipped their old gods and sacrificed their horses. No wonder, that German tribes tried to turn them to Christianity. Unfortunately, they did it more often with the sword, then the word of the Bible. The tribes resisted fiercely, for they saw more conquest than conversion into a different belief in the action.

In accordance with the tribes' tradition, the main priest was either the Sovereign himself or a close relative of his family. The great Sovereign Niklot ruled at the time of Heinrich Des Lowen (1129-1195), the Duke of Sachsen and Bayeren. The main priest possessing the same power was his uncle KROLE. Most of the time they kept on fighting and quarreling. In one of the fights, in the year 1160 Niklot found his death.

The death of Sovereign Niklot ~ 1160His uncle, the main priest KROLE called advisors, the leaders of Abortriten. Talking things over in a secret place they decided to make peace with Heinrich Des Lowen, and what was mostly painful for them - to convert into Christianity. They saw in Heinrich's victory over Niklot the victory of more powerful Christian gods over their own "weak" gods.

From that time they established friendly relationships between both Sovereignties. One of the KROLE's sons, who was raised in Christian traditions in the house of Sachsen Duke, married one of the Duke's daughters, and lived the life of prosperous dignity.

What does it have to do with the name CRULL? There are two versions here. The first one: The word KROLE was spoken by Wenden in such a way that it was hardly possible for Germans to repeat it. To make the pronunciation easier and keep the sense of the word at the same time the name KROLE was changed to CRULL.

The second version is the following one: The Educated families of those times wrote mostly in Latin, so the name was changed. According to the data of the latest linguistic research, the spelling of Caesar, Czar, and Crull have one and the same source of origin. All the words mean the same: Emperor, King, Ruler, Sovereign, etc. In Poland the word CRULL means King even nowadays.

For a long time there is no trace of CRULL's family. They were mostly landowners, some were educated to execute civil professions. The next evidence of the family's existence dates back to 1410. We can find some information about the smith, Joachim CRULL from Wargentin. He might be described as a progenitor of the present CRULL's.

That Joachim had four sons and three daughters. All the children moved later on to the place Malchim, some because of their families, some due to their occupation.

As we can't mention all the families here, lets cast our look at the most important ones. Here we should first of all name Claus, the oldest son of the smith Joachim.

Claus was also a smith and lived in Malchin. His oldest son Joachim also lived and worked as a smith. Only two sons were born of him. The oldest Joachim, was a brewer and had his own brewery in the city of Rostock. He is the most important person for the family's history.

He must have been very intelligent. He ordered a journal in an ornamental leather cover. He wrote in this journal all the stories and evidence he heard from his great grandfathers and relatives. As the CRULL's had noble professions, they could both read and write at the time, when this art was not known to the ordinary citizens yet. In this book, Claus wrote down not only the dates of the family members' marriages or deaths, but also a lot about various events of the family life, some of which took place in the past. The book was handed from father to son, and kept carefully. Lots of events describe not only the events, which belong to the family history, but to the history in general.

The journal disappeared during the second world war. There is only one photo of this beautiful ornamented leather edition. Thanks to this book we know so much about our family history.

CRULL COAT OF ARMS ~ Taken from the St. Petri ChurchSo, back to Jakob CRULL, the brother of the above mentioned Joachim. In 1571 he grounded the family's burying-place in the Church St. Petri, Rostock. The family's coat of arms appeared first pressed onto the tombstone's surface there. The plate was later kept in the church and destroyed by Russians in the second world war. That Jakob donated also a big luster and a chandelier to St. Petri Church. The family's coat of arms was imprinted on the surface of both items. Due to the bombardment by Russian Air Forces the whole part of Rostock was destroyed and the St. Petri Church burned up. The above mentioned luster and chandelier also ceased to exist. Luckily for the family's history the photographs of the tombstones, the luster and the book didn't disappear.

Dear members of the Crull's family, I'll close the oldest part of the family's history with the names of Joachim and Jakob. Crull's spread mostly in Mecklenburg area, and they are not often to be found somewhere else in Germany. During the immigration periods they also moved to the States and found a new motherland. Nowadays much more people with the same last name could be traced in America than in Germany.

I hope, this time I succeed in giving you some historic information about the origin of our family.

Hans-Gottlob Crull