Wondering if I have a Jewish ancestory?
His name was Jacob Mueller and he was from between Hannover and Berlin. He moved to Maryland in 1680 something. Before that we ran into nothing but dead ends in the genealogy, and don’t know anything more about him.
Your opinions: How likely is it that a man named Mueller from that area of Germany in 1600 would have been Jewish? Is it impossible to tell with just that information?
Managed to find this:
“On its face, Hanover seemed an unlikely place for the cradle of a Jewish movement. At one time, the Jewish community of Hanover had been large and valued – so much so, in fact, that a municipal ordinance of 1303 had forbidden citizens “to offend the Jews either in word or in deed.” Less than half a century later, however, an outbreak of the Black Death had led to the Jews’ expulsion on charges of poisoning the wells. Since then, the Jews of Hanover had repeatedly been expelled and readmitted, always in small numbers and always grudgingly. In 1685, there were no more than fifteen Jewish households in the city, and the synagogue – which had been torn down in 1613 on the orders of the duke – had not been rebuilt.”
Looks like Hanover in the 1600s was not a particularly good place to be Jewish. That could have been why a family left of course. It does explain why I’m turning up a surname of Hanover amongst Jews in the Ukraine and elsewhere. 
“Between Hanover and Berlin” is hard to find info on. Has anyone in your family gotten involved with the genealogy forums? Your information is vague enough that it’s a bit of a needle in a haystack, but harder puzzles have been teased out with persistence and luck.
Jacob Mueller could well have been a Christian name and appears to have been common, although (as usual) I’m getting more U.S. hits than anything else. No real reason to think that it’s Jewish.
Best of luck, ((((Jon))))
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