The Beringer Bros Winery family

Once again, I will state right here that I have no evidence currently that I am related to the Beringer Bros Winery Beringer family. However, I am interested in them because their German background has been very hazy until now, so here I am to set the record straight.

As I wrote recently, Jacob and Frederick Beringer of the Beringer Bros Winery in Napa Valley were reputed to have been born in Mainz, Germany. I tracked down baptism records for them in St Quintin's Catholic Church, Mainz, and as I had some of my own Beringers baptised in the same church (Valtin and Dorothea Beringer, my 3x great grandfather and his sister), I ordered the microfilm of the records in to my local LDS Family History Centre.

Of the six known children in Jacob and Frederick's family, three of their baptism records were in the St Quintin's register - Jacob F, Frederick and Conrad's. I think the other three - Carl, Jacob H and Werner - were baptised at the Catholic Cathedral in Mainz.

Published information about the family has always suggested that Jacob and Frederick's father Conrad Ludovic Beringer was in the wine trade, but the baptism records state that he was a bookbinder. He must have been a reasonably well-off bookbinder to be able to send Frederick to school in Paris...

Further searching revealed that Conrad Ludovic's father was named Friderick and his mother Elisabetha Bergern/Bergin. Conrad had at least one brother, Werner (born about 1798, baptised at St Quintin's on 12 December 1798). Although I have seen Werner's baptism record, unfortunately it does not note what his father Friderick's occupation was. I have found some references to Werner possibly being a bookbinder as well, with an advertisement in Rheinische Blätter on 5 October 1816 announcing a Werner Beringer as a book and paper handler in the Schustergasse (now known as Schusterstraße) Mainz. It does suggest to me that if potentially two of his sons were in the book trade, Friderick may also have been.

So that's a little more about the family of Jacob and Frederick Beringer, who founded the Beringer Bros Winery in Napa Valley, California. And I still haven't found any connection to my Beringers.