Claude Lanners - and some enduring gifts

Thanksgiving 2011 - I'm thinking of many things for which I'm thankful.  Here's one:

Hospitality plus.  Luxembourg.  (1989)

Our family had the good fortune to come into contact with a gentleman by the name of Claude Lanners some 30 years ago. Claude is a relative on my mother's side, resident in our primary ancestor-land, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. 

I've been thinking about Claude lately in relation to a few items: (1) I received a link to a website (on Geneanet) prepared by Claude, with endless amounts of information about the Bormann family; and (2) I received a 57-page pdf file, written by Claude, titled "History of the US Branches of the Bormann Family."

Both are priceless, enduring gifts.

(As if that weren't enough - Claude has been giving us all a life-lesson as he deals with ill health over what has now been an extended time period - continued graciousness; neither anger nor denial at what's happening and what lies ahead; continuing productivity on family history topics that only he can produce; etc.  (Claude's graciousness - to which I deliberately refer repeatedly - was impressive in good health.  It's even more impressive, and enduringly memorable, in these more difficult days.)   But enough on the illness topic for now, it makes me unhappy.)

Three thoughts on Claude's family history work:

1983 - early stage family history work.  (House residence, New Brighton, MN)

1983, our Glenview, IL townhouse (chicken cacciatore courtesy PJ)

1.  Simply put:  no one else - no one - could have done it.  Claude truly was the one-of-a-kind man-on-the-spot.  He has an unmatchable combination of extensive knowledge (both family history and the overall history that gives context to the family situations over the years); genuine interest in people; hospitality to visitors, fluency in the language(s) needed to work through the historical records and converse with the locals; fluency in English that permitted precise communication with we Iowans; the work ethic to track down so much information; and then the hard part:  putting it on paper.  So often information is gathered and just ends up sitting in shoe boxes or the like; so seldom is it reduced to a usable writing.

Paradise Valley, AZ, October 1992

 2.  And we must not underestimate how much time and skill this kind of writing requires.  Thoughtful, concise writing does not occur easily.   Dashing off a letter (or a blog post, for that matter) is one thing.  Putting together the delightful  "History of the US Branches of the Bormann Family" is an entirely different level.  Claude had to make hundreds of editorial decisions at multiple levels, including (at a minimum): (1) selecting the information to be presented out of a huge mass of loosely-connected materials that had been accumulated over many years; (2) selecting the structure of the document (strict chronology? back and forth in time? etc.); (3) making countless presentation decisions about when and how to use original writing, quoted text, conversation notes, photos, drawing, maps, excerpts of historical documents, etc.; and (4) finally - selecting the precise words and images that now grace all of those pages.

Paradise Valley, AZ, October 1992

3.  He succeeded.  The Bormann history is not an exercise in name-date-drudgery, as can so easily occur with family histories.  Instead:  it's lively, readable, informative, wonderful!  I'm going to print the final version, have it bound (self-publishing is easy these days!), and proudly shelved alongside the St. Joe history book (1976), the Altman family history (that Claude so graciously acknowledges in his work), and other family materials.

We had the pleasure of seeing Claude in Illinois in 1983, and in Arizona (along with his son, Michel) in 1992.  I've posted a few photos from those fine days.

Paradise Valley, AZ, October 1992

Also included below is a delightful set of photos (click arrow at bottom right to proceed through slide show) that Claude put together - included to give a sense of the valuable type of work he does, bridging content from the U.S. and Europe.  (I'm not posting the Bormann family history itself here - too many names and dates for privacy purposes, I think - will eventually post it to my secured website as a repository item.)

Claude - thanks for the enduring gift of your family history work.  And thanks - even more - from Patricia, me and all of us here in Arizona - for your friendship over this nigh-30 year span.  


Gales 1983-2011