Guild of One-Name Studies
One-name studies, Genealogy
This study is no longer registered with the Guild, but this profile page has been retained at the member's request. Please note that neither officers nor members of the Guild are able to answer any questions about this study.
I began this study because this is one of my family surnames that has given me the most trouble in finding the origin of the family. As I began my family history research, I quickly became aware of a number of variant spellings, but didn't quite know what to do about that fact. It wasn't until recently that I became aware of one-name studies and thought that such a study might help me sort out some brick walls and some confusion in the family history.
There are multiple goals for this study:
Questions to answer:
This will be accessible here on The Guild. Much is available at WikiTree where the study is also registered. All of the information will also be contained in databases of the coordinator; the statistics in spreadsheets. I use Ancestral Quest software as my genealogy software.
The name of the Study: Beismer is my maternal grandfather's spelling of his surname. This spelling appears to go back only two generations in my grandfather's family. However, I have seen this spelling elsewhere, as well.
As with all the studies, we are limited to a number of variants when registering. However, I have been informed that there are between 42 and 52 variant spellings for this surname. The primary name of the study is the surname as it is spelled in my immediate family; a spelling that is only a couple of generations old; although, interestingly, found elsewhere.
I do not plan to confine my study to the few variant spellings allowed in the registration of the study but will take the study where it leads.
I acknowledge that many of the spellings are one-off spellings or mis-written and these will be identified.
The name is pronounced Bees mer or Bees eh mer and is distinguished from the famous Bessemer surname, famous for the steel process, which is thought not to be related. There is also a surname pronounced Bays mer which, apparently, can share identical spellings. These, if unrelated, will, hopefully, eventually be eliminated from the study.
Variant spellings found to date include: Beismer, Besimer, Beesimer, Beesmer, Beasmer, Beasimer, Biesemeier, Biesemeyer and Bismer. This later, which appears to differ the most, is more directly related than some others in that the individual identified with this surname, Michael Bismer, has citations with other variant spellings and was a prisoner of war during the American Revolution; apparently a Loyalist.
It is acknowledged here and will undoubtedly be acknowledged elsewhere that most of these instances of the name were not written by the individual but by someone else recording information about them. I have begun collecting signatures, where available, to determine how individuals identified themselves and how they spelled their own name.
It is believed that the name is German. My maternal grandfather told me that the family was Swiss and "German Dutch" without elaborating. It is hoped that this study will reveal origins.
At this point in the study, July 2021, the variants of the name are found in two areas in New York State which are not far from each other and are assumed to be related but without clear connections.
Before undertaking the study, I have seen variants in Canada and in isolated instances in other parts of the United States.
Several years ago I stumbled on a small Belgian village with a name variant of the surname. I will find it again.
Doing a blind Internet search on the Beismer spelling brings up a business website in Mumbai, a bilingual Hungarian-English dictionary citation and, unhappily, a Wikipedia article on Henry Bessemer which is not a variant spelling.
I have had my DNA tested (autosomal) but there is not yet a Beismer family DNA study.
I have a family history blog at: https://nyfamilytrackers.blogspot.com/ where I write about my family history research. I research ALL my family branches.