Beeken family

Which period you're referring to? And what are your ancestors' christian names?

17th century...or perhaps later?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fens
http://www.greatfen.org.uk/heritage/drained-fens
https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/content/draining-fens

I read some contributions on the message boards [ ancestry] related to your family, but these contributions date from 2005. We are 12 years on and perhaps you know much more now? Without a name of your first known ancestor in England ..it is a dive in the 'fens' ..the unknown...

Hi Norah. My first know ancestor was John Beeken who lived in Crowland (Croyland) Lincolnshire. He was born in 1747.

Hi Helena, Thank you for the links I had not seen these before. It is family legend that the family came over to drain the fens and stayed. My fathers grandfather always said he was a Dutchman. I am on Ancestry and I have a lot of information from there and FamilySearch but also from the family especially notes from my great Aunt. Thank you.

Hi. I have an account now. Thank you both.

Gordon,

And was this John Beeken also born in the Netherlands, and where?

..and is the year 1747 perhaps calculated from the year he married [when and where?] or by knowing his age from the burial record? Perhaps we should read this as 'born in circa 1747' ?
Was your father's grandfather (who may have said he was a Dutchman?.. ) this your John Beeken born in 1747?

I just read: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowland <== Crowland in the District of South Holland... this district's name naturally refers to one of the Dutch provinces: Zuid Holland. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parts_of_Holland

John = Jan or Joannes in Dutch church records. The surname Beeken or Van de Beeken can be found in church registers in several Dutch places. See via : https://www.wiewaswie.nl/nl/zoeken/?advancedsearch=1

However, with so little info available [ a John Beeken born in 1747... an ancestor may have said he was a Dutchman..] But perhaps the notes you have from a great Aunt - who may have been only 2 (?) generations away from this ancestor who said he was Dutch - who knows..had she more than just a name and a year?

Perhaps you will find more in the local archives? Try to find out if there were more of Dutch descent coming to this area in Lincolnshire around those years and where they came from..often more people from the same area followed each other abroad in search for work or safety or... perhaps one told each other about the opportunities etc.

https://familysearch.org/wiki/en/Lincolnshire,_England_Online_Genealogy_Records
For Crowland from circa 19th century onwards scans available, unfortunately not earlier:
http://www.lincstothepast.com/SearchResults.aspx [ enter your search term 'Crowland' and tab 'images' ]

Wow, I can smell the tulips over here;) Never known we had a counterpart across the North Sea (I happen to live in Zuid-Holland, NL)

https://www.lincolnshire.gov.uk/jobs/the-seven-districts-of-lincolnshire/121119.article

I found a certain Samuel Beeken mentioned in a Bedford Level Corp. account book in March 1765, being paid for "watching and attending the Welland Bank, in time of flood, in March 1763":
https://books.google.nl/books?id=A3dbAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA11&lpg=PA11&dq=bedford+level+corporation+beeken&source=bl&ots=TymamNIcl5&sig=85H-Fbn4WnDADfcySXtuOUeu2mU&hl=nl&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiut8Ccj5rUAhXIKVAKHQZECcAQ6AEILjAB#v=onepage&q=bedford%20level%20corporation%20beeken&f=false

At FamilySearch I found the births of three John Beekens who can be your presumed ancestor. Do you have any more information about him and his family, especially the names of his children?

Name John Beeken
Gender Male
Christening Date 26 Dec 1743
Christening Place CROWLAND,LINCOLN,ENGLAND
Father's Name John Beeken
Mother's Name Susanna

Name John Beeken
Gender Male
Christening Date 01 Jan 1745
Christening Place CROWLAND,LINCOLN,ENGLAND
Father's Name Wm Beeken
Mother's Name Eliz

Name John Beeken
Gender Male
Christening Date 27 Oct 1747
Christening Place CROWLAND,LINCOLN,ENGLAND
Death Date 24 Apr 1751
Father's Name Samuel Beeken
Mother's Name Ann

Hi Max,, Is your surname Beeken too ? Zuid-Holland does make a lot of sense. I think I am struggling because the first names are English. None of them are Dutch. Also there are a lot of John's aswell. I believe it is the last one in your list I have.
Are there any records of emigrants from Netherlands or List of ships passengers ?

Hi Helena, As per my reply to Max there are a lot of people with the same names. None of which are Dutch. Maybe they took the English version when they arrived ? Sadly There are no records of anyone from Netherlands hence my msg here. I am not aware of any other families that can help or link. Looks like there may be an earlier Samuel.. not dates for him as yet. Any info on any Beeken traveling to England would help.

Hi Nora, I am sorry I do not have any records of any Beeken's that came from Netherlands. Looks like the earliest may now be Samuel. None are Dutch first names.

Thank you all for the links.

Max (20.17 h.) mentioned the name > Wim. That's definitely Dutch.
Wim = Bill or William as in the English version.

Hello Gordon,

No, my surname is not Beeken, but I'm trying to help you out on your search. On this forum we usually recommend for searches in the 17th and 18th century to reconstruct the families you are searching for as much as possible. Samuel was probably born in Crowland as well, my (educated) guess would be in 1720, as a son of John Beacon and Rebecca. In the early 18th century your familyname was (presumably) also written as Beacon or Becken in Crowland. I think their presence there might go back to the 17th century. There probably are no passenger lists of that era. I think you better search for the oldest Beeken in Crowland before you start searching for a link to a Beeken family in the Netherlands.

Oh, I forgot the link to the source:

http://search.findmypast.com/results/world-records/lincolnshire-baptisms?lastname=beeken&lastname_variants=true&eventyear=1720&eventyear_offset=5&place=crowland&o=eventyear&d=asc

Hi all,

I am still on the search for that elusive link. I have now also found relatives in America and Canada. And this has reinvigorated my search with a distant cousin in Canada.

The world has moved on and I now hope to make the link using DNA as well as ancestry. Does anyone here know a living Beeken in or from the area who may be researching the family or would like to help us and build the Dutch Beeken family into the tree ?

Regards,
Gordon

Hello Gordon,

Though you have to be very cautious with copy-pasting information from genealogy sites online - always check/verify that information with records and documents:

on Genealogieonline (a Dutch company) a lot of Dutch (and non Dutch) are active and you can find quite of number of Beeken's in family trees there:

https://www.genealogieonline.nl/en/

Perhaps you can find some related to your family and from there contact other living Beeken's.

Genealogieonline also has 'sister' sites that can be linked to its genealogy information.
The most useful (IMHO):

https://www.openarch.nl/?lang=en

This is linked to many but not all municipal and regional archives in The Netherlands and Belgium.

And there is a forum, however for this you've got to sign up:

https://inloggen-bij-genealogie.coret.org/www.stamboomforum.nl/

www. geni.com and www.geneanet.org (not Dutch companies) might be useful too to as a starting point.
Some people publish on more that one of these mentioned sites.

https://www.archieven.nl/en/ is similar to https://www.openarch.nl/?lang=en - but a different initiative.

I do not know if there are any other municipal and regional archives in The Netherlands that have a forum like here at the BHIC. That is, I haven't found them yet in cities/regions elsewhere where I do my research, like in Zuid-Holland.
Perhaps other visitors of the BHIC Forum know more about this.

With regards,

Belem