Origins of the surname Bevensee:
"Names, both place and personal, are awfully slippery fish. They are frequently impenetrable and guesses as to their meanings often verge on, or are just, folk etymology." [Dr. James Cathey, Phd. Germanic Languages - University of Massachusetts at Amherst]
Etymology:
Above, on, upon, before:
Proto German beufan, beuban Old Saxon biovan Old English/Anglo Saxon abufan, bufan, bufon, buvan, beufan Middle English aboven Plattdeutsch baven, baben, boben, baaben Dutch boven New High German oben, über German boben Old Frisian bova
Tremble, shake, waver, be moved:
Sanskrit bhi [to fear] Old Saxon bibon, bivon, bebon Old English/Anglo Saxon bifian, beofian, bifigan, byfian, bivæn, bivon Middle High German abiben, beben Old High German biben, bibæn Dutch beven New High German beben Frisian bibbe, bibje Old Frisian beva, bivia Old Frankish biven Danish bäve Swedish bäfwa Old Norse bifast
To dwell, inhabit, found, occupy, cultivate:
Sanskrit ........................ bhu = to become, spring up, be, exist, live Proto Germanic buanan, buhanan Old Saxon buan Anglo Saxon/Old English Buan, bugan, bun, buwan,buwian Middle English bûe Plattdeutsch buwen, bouen, buen, bujen Gothic bauan Old High German buan, buwan, buwen, buen Middle High German bûwen, bouwen, biuwen New High German bauen Middle Low German buwen, bouwen German bauen Frisian bouwje Old Frisian bowa, buwa, buwde Middle Dutch buwen, bauwen, bouwen Dutch bouwen Danish boe Swedish bo Icelandic bua Old Norse bua
An inhabitant or dweller:
Anglo-Saxon/Old English buend, buende
Building:
Old Frisian buwense, bowense New high German bau, bebäde Middle new dutch buwenisse, buwnisse
Sheet of water, sea or inland lake:
Proto Germanic saiwaz, saiwa Old Saxon seo, seu Old English/Anglo Saxon sæ, see Gothic saiws Old Norse sær Danish sø Middle Low English se Old High German seo, seu, se Middle Low German se Middle High German se New High German see German see Proto Frisian se Old Frisian sê, zee Teutonic zee Old Frankish seo Icelandic sær Old Dutch seo, seu Middle Dutch se, see, zee
Hence the name might have meant:
Above the marsh/lake/sea On or upon the marsh/lake/sea Beyond or before the marsh/lake/sea Trembling marsh/lake/sea Shaking marsh/lake/sea Wavering marsh/lake/sea To dwell/inhabit at the marsh/lake/sea To found at the marsh/lake/sea To occupy at the marsh/lake/sea To cultivate at the marsh/lake/sea An inhabitant at the marsh/lake/sea A dweller at the marsh/lake/sea A building at the marsh/lake/sea
This Bevensee family had a centuries old tradition of being Müllers and Zimmermann. Water was the primary power source for milling activities until the 17th century when Windmills began to be commonplace. The source of this water was either a stream, a lake, or a man-made reservoir, i.e. "a sheet of water."
Sources:
Bosworth-Teller Anglo Saxon Dictionary, by Joseph Bosworth and T. Northcote Toller; Oxford: Clarendon press, 1898 Anglo-Saxon Reader, by Bright, 1912 A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, by Clark Hall; Second Edition, 1916 A Comparative Glossary of the Gothic Language, by G. H. Balg, 1887 Ulfilas, oder die uns erhaltenen Denkmäler der gotischen Sprache, by Stamm, Heyne, and Wrede, 1896 A Middle High German Primer, by Joseph Wright; Third edition; Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1917 Altenglisches Wörterbuch, by Gerhard Köbler, 2003 Altsächsiche Grammatik, by J. H. Gallée, 1910 Altfriesisches Lesebuch mit Grammatik und Glossar, by Wilhelm Heuser, 1903 Wörterbuch der Indogermanischen Sprachen: Dritter Teil: Wortschatz der Germanischen Spracheinheit, by August Fick; Hjalmar Falk and Alf Torp, 1909 Haagse Liederenhandschrift, ca. 1400, "a collection of 165 poems written in Middle High and Middle Middle German (adapted to a northern variety); in Lower Rhenish (Cologne); in Middle Dutch (Flemish, Brabantic, Limburgic, and Hollandic) and in a peculiar German/Dutch or Dutch/German linguistic mixture."
These texts are available at:
http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~kurisuto/germanic/language_resources.html
http://www.hull.ac.uk/denhaagKB/toc.htm
http://www.plattmaster.de/plattoew.htm