Beismer and Variants

Introduction:

This Section will be where I post information, etc. about my BEISMER family.  

This has been one of the more difficult families to research.  I now have about 24 variant spellings of the surname.  I have NOT discovered where they originated although my grandfather said he was Swiss and German Dutch.

My maternal grandfather was Simeon Beismer.  Even within the 2 or 3 generations of his immediate family the name was spelled differently.  Within the familiar family there was Beesimer and Beesmer.  Members of the family pronounced the surname as either - Beesmer or Beesimer with a very slight sounding of the 'i'.

I was told by someone at the annual genealogy fair in Manhattan that the name might be pronounced Beesmer or Baysmer and that one pronounciation meant beekeeper and the other broommaker and that one pronounciation was German and the other Dutch.  Unfortunately, I can be very sloppy in my research and I can't remember which is which in meaning or origin but I'll see if I can look it up.  I don't know either language.

In any case, the name is NOT Bessemer as in the steel manufacturer.

Some of the spellings that MIGHT be related are:  Beesmer, Beesimer, Bismer, Biesemeyer, Biesemiere (a town in Belgium), Beasmer, Beasimer....

Our family was mostly in Sullivan and Delaware Counties, New York.  There are Beesimers, etc.  In Columbia County and in Canada.  They were mostly laborers but some did some farming.  They worked at tanneries, in quaries, on railroads, maybe on the canals, some were teamsters (the original meaning).

There were Bismers in the Revolution.

I have found nothing about where they came from.  I have found no clear connection between the families in Sullivan County and those in Columbia County although there's a Cornelius Beesimer in each county around the same time on censuses.

So this is a beginning for this family....


I've created groups at Yahoo.com for most of my primary families to maintain a place where files, charts, and photos can be exchanged and where family members can get to know each other.  This is the link for the Beesmerfamily group.  Membership and posting is monitored by yours truly to prevent the crazies from being a pest.  Membership is free so take a look and join.  Once on the site, members can create their own folders and photo albums for sharing with the group.  Everything I post on the site is available for members to take (download).

When you visit this blog, please leave a comment so I know there's some interest.

Thank you.

December 22, 2017

I recently posted on Facebook some family lines from as far back as I've traced them coming forward. I haven't verified all the connections yet but they seem correct. Hans Jurgen Bosmer (Besemer), pronounced Beesmer, sort of, o with the 2 dots, b. 1680, Wurtenberg, Germany, then Hans, Jr., who arrived, with his brother, Johan, in Philadelphia, 1749, then Johannes Casparus Besemer, then Casparus Besemer, b. 1776, Marbletown, Ulster Co., then Cornelius Ousterhoudt Beesimer, married to Maria Vandermark, b. Rochester, Ulster Co., then my great grandfather, Silas Beismer, b. Debruce, Sull. Co., 

then my maternal grandfather, Simeon Arnold Beismer, b. Debruce, died, Walton, Del. Co., NY, 

then my mom 

and me.

Thursday, April 30, 2015


I thought you might find this amusing: