The roots of the Beethoven family can be found in Flanders and Brabant (both of these regions are today a part of Belgium), and their earliest ancestors can probably be traced back as far as to the year 1500.

(See Thayer-Forbes, p. 43 and 45, referring to Joseph Schmidt-Görg, "Stand und Aufgaben der Beethoven-Genealogie," in Beethoven und die Gegenwart, ed. Arnold Schmidt (Berlin and Bonn, 1937), pp. 140-141, while Jan Swafford, in his 2014 book "Beethoven. Anguish and Triumph", p. 3, does not follow this assumption as most Beethoven literature does but rather notes: "Backward from that point the family history is uncertain", meaning any traces going further back than his great-grandfather Michael van Beethoven).

Pursuant to TF, the Beethovens worked mainly as tradesmen and artisans.   During the 17th century, Beethoven's direct ancestors probably lived in and around the city of Malines (Mecheln). Beethoven's great-grandfather, Michiel (as described by the Belgian Beethoven biographer Jan Caeyers in his 2009 biography, the second German 2012 edition of which has now been incorporated into this online biography as source material, hereinafter referred to as "Caeyers, 2012", in the 'Prolog' on p. 11) was a baker and branched out into selling lace and other luxury items and would ultimately go bankrupt through that sideline business.

Grandfather Ludwig (originally Louis, see Caeyers, 2012, p. 15ff0 van Beethoven, who was born in 1712, had a beautiful voice and was very musical. His parents sent him to the church choir school for boys at the Cathedral of Malines. Later, he also learned how to play the organ. One of his first positions was that of a baritone singer and choir leader at the Cathedral of Liege (Lüttich). That is where the Elector of Bonn, who was not only the Cardinal of Cologne, but also Bishop of Liege (pursuant to Caeyers, p. 31, the "Füstbistum Lüttich - das schon seit Jahrhunderten unter der Herrschaft des Erzbistums Köln stand" (meaning that the Diocese of Liege had, already for centuries, been under the administration of the Archdiocese of Cologne), heard him sing in 1733 and invited him to come and work at his Bonn court. Once Louis van Beethoven senior was established there, his destitute parents also fled to Bonn.

At that time, the sleepy city of Bonn had a population of not quite 10,000. It served as the residence of the Elector and Cardinal of Cologne. With respect to the particular form of state and government of a German "Electorate" whose "Elector" was also a bishop or Cardinal, it would be helpful to mention the following:

• An "Electorate" was the territory of a ruler who, along with other aristocratic rulers or "Electors", was eligible to take part in the "election" of the Emperor of the so-called "Holy Roman Empire" (see the English-language Wikipedia Page) (at that time a long-time German remnant of the European respectively Frankish empire created by Charlemagne);

• An Elector who was also a bishop or cardinal ruled over a territory that was owned by the Roman Catholic church. The rulers of such "ecclesiastical" or "church" states were, again, selected by the Emperor and a close circle of powerful regional German rulers from the ranks of their own families;

• Both of these traditions had their origins in the feudal system of the Middle Ages.

Most of these "ecclesiastical" Electors spent far less time at attaining their priesthood than ordinary priests, and they also had a "grace period" of ten years from the time they became rulers of a church state until they had to become priests. During this time, many of them went on merrily enjoying their lives with their mistresses and their flock of illegitimate children.  Some of them even continued this life style after they had taken their priestly vows of celibacy.

 

Grandfather Louis or Ludwig van Beethoven

Grandfather Louis van Beethoven worked for the Electorate of Bonn for forty years: as baritone singer from 1733 until 1761, and in this function as well as that of a Kapellmeister until his December 25^th, 1773, death (from a stroke).   Soon after his arrival in Bonn,  he married a local girl, Maria Josepha Poll (or Ball) (according to TF, p. 45, on Sept. 7, 1733). The couple had to mourn a daughter and a son (according to TF, p. 46, Maria Bernardina Ludovica, baptized on August 28, 1734, and died on October 17, 1735, and Marcus Josephus, baptized on April 25, 1736, who also died very soon) and were left with only one surviving son, Johann (or Jean), who was born either in late 1739 or in early 1740. 

