Gaul/Gohl/Gall from Kreis Bütow

The origins of this family appear to be in Kreis Bütow or Büdow in what was then called Pomerania, now a part of Poland. The surname was spelled Gaul as well as Gohl, and may appear in other orthographiuc forms, such as Gall or Goll. Before the twentieth century spelling could vary depending on the norms of the parish or its clerk.

At left are two sisters, Antonia Gaul Mischke and Alvine Hannah Gaul, both born in Iosco County Michigan to immigrant parents, Gustav and Alvine Gaul. Like the rest of our Gaul relatives they descend from a Johann Christian Gaul, born about 1768 in Pomerania. Johann's parents are not named in available records but some online family trees (not documented by any records) suggest that he was the son of a Martinus or Martinum Gall.

Johann Christian Gaul married a Maria Elisabetha Grulich (her surname is also subject to creative spellings) around 1792 when their first child, Martin Ernest, was born a year later. Their next child, Dorothea Elisabetha, was born 19 Jan 1795, a date we have only because it was noted on her 1815 marriage record to Paul Kramp of our Kramp ancestral family. Altogether Johann Christian and Maria Elisabetha had seven children, and some of those other children were the source of Gaul immigrants who came to several counties in Michigan.

Dorothea Gaul Cramp and her husband Paul remained in Pomerania but cousins Christian Friedrich Gaul and Gustav Gaul emigrated to the USA and settled in Iosco County, Michigan in Tawas City. Another cousin, Leo Friedrich Gaul, chose Stevensville, Berrien County, Michigcan (about 300 miles away on the shore of Lake Michigan) as his home, where as a fruit farmer he established a family. Gustav and Leo emigrated on the same ship, the Rhein, which arrived on 30April 1881 in New york.

Our direct ancestor, Laurette Kramp (daughter of Paul and Dorothea Gaul Kramp) emigrated with her sister Augtuste Kramp Hasse to Chicago in 1881. Did the Kramp sisters know about their Gaul cousins in Michigan? We don't know for certain, but it's possible. We do know, via documentation and DNA evidence, that the relationship is easily proved.

You can explore more about the Kramp family at this link.