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Birth name
Elizabeth Bins
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Place of Birth
Germany
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Place of Death
Wisconsin, US
When Elizabeth Bins (Basten) was born on January 15, 1839, in Germany, her father, Peter, was 38, and her mother, Veronica, was 31. She had nine children with Joseph Basten between 1863 and 1882. She died on December 26, 1916, having lived a long life of 77 years, and was buried in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
From the records
Her maiden name, Bins, now rests on two separate sources. The 1913 history of Brown County names her as Elizabeth Bins in the sketch of her son John, and the Social Security record of her daughter Magdalena names Magdalena’s parents as Joseph Basten and Elizabeth Bins.
That record gives Magdalena (“Magdalen Basten Schnese”) a birth date of September 9, 1884, in Green Bay; the Wisconsin birth index has a Magd Basten born in Brown County on the same day. The 1913 history calls her “the wife of Gus Schneese, of Green Bay”, and the Social Security record of her daughter Hyacinth (born in Green Bay on October 16, 1908) names Hyacinth’s parents as August F. Schnese and Magdalen Basten. Magdalena has no profile on this site yet.
Possible match. The 1860 census of Green Bay’s North Ward lists an Elizabeth Bins, 22, born in Prussia, working as a servant in another family’s household. Her age and birthplace fit, but nothing else links her to Elizabeth.
Sources for the records above
- Secondary history. Deborah Beaumont Martin, History of Brown County, Wisconsin, Past and Present, vol. 2 (Chicago: S. J. Clarke, 1913), pp. 165–166, sketch of John Basten. Read page 165 at the Internet Archive. Written from information the families supplied.
- Third-party transcription of a federal index. Social Security Numident file, entries for Magdalen Basten Schnese and for her daughter Hyacinth, as transcribed by SortedByName.com (Magdalen; Hyacinth). The Social Security file is independent of the 1913 book.
- Index. Wisconsin Historical Society, Wisconsin Pre-1907 Vital Records, birth index: Basten, Magd, Brown County, September 9, 1884 (reel 13, record 456). Index abstract; parents are not shown online.
- Third-party census transcription. 1860 U.S. census, Brown County, Wisconsin (National Archives microfilm M653, roll 1400), transcribed by Kathleen Race and proofread by Gary Tremblez for the USGenWeb Census Project, Green Bay North Ward, page 117, line 33 (census files).
All sources accessed October 23, 2026.
Family research reference
View this person in Tyson R. Mosby’s Ancestry family tree (exported October 18, 2026). This reference supplements the biography and family memories preserved above. Ancestry tree entries are family research; conflicting details remain subject to review.