The composer's grandfather, Ludwig Senior, came to Bonn from the city of Mechelen (then in the Austrian Duchy of Brabant, today Flemish Belgium) at the age of 21 and soon married a local girl, Maria Josepha Poll. He found employment as a bass singer at the court of the Archbishop-Elector of Cologne, Clemens August, and later became a bandmaster. This couple had an only son, Johann, who worked as a tenor in the same place as his father and also gave lessons on keyboards and violin.
