Joseph Dominichus Heinen was born in Germany around 1882.

When Joseph arrived in Britain is unknown. He was however married in Poole, Dorset, England in 1903 to Fanny Brine (b. circa 1858 in Weymouth, Dorset) but the couple would have no children.

Fanny appears on the 1911 census as a married domestic cook to the wealthy Frederick Palmer, a civil engineer, and his family, at Morden Hill House, Morden Hill, Blackheath, London.

When he signed on to the Titanic, on 4 April 1912, he gave his address as Morden Hill House, Lewisham. As a second class saloon steward he could expect monthly wages of £3, 15. The Titanic was his first working sea voyage.

Joseph Heinen died in the sinking. His body, if recovered, was never identified. His dependents received his outstanding wages of 15s.

His widow Fanny never remarried and later settled in the Christchurch area of Hampshire where she died in 1937 aged 78.