The Kjærulff History

The Kjærulff family history goes back to approx. 1400.

The first Kjærulf is considered to be the farmer Anders Wulff. Around 1400 he came from Holsten in Northern Germany and settled in the Kjær Herred (District) in the village Vadum in Northern Jutland, Denmark. He became the chief of police for Kjær Herred. From the farm of "Fogedgaard" Kjærulfs kept holding the position of chiefs of police for almost 300 years until 1684.

The story goes that Anders Wulff received his name when meeting the Danish King Erik af Pommern who asked him where he lived. He answered "in Kjær Herred". The king said to him: "then you shall carry the name Kjærulf". Now, the name Kjærulf can be spelled in more than 25 correct ways, including Kjærulff, Kjerulf, Kierulff, Kierulf, Kjerrulff, Kærulf etc.

Over time, many Kjærulfs became public servants, they were expatriated to the Nordic countries as well as the Danish crown colonies and trading stations around the world, e.g. the Philippines, Trankebar in India, Virgin Islands, etc. From there they spread to other parts of the world and today you can find Kjærulfs in North and South America as well as in Asia and Australia.

Carl Klitgaard writes in the preface to his book "Kjærulffske Studier", published 1914 about the Kjærulfs:

"If one should consider a common stamp for the Kjærulfs, it could be something like ENERGY; which could appear as aggressiveness, or even at times - brutality, but it also appears as an urge to TRAVEL, which resulted in the Kjærulfs being scattered all over the Nordic countries and later they pitched their tents in the West as well as in the Far East; we meet them as Dutch merchants, as officers in army of Charles XII . »on the moors of Narva, on the plains of Poland« as Icelandic farmers, as catholic priests and monks in Spain and Portugal, yes, it will be difficult to find a country without them; of course they were Jutes*), and as the old proverb says "you will find Jutes and Jews everywhere", and that is especially true of the Kjærulfs. Furthermore, they have usually managed to influence the community wherever they were, and therefore one often comes across them in the upper class of society, and as mentioned above they have made great contribution to the official class." 

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*)Jutes refers to Jutlanders, from the Jutland Peninsula of Denmark, from where we all originated 600 years ago, as opposed to the Island of Sealand in Denmark, some 200 miles to the South East, with the Capital of Denmark, Copenhagen.

The study of the Kjærulf family continues. The many strong and personal bonds made during the Kiermeet reunions form the basis for further development of the family tree.

The family tree can be found on http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kiermeet2006