Until the beginning of the 19^th century the peasant population of Germany was largely dependent on landlords, who were the owners of the farmhouses and the farm-lands around them. In the 17th century the owner of Hof Bardelmeier was the earl of Tecklenburg, and later the king of Prussia after purchasing the county of Tecklenburg. The farmer was in fact no more than a leaseholder, called Kolon. The Kolon was more or less free to manage his own business, but he was not allowed to leave the property in bad times, and he even needed consent of the lord when he (or she) wanted to marry.
On the other hand the Kolon had the right of transferring the property to a son or daughter, when he was no longer able to do the strenuous work. However, in order to assure the preservation of the property as a whole, splitting of the inheritance was forbidden: there was one single heir, frequently being the youngest child, either son or daughter. The other brothers and sisters had to find their own way.
In case of a heiress, her husband became the new Kolon and as such he was supposed to adopt his wife's family name or rather the name of the farm. Sometimes in official documents both the new and the former name were mentioned, joined by genannt (abbr. gen.), e.g. Bardelmeier gen. Doomann.
This occurred in the Bardelmeier family within one century no less than five times.
This remarkable tradition might be a reason that Hof Bardelmeier has been inhabited by a Bardelmeier from the end of the 17^th century until the present day.