I will dare to enter the Mueller Maze again today.  As you know there are numerous Muellers found in our German Family Tree, and they can sometimes be very confusing.  After starting my research this morning, I discovered that there were so many other rabbit holes to be explored beyond the Mueller Maze.  Today’s birthday boy was a Mueller born in 1891.  However, he was not the only Mueller boy born in East Perry County in 1891.  His name was Albert Mueller, but that doesn’t even help much because there were two Albert Muellers born in East Perry County in 1891.  One of them was Albert W. Mueller who was born on April 19th in Altenburg.  His story has already been told on this blog.  That post was titled, Mueller and the Mail.  About six months after he was born, Albert G. Mueller was born in Frohna on October 29th.  It is his story that we tell today.

Albert Gotthilf Mueller was baptized at Concordia Lutheran Church in Frohna, Missouri.  This is his baptism record.

I think Rev. Zschoche made a mistake on this record.  That “mistake” caused me to veer off in another direction on this story.  This record says that Albert’s parents were Joseph and Ernestine (geb. Ruehling) Mueller.  The issue at hand is whether Albert’s mother’s maiden name was Ruehling or not.  We’ll eventually get back to Albert’s life story, but for the time being, this maiden name dispute will be discussed.

This Ernestine Mueller was actually the second Ernestine Mueller.  Her husband, Joseph Mueller (of what we refer to as the “Frohna Muellers”) was previously married to Ernestine Thomas and according to our German Family Tree, had six children with her.  He then married a second time to a woman that is called Ernestine Dellert in the GFT.  But just who is this Ernestine Dellert?  When Ernestine married Joseph, she was a widow and Joseph was a widower.  Ernestine had previously been married to Johann Theiss, and when she was married, the church record says that her maiden name was Dellert.

Ernestine Dellert was born in Ronneburg, Germany on June 20, 1857.  I found a transcribed baptism record from Ronneburg for her.

As you can see, the surname is given as Tallert, not Dellert, but this is indeed her.  She was the daughter of Carl Friedrich and Eva (Rödger) Tallert.  I managed to also find a marriage record for this couple.

Carl Friedrich died in Germany and Eva, along with Ernestine, immigrated to America.  She married Herman Ruehling in 1860 at Trinity Lutheran Church.  This is that record.

The transcriber of this record says that Eva’s last name was Dolet.  Our German Family Tree described Eva as Eva nee Redger Dellert.  We find Eva in the 1870 census for Altenburg.

It appears that the daughter, Ernestine, is a Ruehling on this document, but we saw earlier that she was born in Germany as a Tallert (Dellert, Dolet).  Also of interest on this census record is the entry right above the Ruehlings.  You find the family of Gottfried and Hannah Roetiger.  Since Eva’s maiden name was Rödger, I suspect these Roetigers were related to her.  The two boys Frank (age 14) and Henry (age 17) shown here are actually Frank and Henry Burroughs, two orphans that have been discussed in previous posts.  Feel free to put “Burroughs” in the search box to find stories about these boys.  When these two boys were baptized at Trinity in 1864, one of Frank’s sponsors was Gottfried Rödger.

We have this photograph of Herman and Eva Ruehling.

If I am correct, Ernestine Dellert is the girl standing behind Herman on the right.

Ernestine Dellert married Johann Theiss in Marion County, Missouri in 1875.  Here is their marriage certificate.

This couple must have settled in Perry County because three children are included in our German Family Tree.  Then in 1881, Johann Theiss died.  Ernestine married again in 1887 to Joseph Mueller.  As was said earlier, Joseph was also a widower.  According to our GFT, Joseph and his second Ernestine had three children, the last of them being Albert Gotthilf Mueller in 1891.  Here is a portion of a Perry County birth record which shows Ernestine’s maiden name as Dollert.

We finally get back to the main character of today’s post.  Albert G. Mueller was a farmer who worked with his father outside Frohna as is shown on his World War I draft registration.

In 1922, he married Martha Fischer at Concordia Lutheran Church in Frohna.  Here is their marriage record in the church books.

This is their marriage license.

Martha Fischer was the daughter of Martin and Sarah (Palisch) Fischer.  These Fischers were part of what I refer to as the Frohna Fischers.  After their marriage in 1922, records for this couple are hard to find.  They are not to be found in Perry County census records.  We find this draft card for Albert when World War II came about.

Albert and Martha were living in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.  However, I could not find him in any Cape Girardeau County census records or city directory records.  There was another Albert Mueller who was a butcher in Cape Girardeau, but he was obviously not this Albert Mueller.

Albert died in 1955.  This is his death certificate.

This document says that Albert worked at a grocery in Cape Girardeau.  Martha would not die until 1989.  Death certificates are not found if they occurred after 1967.  Both Albert and Martha are buried in the Cape County Memorial Park in Cape Girardeau.

When I started on this story, I had no idea it would lead me in so many different directions.  I hope I did not confuse you.  I know that I now feel exhausted from the effort, and the tables of our research library are full of books and portfolios that now have to be put back where they belong.  However, it feels great to be back in the blog saddle again after not being able to do this for several days during our very successful immigration conference.