Edson Tadeu Ortolan wondered:

>Another question to increase the discussion: wasn't Beethoven an
>african-dutch descendent?

No, most probably he was not.  There's a lot of speculation been done
on his "african" descent by black people who obviously wanted him to be
black, but there's not the slightest trace of a proof, though it cannot
be excluded beyond any doubt that he maybe had one or two drops "black"
blood in his veins.  The facts are these.

During the so-called 80-year-war (1568-1648) Belgium and the southern
part of the Netherlands was occupied by the Spanish Habsburg regime.  In
the Spanish army many a soldier of northern-african descent could be found
and it's not impossible that one of those "Moorish" (as they were called
in those days) soldiers caused some "black" blood in the Beethoven family.
But all we know for sure about Beethoven's descent points to a combined
Flemish (the Beethovens lived in or around Mechelen, a small town in
Flanders) and Rhineland descent (the Keverichs lived in Ehrenbreitstein in
the southern part of the Rhineland and Beethoven's mother was born there).
We also know for sure that grandfather Louis van Beethoven, who was born
in Mechelen, moved to Bonn and there he married a Rhineland woman, Maria
Josepha Poll, who gave birth to some children, but only one survived:
Johann, who was to become Ludwig's father.  In the sixties Beethoven
researcher Schmidt-Goerg published an impressive complete book on the
descent of both the Beethovens and the Keverichs and there's nothing,
absolutely nothing that can be be explained as a proof for the supposed
African descent of the composer.  As far as I know Schmidt-Goerg's research
is still standing.

Greetings,
Joyce Maier
www.ademu.com/Beethoven