The Association was founded as a non-profit organization in 1986 to bring together Prall descendants and to promote the study of the ancestry of the Prall and allied families.  Other spellings of Prall include Praul, Prawl, Praal, Prael, Parall, and perhaps De Prael, Du Prael, de Praulle, and DePraelles.

    The first Prall immigrant to America was Arendt Jansen Prall, the ancestral father of almost all Pralls living today in the United States, probably born in the Netherlands about 1647, who spelled his name Praal. The earliest documented record of Arendt found in America is in the Old Dutch records of Kingston, New York from 1660. The name Arendt is equivalent to the English name Aaron. Arendt and his family moved down the Hudson River from Kingston to Staten Island, NY., around 1670, and there he lived until his death in 1725. In 1670 he married Maria Billiou, daughter of Pierre Billiou.  Peirre's house still stands today, owned by the Staten Island Historical Society. Some of his children and descendants remained on Staten Island, and later grew hay on Prall's Island in the Arthur Kill between Staten Island and New Jersey, but others bought land west of the Hudson and moved to New Jersey and Pennsylvania; and eventually throughout the country.  

    When your webmaster was growing up in the 1940's, he was told by his father that there were few Pralls in the country; maybe a dozen or two. In the 1980's, I got a letter about the Prall Family Association that seemed different from most phony "family history/crest" offers for $25 or 50 or up. They offered me four newsletters a year for $12. I stood to lose 12 bucks if they were phony? Not bad, so I sent it in. After my first issue I told my parents to join. They told me I was a sucker and an idiot to be taken in by such a scam, but soon joined [without apology, of course] and to paraphrase Richard D. Prall "much of...part of the chapter on Daniel Prall must be attributed to my father Josef A. Prall", who joined and spent several vacation tours exploring Prall history in his family stomping grounds with my mother, who just celebrated her 94th.

    Much of this site is taken from the 1990 book "The Prall Family" by Richard Dwight Prall of Albuquerque, NM, with permission.  Some other content is from the quarterly newsletter and photographs and data donated by members.

    We welcome all sorts of people who are interested from simply being curious about family roots, up to serious researchers and all in between.  We may have info that will help you find your Prall roots, but you may have info that will help us connect the dots to unknown branches of the tree.  We all stand to benefit.

    Most of the starting examples necessarily comes from your webmaster's files and photos. I hope to fill the site out soon with other members' data. In the words of a recent New Yorker cartoon, "Maybe nobody goes to your Web site because it's about you." I hope to prevent that by including content from others as well, as examples. Any errors on this site are the sole responsibility of the webmaster.

    An ongoing project involves the use of DNA to track genetics and match related people.  I heard about it from a PFA trustee, and signed up.  This is not an endorsement, and is not for everyone.  My results along with several others who have had DMA testing are listed on the DNA Project page.  See the link to the testing site on the links page.

    So what does it cost to get involved in the Prall Family Association?  $12 for a year's worth of the newsletter; four issues of ten pages each.   See the Contacts page.   Follow the links to see the rest of the site.