The groom in the highlighted twosome today was Wilhelm Heinrich Christian Mueller, who was born on June 17, 1857. That means next Thursday, he would be celebrating his 164th birthday if he was still alive. What makes William interesting is the fact that both his parents had the same surname before they were married, just like yesterday’s pair made up of a Bergmann and another Bergmann. William’s parents were both Mueller’s, which isn’t so hard to believe when you know how many different Mueller clans there were around here back then.

William’s father was Johann Christian Friedrich Mueller, Jr., who travelled with the Gesellschaft in 1839 aboard the Republik. Johann Christian Friedrich was the brother of Johann Andreas Friedrich Wilhelm Mueller (J.A.F.W. Mueller) who we affectionately call “Alphabet” Mueller. We often refer to this clan as the “Alphabet Mueller’s”, and they originated in Planena, Germany. We see this family on the passenger list for the Republik. The parents of this Mueller family were Johann Christian Friedrich and Maria Christiana (Martens) Mueller. Are you confused yet?

Johann Christian, along with his brother, Freidrich Gottlieb, and his father, were called tilers on this list. You could also call them brickmakers.

William’s mother was Justine Christiane Augusta Mueller, who travelled with the Gruber Group that made the voyage to America aboard the Johann Georg. That ship arrived in November of 1839. Justine’s parents were Gottfried Heinrich and Johanna Maria (Rothe) Mueller. That family can be seen on the passenger list below. This Mueller family originated in Paitzdorf, Germany, and the patriarch of the family was a farmer. Rosine Rothe, listed at the bottom, was the mother of Mary Mueller. Since Justine was the older sister of another famous character from this area, Zacharias Mueller, we include Justine in the category of the “Zacharias Mueller’s”. Are you more confused now?

William, the product of this Mueller/Mueller marriage which had taken place in 1845, was child #8 out of the dozen that were born to this pair. William was baptized at Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg, just like all 12 of the children in this family. His baptism record is shown here. This would have been one of the last baptism records written by Rev. Georg Schieferdecker as pastor of Trinity. Later that year, he was removed from that church, and he went on to establish Immanuel Lutheran Church in Altenburg.

William is found in this first census in 1860 at the age of 3. This entry calls him Christian, but almost all other documents call him William, so I will use that name. His father was still a brickmaker.

There were only 3 boys born to this Mueller family, and William appears to be the only one of those 3 to live to adulthood. We next find William in the 1870 census at the age of 12. .

When he was 22 years old, William is still found living with his parents. The 1880 census entry for this family once again displays that this Mueller family was in the brickmaking business, but William, for some reason, was not listed as being a worker in that venture.

We must now turn our attention to William’s future wife. Her name was Adelheid Tiedemann who was born on September 15, 1867 in Germany. Her parents were Herman and Margaretha (Luehrs) Tiedemann, and Adelheid was the oldest child in the family. The Tiedemann family moved to America and arrived in 1874. They made their voyage aboard the ship, General Werder, that arrived in Baltimore, Maryland.

The only census in which we find Adelheid as a single person was the one taken in 1880. Her family was living in the Shawnee Township of Cape Girardeau County. She is the 13 year-old on this entry.

William Mueller and Adelheid Tiedemann were married on June 12, 1884, so today would have been this couple’s 137th wedding anniversary. These two were married at Adelheid’s church, Immanuel Lutheran Church in New Wells. An image of the church record from this congregation’s books is displayed below. It is one of the records found in this era of that church’s records when all that is recorded are the names of the bride and groom and the date of the wedding.

We can also view this duo’s marriage license.

According to our German Family Tree, this couple had 9 children. The 1900 census, taken 16 years after their marriage, shows the following Mueller household. You can see that several of the children must have died early. There were two more children born after this census. William was called a day laborer.

Next, we find the Mueller family in the 1910 census. William is called a laborer at odd jobs.

The final census in which we see William was the one taken in 1920. This time, William and his family were living in Wittenberg where he was working at the swing factory. His son, Ernest, was also working there.

William Mueller died in 1928 at the age of 71. His death certificate is another document that displays the fact that his father and his mother’s maiden name was Mueller.

The swing factory had closed in the 1920’s, and I think these Mueller’s moved to Cape Girardeau. The above death certificate shows the informant was Edgar Fassel, who had married William’s daughter, Mary. When the 1930 census was taken, we find that Adelheid and her son, Ernest, were living in the Fassel household.

Adelheid Mueller died in 1937 at the age of 71. Her death certificate indicates she died on the last day of 1937.

William and Adelheid are buried together in the New Lorimer Cemetery in Cape Girardeau.

Whenever I make the decision to write a post about a Mueller, I know I am going to have to once again try to figure out which Mueller clan is involved. This story is one step worse because it involves more than one of the Mueller clans.