December 8th was the birthday of two brothers in the same family, yet they were not twins.  One of them happens to be one of my great grandfathers.  The mother of these two brothers was Johanne Christiane Mueller.  Her maiden name was Theilig, but by the time she had married Johann Gottlob Mueller, she had previously been married to a Richter and a Wunderlich, both of whom had died.  These marriages were discussed in the post, Through the Valley of the Shadow of Death.

Johann Jacob Mueller was born on December 8, 1850 and was baptized at the family home with Rev. George Schieferdecker probably in charge.  Then exactly two years later, his younger brother, Johann Ferdinand Mueller, was born in 1852.  Pastor Schieferdecker was still the pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg at that time.  Here are the two records that appear in the Trinity church books for these two baptisms.

You can tell that the handwriting is the same for these two baptism records.  One fact which is interesting to me is that one of Ferdinand’s sponsors was Dr. Ernst E. Buenger.

Jacob later married Anna Hartung in 1870 with Rev. Koestering performing the ceremony.  Anna was a member of the Hartung family that came to Perry County from Muddy Creek Lutheran Church in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  That story was told in the post, From Muddy Creek to Brazeau Creek.  I do not have access to any photos of either Jacob or Anna.

Ferdinand, who happens to be my great grandfather, later married Amalia Theiss in 1875.  Rev. Koestering would have performed that wedding ceremony also.  Here is their wedding photo.

Both of these men were farmers.  Ferdinand and Amalia are both buried in the Trinity, Altenburg Cemetery.

Jacob and Anna must have moved to the St. Paul’s, Wittenberg congregation because they are both buried in their cemetery.

I may be wrong, but my guess would be that the parents of Jacob and Ferdinand would have been a lot happier about having two sons share a birthday than the two boys would have been.

Just a quick addition to this story.  Amalia was not the only Theiss to marry into this Mueller family.  Ernestine Mueller, the younger sister to Jacob and Ferdinand, married Amalia’s younger brother, Henry Theiss.