The Fullicks of Boston

©Cowan's Auctions With many thanks to Cowan's Auctions, Inc.,Cincinnati, Ohio for the use of the above photograph and for their helpful and speedy reply to my request for information.

Having come across these ambrotypes on Cowan's Antiques website, I sent off an email to them requesting permission to add the image to the family website and requesting any further information they might have. Cowan's were fantastic, sending me no less than three emails the next day and forwarding a good quality image for inclusion on the website.  In his email, the original cataloguer for Cowan's Allen Cebula wrote " Your email referring to the above came to me and I wanted to convey what I remember having originally catalogued the pair of tinted half plate ambrotypes for the May 20, 21, 2004 Spring Americana Sale... Note that neither one of the fabulous plates could be identifed as Wm. Fullick as there was no written inscription anywhere in the case nor was there any provenance or accompanying information that came with the pair.  The only reference to Wm. Fullick was the inscription on the 1850 silver shooting medal that did come with the pair.  The assumption, of course, was that one of the men was Fullick, but which one?" The reverse of the medal that Allen Cebula refers to is inscribed 'National Lancers to Wm Fullick 2nd best shot at Target Practice  October 29, 1850'

The photograph set me wondering who this William Fullick was and how he came to be in Boston and a member of the Lancers. I've only just started researching the problem but, thanks to some really great people on two of the  Massachusetts genealogy lists and Loretta in California who has been fantastic in sending me such a lot of information and obviously spending a lot of her time putting it all together, I am that much closer to solving the mystery then I was this time last week. I also searched the Internet and found several relevant Fullick references the earliest being for a Fullick being present in Boston in 1799.. The main entries are in the table below and I would love to hear from anyone who has any further information on the Boston Fullicks.

                                       © Jennifer Crawford