dual citizens

I can scarcely believe it.  On 10 August 2018 we return from a trip to Arizona Wilderness to discover in our mailbox the envelope with Luxembourg citizenship designations for Nicole, Patrick and me!!  (And there still is time for others to join in!)


Practical value appears nil.  But the process was easy thanks to Carol et al.  Quite a few other family members are completing the process (including the fine group mentioned here).  And the symbolic value is entirely excellent - my mom and Claude Lanners must be smiling down at us with our little dual citizenship achievement here.  I like having that connection even more than I had anticipated.

Due to some administrative changes we were not required to travel to Luxembourg for the in-person interview.  Which is convenient.  But we are disappointed not to have that focal point for a visit.  (To be sure we shall find other reasons to visit, hopefully sooner than later.)

Next:  EU passports.

newly-minted citizens of Luxembourg

Not sure who's primarily responsible - but via several of my sisters, we are following up on an opportunity to acquire dual citizenship status in Luxembourg.  They have managed their way through the various details involved in establishing a link to an ancestor resident in Luxembourg prior to the prescribed 19th century date.  We (so far me, Nicole, Patrick) are piggybacking onto their efforts.

It's official!

One of the requirements:  a visit to Luxembourg.  EMG, Barb, Carol and Therese completed this requirement in April 2018.  Text messages from Europe indicate, and subsequent phone calls confirm, that this was a pretty wonderful trip.  Sounded like they encountered the finest hospitality wherever they turned (no surprise there).

Celebratory meal with Ruiz/Lanners group . . . 

. . . dining with Mich Lanners.

Anyway, that group of four is pretty well finished with the process.  Our group is arcing toward a 2019 visit. Perhaps an EU passport will follow?

A shame that Mom and Claude Lanners weren't there to join in.

Only one way to properly celebrate the
occasion - select the finest Gales wine.

Luxembourg festival

OK this happened nearly 2,000 miles from here in Phoenix, but I like the picture, and I like that these fine Luxembourg-connected folks traveled from St. Joe (IA), Glenview (IL), St. Paul (MN), Eau Claire (WI) and Nome (AK) to attend the 2017 version of the annual Luxembourg Festival held in Belgium, Wisconsin (weekend of August 11-13).

Our group is posed in the Luxembourg American Cultural Center, standing beneath a stylized "tree" hanging with photos of Luxembourg immigrants.  (As I understand it, a small fee entitles you to hang a photo, plus select immigrant families are honored yearly.  My mom of course also loved this kind of thing, and the Gales and Bormann families were featured a few years back.)

L-R Ernest M. Gales, Romie & Joy Gales, Therese Gales, Alison & Barb Haag, Carol Gales

At left is the original photo from which the above version was cropped (received via text message) - shows quite a bit more of the "tree".

Of course I checked out the original photo quite closely, as explained per zoom/caption below.

In a way, a fourth generation was overseeing the three generations in attendance . . . nice.

Didn't take long to find - at top left portion of the photo - wedding portraits of
my estimable grandparents - (L-R) Veronica Dockendorf and Ernest J. Gales, and
Philomena Kohlhaas and Mike Bormann.

some special visitors

As discussed here, our family has had the good fortune to be in touch with Luxembourg-based relatives since the early 1980s.  Primary contact points were Claude Lanners and his wife Mariette; we also had met their son Michel.  We have now learned first-hand - certainly not to our surprise - that that the deep sense of connection extends to another batch of Lanners family members!

At Claude's instigation, a few years ago I became a social media friend with his grandson (Daniel Ruiz).  Via that link, Daniel advised that he and his family (father Jose Ruiz, mother Martine Lanners, sister Laura Ruiz) would be visiting the western part of the US, including the Phoenix area.

So:  we had to get together.

Showing the relationship across the generations.

PJ put together a lights-out southwest-style dinner.  Chris and Dharma attended (unfortunately, all the other locals were out of town over Labor Day weekend).  Our guests arrived around 5p - we talked nonstop until 11:30p - would happily have continued - couldn't have been nicer.

They immediately recognized our prominently-displayed Luxembourg goods - and brought us some appropriately-labeled beverages (per below photo).

We shall look forward to resuming the conversation when we get to Europe!

Only from Luxembourg . . . 

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

Peckvillercher

The Luxembourg knick-knack market is not nearly as well-developed as that of some other European countries. I don't think there are all that many items that folks here in the U.S. generally associate with the Grand Duchy.

Which makes it all the nicer that Patricia followed up with our (extended) family's #1 contact in Luxembourg - one Claude Lanners - to improve our supply of Peckvillerchers here in Arizona. My parents have given us a few over the years, but the quality of those available via the Wisconsin Luxembourg fest seems to have diminished.

Peckvillerchers are delightful little whistles shaped like birds - associated with a Luxembourg town where leftovers at the clay works were used to make them. Now associated with Easter. To operate: just blow in the tail.

Claude knows his Peckvillerchers - as we have learned (through a link he provided to this website) - the town of Nospelt is the traditional supplier of these delightful little whistles, and hosts a festival annually on Easter Monday.

Top photo shows our four treasures (as always, click photo to enlarge).

Bottom photo - one example - each is marked with "11" (which I'll boldly guess refers to "2011") and with the name of the town of Nospelt. (Photographer's Easter-themed prop described here.)

We're grateful to have these . . . perhaps future generations will appreciate also?

More on Claude to come in a future post.

Here's Nospelt:


View Larger Map