The Fleming Louis van Beethoven, in addition to his position as a court musician, also had a side line business of exporting Rhine and Moselle wine to his native Flanders.  His wife Maria Josepha, who might not have been able to deal easily with the loss of her infant children, took to the readily available bottles of wine. (More recent Beethoven research has brought forth the contention (by Canisius) that Louis van Beethoven senior might not have been the biological father of Johann (or Jean).   If that were the case, indeed, Maria Josepha Poll's later behavior and addiction might also have to be viewed in the light of that possibility).   By the time that her son Johann (or Jean) had become a mediocre tenor singer at the Bonn court, her alcoholism had become so severe that she had to live in confinement in a cloister of nuns (according to TF, p. 48, in note 15, by Fischer and Thayer referred to as "Köln" (Cologne), but "more likely Kölnstrasse", relying on Schiedermair, Der junge Beethoven, Bonn and Leipzig 1925, p. 95).   Louis van Beethoven senior and his young adult son Johann (or Jean) lived alone as bachelors.

Presumably Johann van Beethoven

"Johann der Läufer" or "Johann the runner", as the Kapellmeister nick-named his son, loved to wander through the countryside around Bonn. During summer, when the Elector stayed at his Münster residence in Westphalia, some of the court musicians did not have to come along. Johann used his free time to wander as far as Koblenz or even to Ehrenbreitstein across the river Rhine.

On one of his wanderings, Johann (or Jean) met a young widow in an Ehrenbreitstein tavern. Her name was Maria Magdalena Laym, nee Keverich. Her father, Heinrich Keverich, used to be chief cook at the Court of the Elector of Treves (Trier) who held court at Ehrenbreitstein.  He married Clara Westorff, and their daughter Maria Madgalena was born on December 19, 1746.  Her father Heinrich died when she was twelve years old, namely on August 2, 1759.   When Maria Magdalena was sixteen years old, she married a valet of this Elector, Johann Laym (according to TF, p. 50, on January 30, 1763).   The young couple had one child who died in infancy. Mr. Laym also died soon after (according to TF, p. 50, on November 27, 1765).

Johann (or Jean) van Beethoven and Maria Magdalena Laym, nee Keverich, were married in Bonn in 1767 (according to TF, p. 51, on November 12, 1767at St. Remigius). Grandfather Louis van Beethoven initially did not approve of this marriage.  (According to TF, p. 51, the wedding was held in Bonn because Louis was not willing to attend an Erhenbreitstein ceremony).   He thought that a court musician should marry someone better than a servant's daughter. We know of this through the so-called "Fischer manuscript", a collection of memories the Fischer family, long-time landlords of both Louis van Beethoven senior and of Johann (or Jean) van Beethoven, later put together of the family of their most famous tenants. The two Beethoven bachelors lived right above the Fischer family, and the Fischers could thus overhear the conversation when Johann told his father of his marriage plans.

The young couple's brief marital bliss might have received its first blow when their first child, Ludwig Maria, born in the spring of 1769 (according to  TF, p. 52, baptized on April 2, 1769), died after only six days.

One could say that the fate of the Beethoven family in Bonn was shaped by few triumphs and many tragic events.   Louis van Beethoven found professional success in his new residence, he was well-respected as a musician and as a man by Bonners of all walks of life: by his aristocratic employer, his fellow court musicians, and by the burghers of Bonn.   In his private life, the "normal" course of marriages of his day, namely that of a couple's having several children of whom some did not survive, cast a shadow over his marriage and may have sent his wife into alcoholism.

While his son Johann (or Jean) was far less talented as a singer than he was and also had less self-respect, and while he may have received his position as a tenor singer at the Bonn court mainly due to his father's excellent reputation, Barry Cooper and also Jan Caeyers point out that Johann van Beethoven was at least very active during the first years of his marriage, namely as tenor singer and as voice and piano teacher.  Nevertheless, father Ludwig van Beethoven knew how to stand up for his rights and how to address his superiors with dignity, while Johann (or Jean) van Beethoven, in petitioning for his first permanent position at age 16, referred to "my insignificant self" in describing himself towards the Elector. This tendency to either wind his way through or to, on the other hand, becoming over-confident to the point of embarrassment would remain one of his traits throughout his entire life.

Presumably Maria Magdalena van Beethoven

The young widow Maria Magdalena, nineteen years old when she married Johann (or Jean), was a serious young woman who had already suffered the loss of an infant and of her first husband. The loss of her second child in her second marriage did not help her cheerful disposition.

This was the family into which Ludwig van Beethoven would be born.