Books about our Kaul Ancestors

Above is the photograph that hung in Earl's house all his life and started my fascination about our family history. The photo was taken in 1903 by a travelling photographer who came by one Sunday after church. From the left, is William George Kaul (youngest son of Joseph Kaul and Katherine Elsaesser), his wife, Anna Mae Bell Kaul, their dog, Bob, and their son, Earl Kaul, and William's father, Joseph Kaul.

I have written two books about our Kaul ancestors. One is The Story of Our Kaul Ancestors, a 350-page book starting with our ancestors in Deidesheim, Germany in the 1600s, and ending in the 1880s when Joseph Kaul, moved from Blumfield Twp (north of Frankenmuth) to Sheridan Twp, (near Clare).

The story begins again with The Childhood Memoirs of Earl Kaul, a 530-page book about Joseph Kaul moving to Sheridan Twp. and at the age of 60, starting all over building a farm out of lumbered-over wilderness. He helped his six children purchase land nearby.

Meanwhile, his brother, Henry, purchased Joseph's forty-acres that were next to his farm in Blumfield Twp. Their sister and husband, Sophia Kaul and William Schaffer lived not far from Henry in Carrollton, near Saginaw.

Much of the book is in Earl's own words as he described his young life. The book ends with a chapter about each of Joseph's children and their families and a chapter about Earl's mother's family, Margaret Lawson Wallace and Thomas Kelly Bell.