The Beijen/Beyen Family Site
by Laurens Beijen

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The Johan Franco branch of the IJsselstein family Johan Franco Beijen from the Dutch East Indies

This page is still under construction


Johan Franco Beijen (12.6) was born in 1885. He did not belong to the continuous series of the Johan Franco's I to VI that is discussed on the previous pages, as his father had another given name.
For many years Johan Franco was an superintendent of the governmental Forestry. In 1907 he married Susanna Rosalie Martherus. They had four children. After the marriage was dissolved by divorce, he married Nji Mas Soehaemi (Imik) in 1926. With her he had one son.
In the fifties Johan Franco's children and grandchildren moved to the Netherlands. He himself stayed with his wife in Indonesia. In 1958 however Johan Franco decided to come to the Netherlands, but his wife remained in her homeland. Johan Franco, who had opted in 1951 for the Indonesian citizenship, got his Dutch citizenship back in 1960. At the left is a picture of him from 1962.
Johan Franco died in 1969 in Bergen op Zoom.

Here is some more information about Johan Franco's five children:

  • Eduard (13.6) was born in 1909 in Soekaboemi. He died in 1932, only 23 years old.
  • Henriėtte (Jet, 13.7) was born in 1910 in Tjiandjoer on West Java. In 1936 she married Christiaan (Chris) Smith. After the war they came to the Netherlands with their children. Chris died in 1996, Jet in 2007, both in Zaandam.
  • Rudolph (13.8) is mentioned in more detail below under the heading Rudolph Beijen, died in 1944.
  • Christiaan (13.9) is mentioned in more detail under the heading Christiaan Beijen, former prisoner of war.
  • Willem (13.10), the only child of Johan Franco's second wife, was born in 1919 in Poerwakarta on West Java. He married Luci Angelique Pitton in 1947 in Djakarta. They had four children, the first of whom died young. Around 1952 Willem and his family came to the Netherlands and in 1960 they emigrated to America, first to California and later to Missouri. Willem died in 2001, his wife in 2004.

    Rudolph Beijen/Beyen, died in 1944


    Rudolph Beijen (of Beyen) (13.8) was one of the sons of Johan Franco Beijen (12.6), who was in turn the youngest son of Hendrik Rudolph Senior (11.9). Rudolph joined the KNIL in 1929 and rose to the rank of sergeant major instructor. After the occupation of the Dutch East Indies by the Japanese, he was taken prisoner of war in March 1942.
    In September 1944 he was one of the 6500 prisoners (American, Australian, British and Dutch prisoners of war and Javanese laborers) who were transported under inhumane conditions in the transport ship Junyo Maru to do forced labour at the Pekanbaru railway through the jungle of Sumatra.

    However, the ship (above on a photo from 1933) was torpedoed and sunk west of Sumatra by a British submarine. Only a small part of the prisoners could save themselves. Rudolph Beijen was one of the thousands who perished.
    More about the Junyo Maru disaster can be found on Wikipedia.

    Below the internment card of Rudolph is shown.

    According to the Japanese text on the back of the card Rudolph was captured on March 8, 1942. Just like Hendrik he was at first in a camp near Bandung in Java and later on in a camp near Batavia. The exact time and place of the sinking of the Junyo Maru are stated: September 18, 1944, about 18:30 - 18:45 uur; 2º 53' South, 101º 11' East.

    Rudolph Beijen had married Margaretha Jeanne (Greet) Rijnenberg in February 1938 in Pontianak, Borneo. They had three children: Ilse (1938), Ron (1940), and Henk (1942). Henk was born when his father had already been imprisoned for over half a year.
    Later, Greet received a note that Rudolph Beijen had written to his wife in a prisoner-of-war camp and which had subsequently been smuggled out of the camp: "A firm trust and a speedy reunion". Unfortunately, a reunion never came. In 1945, Greet received a telegram stating that her husband had been killed.


    After the war, the situation in Indonesia became increasingly difficult for the family. In the 1950s, Greet left for the Netherlands with her three children. They lived there in Bergen op Zoom.

    Christiaan Beyen, former prisoner of war


    Christiaan Beyen (13.9) (commonly called Chris) was a brother of the aforementioned Rudolph. He was born in 1914 in Tegal.
    Like his father Johan Franco, Chris went to work as a supervisor at the 'Boswezen', an organisation that was involved in forestry. In January 1942, Chris married Jenny Boogaard in Surabaya.
    In the meantime, the war with Japan had broken out. He was called up by the Dutch East Indies army and was placed with the motorcycle orderlies in Bandung. The army marched through the whole of Java, but soon surrendered. Chris then went to his grandmother in Tegal. In June 1942, Chris' and Jenny's first child, Victor, was born. Later the Japanese still arrested Chris. He was taken to Padang on Sumatra to work on the Pekanbaru railway.


    According to the Japanese text on the front of the card, Chris was arrested on January 15, 1944.
    After the Japanese surrender in August 1945, Chris was able to return to Java. He was called up again by the army and was placed with the motorcycle orderlies in Batavia. His wife and son had been detained by the Japanese in the women's camp Tjideng near Batavia. After Chris had picked them up, he went with them first to Surabaya and later to Borneo. There he worked again for the Boswezen.

    Because of anti-Dutch measures in Indonesia, Chris left for Dutch New Guinea with his family around 1952. When that area was transferred to Indonesia in 1962, he went to the Netherlands with his wife and by then four children.
    Chris Beyen and his wife both passed away in Rotterdam in 1997.

    Family visit from America

    In September 2024, Eduard Beijen and his wife Kathy from Kansas City and Nancy Burkett Beijen and her husband Robert from St. Louis visited family members in the Netherlands for a few days. Eduard (born in Bandung in 1950) and his sister Nancy (born in Vlissingen in 1958) are a son and a daughter of the aforementioned Willem Beijen.
    Eduard had last met some of the members of the Beijen family in 1956. He could only remember his grandfather Johan Franco, who was very strict. Nancy had last visited the Beijen family in Bergen op Zoom in the mid-1970s.
    On September 7, there was a meeting in Bergen op Zoom where many of their Dutch relatives were present. The photo below was taken there.


    The members of the Beijen family are indicated in the photo with a letter.
    A en B: Eduard (14.15) and Nancy (14.16) from America.
    C: Ron (14.7), a son of Rudolph who was born in 1912.
    D, E, F, G en H: Ron's children Paula, Frank, Jeffrey, Roy and Cindy (15.4-15.8).
    I: Henk (officially Rudolph Hendrik, 14.8), another son of Rudolph.
    J en K: Henk's children Danny and Femke (15.9-15.10).
    L en M: Frouke (14.11) and Raymond (15.11), a daughter and a grandson of Christiaan who was born in 1914.
    The others in the photo are partners, children and grandchildren.

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