GERMANY: John William Mueller

[Gwendolen]

I have been researching my husband's ancester John Wlliam Mueller.    He joined the Metropolitan Police in June 1878 and died in September 1912.   I can track him back to the 1861 census which shows him as a (Naturalized British Subject) born in Germany.   I have tried Kew but can find no trace of his naturalisation papers - can anyone suggest where else I can look to find his town of birth in Germany?

[Berlin-Bob]

Hi Gwendolen,

Welcome to RootsChat !!!

I've split your topic off from the Naturalisation thread as it is a more speceific query, and you will probably get more help here.

Do you know when he anglicized his name ?  Have you looked at Kew for all variations, too ??
e.g.  Johannes, Johann, Hanns Hannes for John
Wilhelm for William
Maybe he was known as Wilhelm Mueller ??

Is his place of birth given on any other census ?
Can you access the Met. Police records, maybe someone knows where to look
Any other certificates ? His marriage cert. might say more

Have a look too, in "Immigrants Resources"
I have posted a book review "Immigration and Aliens", and there is also a link to Naturalisation Notices in the Gazette

Good luck, and if you find anything, please, please, let us know where you found it 
Bob

[Jessica H]

Hi!

I know it's been a very long time since you posted this, but if you're still wondering where you can try to look for Muellers in Germany, my husband's 2x great-grandmother was a Mueller, and she was originally from Grünrade , Germany. (Located in the District of Königsberg in der Neumark.)

--Jessica H

[Berlin-Bob]

Hi Jessica,

Welcome to RootsChat

Unfortunately Gwendolin made this post (her one and only !) in 2005 and hasn't been on RootsChat since.

Maybe she just decided not to bother searching her Mueller (Müller, Muller) side of the family when she noticed that it's a very common surname in Germany - similar to it's translation: Miller in english-speaking countries.

regards,
Bob

ps. @ anybody researching european surnames:
Surnames developed in many countries out of peoples' trades and professions, so these names tend to be very common, either in the original language or the anglicised versions.

So the more we can pin it down with details of places, dates and other information, the better our chances of finding the right ones.

there is a wiki page here, showing the most common names (with english translations !):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_most_common_surnames_in_Germany
If you hover the cursor over a name, you get more details, sometimes with variant spellings.

Added:
for more information see also this topic:
Topic: Germany: Distribution and frequency of surnames
https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=366583.0