Advice sought on Muller orphanages

[Aks]

Will do.

[Silver_Shiney]

If anyone wants to come and look at the records of their ancestors, please email in advance to make an appointment (this includes a look round the museum).  Please note that we must make a charge of £20 for this but you will be able to take away a copy of the admission and dismission records.  There is a file for just about every child, but until this is opened it is impossible to say exactly what is in there.  A copy of this file costs £30, irrespective of how much information is in it.

[Arranroots]

Hi Silver_Shiney

Welcome to Rootschat! 

I'm assuming you're speaking in some official capacity - is there a website or contact details for the Muller organisation?

If you could post them here (modify the email address to include [at] rather than @ to prevent spamming) that would be good, but otherwise can people send you a Personal Message to get the details?

Kind regards, Arranroots 

[Silver_Shiney]

The website is www.mullers.org but, although it's "up" it's way out of date and is currently being rewritten.

For appointments to see the museum (takes maybe half an hour, it's only a single room, but there are loads of photo albums from 1880 onwards) please email admin or ski at mullers.org.  There is no charge but PLEASE make an appointment rather than just turn up.  Two reasons - we want to give you quality time and be on hand to answer any questions you may have, and we often get parties in (school visits by appointment, or coach loads of Koreans who just turn up!!) as well as booked visits.

Please note, though, that the orphan records are not available to public viewing.  The museum contains some of Mr Muller's personal stuff (Bibles, passport - not that he owned a great deal) and some artefacts from the orphan homes themselves.

I'm afraid we must make a charge for copies of records as it's a very fiddly job to photocopy them.  Just retrieving them usually involves a trip up a very tall ladder....

[GRACELAND]

Silver_Shiney

i believe i have all the info about my nans life there  as my uncle  had got the info , all very interesting and well worth reading

my nan enjoyed it there

[heathgirl]

i am hoping to find out if children living in Strood, Kent, might have been admitted to a branch of Muller's of Bristol, that is if one existed. Does any one know ? Also, if the Muller orphanages were connected to the Church of England and thus poor children of the local parish might have been sent to Bristol. The mystery involves relatives who were born and raised in Strood or Northfleet, Kent.

[Aks]

Hi heathgirl,

You don't specify the period of time, but in general if you give them details of your relative (Contact at http://www.mullers.org/), they will be able to tell you if that person was there and you can purchase their records.

They seem to have revamped their website so that's worth checking out too. I haven't really looked at the new one yet, but it seems to have some interesting historical photos.

My relative was living in Devon when she was admitted, so why not Kent. The census might help but, at least on the 1861 census, it seems that they recorded the children by their initials only, so it's not so easy to identify them, as you only have the initials (e.g. M S F in my case), age and place of birth to go on.

I'm not sure if there was a C of E connection : I think George Mueller ran this as a private institution and in many ways he went "against the grain" of the times. His story is very interesting and well worth reading, either on their website or even wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_M%C3%BCller.


Best wishes,

Alan

[sheena58]

Hi Heathgirl,
My grandfather and his siblings were from Essex. He and the youngest were taken to the Muller homes in 1901. They were the first 'part orphans' to be admitted, having a father who was still alive but unable to care for them all. In fact he died the following year and the remaining brothers were taken in. It took a long time to get them a place, most poor children, depending on the date would have simply gone to the local workhouse. The Muller children were lucky.
 In answer to your question about a branch in Bristol; the Muller homes were all in Bristol. There was not a Church of England link. George was a non-conformist although I am not sure whether there were any religeous requirements for entry. He set up the original home to prove the power of prayer, there was no funding and they did not ask for anything. When they needed things they prayed. My great granparents were Congregational non-conformists. The paperwork requested for my family included birth certificates and a parents' marriage certificate. I can only assume this was to confirm that the children were concieved and born in wedlock.
As other people have said the story of George Muller and his homes are fascinating. I have not checked the new website yet, but there are a lot of reasonably priced books available direct from them. There is also a fascinating book of postcards (details are in the earlier threads of this topic) showing the children were almost a tourist attraction!

Sheena

[heathgirl]

Speedy replies to my questions ! Thank you. Of course this makes me ask more. I have looked at the website and emailed. A cousin received the admission and discharge dates a few days ago. one wonders about the actual events that happened when a parent couldn't manage ie: did the parish start the process, did the parent show up at the workhouse or orphanage with them, or did a children's aid worker come to the house ? perhaps they didn't exist then. There is another branch in my family where a brother my grandfather didn't know about, was put in care in Lambeth, the brother stayed in England but his family doesn't know more except that both parents had died by 1913 in the Lambeth Infirmary.