The Beijen/Beyen
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by Laurens Beijen
The Hengelo family

A puzzle about two weddings



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Twice married?

Until recently I assumed that Gerardus Joannes Bien (3.1), who was mentioned on the previous page did marry twice: at first in 1815 to Joanna Graven and afterwards in 1824 to Gesina Lansink. This assumption was based on two marriage certificates from Weerselo in which he was recorded as the bridegroom.

The first wedding took place on October 25, 1815:
... Gerardus Joannes Bien, 23 years old, Weaver, born and living in this Municipality, adult Son of the late Wilhelm and Johanna Bien, both deceased according to a deed that was filed about it, and Joanna Graven, 23 years old, Spinner, born and living in this Municipality, adult Daughter of Berend and Geziena Graven, both deceased according to a deed that was filed about it ...

The second wedding was on September 30, 1824:
... Gerardus Joannes Biën, 32 years old according to the certificate of baptism, Farmer, born and living in this municipality, adult son of the late Willem Biën and Johanna Biën, Farmers, who have lived and died in this Municipality as appears from a declaration of neighbours, which declaration also states the death of his Grandparents; And Gesina Lansink, 33 years old according to the certificate of baptism, Woman Farmer, born and living in the municipality of Hengelo, adult Daughter of the late Johannes Lansink, en Geertruij Lansink, who is still living, Farmers ...

Both marriage certificates had as one of the annexes an excerpt of the Weerselo register of baptisms, proving the baptism of Gerardus Joannes Bien in November 1792 that was mentioned on the previous page. In both cases the age that was cited in the certificate is nearly, but not completely, right: the bridegroom should have been some weeks younger than 23 and 32 jaar, respectively. In those times they were not too specific with their ages.
The obvious conclusion seemed to be that Gerardus Joannes was married twice. Because divorce was not common, I assumed that his first wife Joanna Graven had died in the period between 1815 and 1824.
Hoewever, a problem was that in the whole province of Overijssel there was no record of the death of a Johanna Graven in the years 1815-1824. Another problem was that the second marriage certificate made no mention of the first wedding. In the approved manner, the registrar should have recorded it.

New information

Important new information from Lide ter Huurne-te Pas from Haaksbergen puts things in a different light. She showed two death certificates from Weerselo. The first said that in 1845 Janna Graven died, the wife of Gerrit Kuipers and a daughter of Berend Graven and Geze Koehorst (also known as Geziena Graven). Gerrit Kuipers himself died in 1864. According to his death certificate his parents were "Wilhelm Kuipers also Bienen and Joanna Bien".
As the cited names of Janna Graven's parents are similar to the names listed in the marriage certificate of 1815, Janna must have been the bride of 1815. Accordingly, her husband Gerrit Kuipers was recorded in the certificate as Gerardus Joannes Bien. That the families in that era took on different names, is illustrated by the referring to Gerrit/Gerardus' father as "Wilhelm Kuipers also Bienen"

According to Jopie Wessels from Wageningen, family names in Twente were strongly influenced by the name of the house where people lived, even after the introduction of the civil registry. For example, if a married couple moved into the wife's parents, the husband and the children would take on the surname (house name) of the wife. People were not very impressed by the wish of officials after the Napolean era to know the name of fathers' father and so on. Sometimes even people who worked on the farm took on the farm's name or address. This is why it can be hard to find out exactly who people were.

It is nearly sure that the two bridegrooms mentioned were not the same person: the widower of Joanna Graven died in 1864 and the widower of Gesina Lansink died in 1879.
There are two possibilities to explain this.

Hypothesis A
Gerardus Joannes Bien who was baptised on November 7, 1792 did indeed marry Joanna Graven in 1815. Later he called himself Gerrit Kuipers. Thus the bridegroom of 1824 was mistakenly recorded as Gerardus Joannes; he was likely his brother.

Hypothesis B
Gerardus Joannes Bien who was baptised on November 7, 1792 did marry Gesina Lansink in 1824. Later he changed his name to Jan B(e)ijen. In this case the bridegroom recorded in 1815 was mistakenly called Gerardus Joannes; he was likely his brother.

Thus, the problems are still not solved.

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