When Hinderkien Van Esch was born on 9 January 1835, in Roden, Drenthe, Netherlands, her father, Berend Engberts van Es, was 25 and her mother, Trijntje Hindriks Mulder, was 23. She married Willem Hovinga on 12 March 1859, in Leek, Groningen, Netherlands. They were the parents of at least 3 sons and 4 daughters. She died in 1900, in Roden, Main-Spessart, Bavaria, Germany, at the age of 65.