Genealogy Beindorff, Been et al

Genus Beindorff

by W.H. (Henk) Beindorff

The first research into the Beindorff family in the Netherlands, as far as is known, was carried out by Cornelis Machiel (Kees) Beindorff, a cousin of my father, who processed the results in a family chronicle he sent to relatives around 1990. In it, he had described the history of his branch of the Beindorff family from the progenitor of the Dutch Beindorff family until the death of his grandfather (my great-grandfather). This chronicle focused on the history of Beindorff's mineral water and lemonade factory and shop in Rotterdam, of which Kees's father Nicolaas (Niek) was the last owner within the family. Even then, my brother Rob made an outline of a family tree based on the data mentioned in that chronicle, which, however, was never worked out "in the net". After that, it remained in the cupboard for years. Through a chance meeting of Rob with another W.H. Beindorff - a second cousin, as it turned out - the desire arose to sort out the pile of papers and update the family tree as far as possible. Since I now had a good word processor, I took on that task, although I was not in a position to do any archival research myself. Therefore, in a first paper version, distributed in a very small circle, I limited myself to what was available to me from the said chronicle, supplemented with material and memories from myself and close relatives.

After Kees had heard through my mother that Rob and I were working on this, Kees' son Christiaan sent us a diskette with a copy of a database working under DOS, in which he had stored the results of his father's source research and which already contained a lot of data about branches other than those in the family chronicle. With the help of this new material and the first results of an Internet search, the family tree in the making could already be expanded considerably. This resulted in a first real publication (also on paper), sent to all family members whose addresses I had. The most extensive response came from the experienced genealogist Sim Mostert, ex-partner of Nicolette Möhlmann, whose mother is a sister of Kees. As it turned out, Sim had also collected the necessary data on the Beindorff family, following on from Kees' data, and was already planning to publish that online in combination with his data on the Möhlmann family, when he received my publication via his mother-in-law. The result was the Genealogy Beindorff and Möhlmann, managed by Sim, which was maintained in collaboration over a number of years. Kees and Christiaan's database also already contained incitements to the genealogy of other siblings related to the Beindorff family, in particular the Been family of Kees' mother Suzanna Been. We were able to greatly expand that and several other families over the years. Having gained more time since my retirement, I have, as agreed with Sim, taken over the management of this Genealogy from him. In doing so, I changed the name to "Genealogy Beindorff, Been et al" to do justice to the now much larger share of the Been family compared to the Möhlmann family.

Origin and spelling of the Dutch branch.

The Dutch ancestor Freederik was, as Johann Friedrich Beindorff, from Halberstadt in Saxony-Anhalt, just north of the Harz, from where he came to the Netherlands before 3 June 1779. In the various deeds relating to him - as was common before the introduction of the Civil Registry - different spellings of both his first and last name occur. The, as far as currently known, oldest document he himself co-signed is a notarial deed dated 03.06.1779, drawn up in German by notary Salomon Dorper in Amsterdam. In it, he is called Johann Friedrich Beindorff and he himself also signs the deed with that name, albeit as Friedrech instead of Friedrich. Then there are the certificates of betrothal for his marriage to Sophia Gunter: the declaration in Amsterdam on 26 September 1782 he signs with "Freederik Bijendorf", the one on 4 October 1782 in Zevenhoven with "Freedr. Bijendorf". Possibly this was not a disguise but a deliberate Dutchification. Common other spellings, by authors of deeds before 1811, are "Bijendorp", "Beijendorf" and "Beijendorp". In 1809, we find the spelling "Beindorff" again for the first time in the certificate of unions of the eldest son Hendrik Willem and Ulricka Engwers, both in the text written by the official and in the signature by Hendrik Willem himself. After 1811, apart from occasional spelling errors, the spelling was consistently "Beindorff" for most of the descendants living at the time, only in the case of daughter Christina, according to her death certificate, this was apparently never officially corrected. Perhaps the announcement of the introduction of the civil registry prompted this. As official spelling in this genealogy for the progenitor the spelling "Johann Friedrich Beindorff" has been chosen, but in notes to him and his children concerning his years in the Netherlands I did use the spelling "Freederik Bijendorf". For his children who died before 1811 or were not traced after that year, the spellings from their baptismal certificates have been maintained.

Possible origin of the name.

The ending of the name, "dorf(f)", suggests that the origin of the surname "Beindorff" is to be sought in a village with a (more or less) similar name, probably pronounced as "baindorf" in German. Christiaan had already discovered, that in the 17th century there was a jurist by the name of Christophe Beindorff, whose work was still among the standard legal works a century and a half later. Information about this Christophe Beindorff that the university librarian of Jena communicated to Christiaan at his request shows that at the end of 1617 or the beginning of 1618, he was registered at the university as "Christophorus Beindörff Wantzleb. Saxo.". From this, the librarian deduces that he must have been born around 1600 in Wanzleben in Saxony, according to him a place located southeast of Magdeburg. Moreover, the archive preserves a eulogy delivered in 1619 for the funeral of a deceased law professor to which Christophe contributed a dozen lines of verse signed "Christoph. Beindorff Wantzlebiensis Magdeburgicus". When I consulted my atlas to look up Wanzleben, it turned out that this town lies not southeast but southwest of Magdeburg, in a straight line about 1/3 of the distance of about 45 km from Magdeburg to Halberstadt. Moreover, in doing so, my eye fell on a place called "Beyendorf", located about 5 km straight south of Magdeburg and now annexed by that city in 2001. Given the pronunciation "baiendorf", this could easily be corrupted to "baindorf", but also makes Freederik's own Dutchified spelling "Bijendorf" more plausible. This makes Beyendorf the most likely candidate for the family's origin. Meanwhile, on a German genealogical site, I also found an Elisabeth Beindorff, also born at Wanzleben, around 1585. So that could very well be an older sister of Christophe. The oldest namesake I have found so far (online) is a Valentin von Beindorff, born in 1541. However, I have not yet been able to trace the links between these 16th- and 17th-century namesakes and progenitor Freederik of the Dutch branch.