Müller's Family

George Müller was not a person to divulge names. Those of his parents, uncles, aunts and siblings remained unknown to us. So to discover his family is somewhat akin to a detective unravelling a mystery in an Agatha Christie novel. He first came to Bristol to preach in Bethesda Chapel and it was from this visit that he saw the plight of the orphan children and hence the now famous Müller Orphanage.

George Müller was born on September 27th 1805 in Kroppenstaedt, Prussia. He married Mary Groves on 7th October 1830 in St Davids church, Exeter. They were together 39 years until Mary's death on 6th February 1870.

In the 1871 census George Müller is a widower as Mary died. His daughter, Lydia, is still single but in a short time both will be married. Just 19 months after Mary dies George Müller has remarried to Susannah Sangar, a woman he had known for some years in Bethesda and was 13 years younger than himself. His nephew writes that it came as a shock to the church. Lydia was married two weeks earlier to James Wright 16th November 1870.

He died 10th March 1898, and in his nephew's book, Edward Groves describes how he was summoned to his uncle's room on the morning of his death, "Having just drunk a glass of water, he laid himself down and apparently without a struggle or spasm of pain, gently breathed his last".

• 9th August 1831 a still born child.
• 17th September 1832, a daughter called Lydia. Lydia married her father's successor, James Wright, but did not have any children. Both Lydia and James are buried in Arno's Vale cemetery. On Lydia's death certificate her death was caused by "Inflammation of the lungs" or the Flu.
• 19th March 1834, a son named Elijah. Sadly Elijah was born March 1834 and died 15 months later 25th June 1835, Elijah is buried with George Müller's father-in-law, Anthony Norris Groves.
• 12th June 1838, a still born child.

Tragically George Müller survived all 4 of his children, a man who helped thousands of children to grow to adulthood only saw Lydia into maturity. Sadly whilst on a trip to India George Müller received news that Lydia had died.

Father 
Johann Freidrich Müller. He was born in 1769 in Osterwiech near Halberstedt, Germany, and died on 30th March 1840 due to a coughing fit. He was a Trumpter in the Army until he left and then became a Tax Collector. After the death of his first wife Johann remarried and had another son, a half brother to George Müller.

Mother 
Sophie Eleanor Haase. For many years the only thing we knew about his mother was that she died in 1820. But from her death certificate we now know that her name was Sophie Eleanor Haase, and that she was 48 years old when she died. Sophie was born in April 1771 in Eggersdorf, which is very close to Kroppenstaedt, Germany. An interesting note is that when Sophie died, George Müller became a "half Orphan".

Brothers 
Friedrich Wilhelm Müller. We know that George had a brother in Germany Friedrich Wilhem Müller, who died in October 1838, we do not know if he was married or when he was born.

Franz (or Frank) Müller. We read in George Müller's autobiography that when his father died in 1840, George Müller received a letter from Germany, quote, "from my little half brother that my dear father died on March 30th". Our knowledge then of Müller's family remained limited like this until December 2002 when an e-mail arrived at The George Müller Foundation from Dr Robert Haggerty in America who told us that he had in his possession an Eulogy about his great great grandfather who had died in Wyoming in America and that the family had handed down through generations that this person was related to George Müller.

The only other data he had was that his great grandfather was called Fred Müller and had died in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Dr Hagerty's grandmother Katherine Müller was able to tell us that her father's full name was Ferdinand Müller born in Prussia and that Fred was his American nickname, and that he also had lived in the state of Iowa before moving to Wyoming state.

There was only one Ferdinand Müller in Iowa and the American 1880 census told us that Ferdinand was born in 1854 in Prussia, Germany. To our delight, Ferdinand was living with his parents in the 1880 census and their names were Frank and Mary Müller, both born in Prussia. The date of Frank's birth was 1822, and this would be correct as George Müller's father would have remarried after 1820 following the death of George Müller's mother.

Ferdinand, was born in 1854, in Prussia, he died in 1893 in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Ferdinand's Children
We now trace his children first finding them in a German speaking Orphanage in Fremont, Nebraska, which seems ironic when we consider that their great uncle is running an Orphanage in England. The eldest child is Katherine Müller, now called Miller to become more "American".

In the 1900 USA Census we find the children. 

• Miller Katherine; inmate; white, Female; Feb 1884, 16yrs, Wyoming; both parents born in Germany
• Miller Elsie; inmate; white, Female; May 1888, 12yrs, Wyoming; both parents born in Germany
• Miller Frank; inmate; white, Male; Oct 1890, 9yrs, Wyoming; both parents born in Germany
• Miller George; inmate; white, Male; Sept 1892, 8yrs, Wyoming; both parents born in Germany. Notice that Ferdinand has named one of his sons George after his uncle in Bristol. Unfortunately, George is killed in a farming accident whilst at the Orphanage aged about 17 years old.

The family kept a newspaper article when a Reporter interviewed Katie when she was very old.

In 1906 Katherine Muller / Miller, is married to Frank Ernest Buntrock. And in 1910 Mrs Katie Buntrock (née Müller), she has a daughter, Paula.

Sadly Katie's husband dies as the local newspaper reports, " Former Norfolk resident Frank Buntrock, 84, died in a California hospital Saturday night. Mr & Mrs Buntrock moved to California several years ago.
Her address is 11422 Victory Blvd, North Hollywood, Calif. Survivors include his widow, two daughters, Lorene of North Hollywood and Mrs Arthur Hagerty of Kalalazoo, Mich."

Katie died in Los Angeles on January 18th 1988 aged 104 years.