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Theory [4 November 2013]
- U.S. records suggest Henry Miller was born on 4 Sep 1894(WWI draft registration card, SSDI). In 1914, he would have been 20 years old when he crossed the border from Saskatchewan to either Montana or North Dakota.
- In 1917 he was in Saint Paul, Minnesota were he was occupied as a shoe-cutter. Because he was still young (23), we think he may have learned this trade in the U.S.
- He was a young man, no money, single and desperately looking for a job. In 1924 he married Barbara Mayer in Indiana.
- 2 Possibilities:
- 1. He came to Canada with his parents, before 1914 from either the Netherlands or Germany or Austria (he spoke German)
- 2. He came single as a young lad, maybe he was a runaway and just might have signed on a ship (maybe in Amsterdam, but of course Bremen, etc are other possibilities
- His parents' names John and Marie don't give any clues as well. In Chicago he married a German (naturally) speaking woman,
- which might be a clue that he was of German descent, it was the language he was most familiar with.
- (It would be nice to know where he went when he came to Chicago, The German or the Dutch area)
- His job as a shoe-cutter in Saint Paul was for C. Gotzian (Conrad Gotzian). The building, The Saint Paul globe., July 03, 1904, Golden Jubilee Edition, Image 60.
- He lived at 233 West 5th. history of house now known as the Armstrong-Quinlan House, the house was moved to its present location at 227 Eagle Street
- He speaking German does not necessarily mean he was German - the Dutch are quite multilingual :-)
- It's common for birth years to be off (even consistently) on immigrant records. Also, if he was an orphan, then it was unlikely that he knew his true birth date. The 1930 census has:
- Henry 33 y/o [~1897] 27 at first marriage ~1924
- Bertha 29 y/o [~1901] 23 at first marriage ~1924
- We think focusing specifically on Amsterdam may not be fruitful, the reason is that We've seen many U.S. records where the place of birth was not accurate.
- Might we be able to see a copy of his naturalization record? There is a database of Canada>U.S. border crossings, so We wonder if there is more specific info on that record.
- If he was in Saskatchewan, it was likely land that drew him (or his parents)... so we would advise looking at http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/western-land-grants/001007-130-e.html and http://www.saskhomesteads.com .
- We were able to disprove one theory (Hyman Muller died during WWII in Europe) and 2. Who Julius (1885) was: Person:Julius Müller (1)).
- Are any other shreds of information the family can provide?
Conclusion: we think, his Birth date might be the only date we know (and not even that date has to be correct) , His Name, well there are too many Dutch and German varieties to rely on:
Last name: Miller, could be Mulder, Muller, Molenaar, etc. (f.i. I saw a Hendrik Molenaarsgraf, who changed his name to Henry Miller)
Somehow we think he came from Amsterdam, but he wasn't born there, we think there is a 50% chance that he was Dutch
The fact that his assumed brother Julius died in WW1 could give another clue that he wasn't Dutch, we [the Netherlands] were neutral in that war
--henk 10:24, 4 November 2013 (UTC)
- Could Julius have migrated to Canada or the U.S. and was drafted via one of those countries? --Jennifer (JBS66) 11:04, 4 November 2013 (UTC)
Of course, that is a possibility, but it would mean (I think) that Julius and Henry Migrated together?, and when he was German, He wouldn't have fought with the US, or he must have hated his Birth Country
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