People frequently contact Kevin and Rebecca before traveling to Luxembourg inquiring about visiting ancestral villages churches, graves and homes and getting information about family roots there.  

Kevin recommends doing your homework before going to Luxembourg. First, email the commune in Luxembourg where your ancestral village is located a few months before your visit there. The websites and contact information for communes in Luxembourg are readily available and most personnel at these communes have a good command of English. In your email, tell them who you are and the name of your ancestral family in that village. Do not send pdfs with volumes of information as that can scare off the folks working at the commune! 

Instead, tell them when you be visiting and ask if that particular village has a local historian. Most villages in Luxembourg, even very small ones, have a local historian, often an older person who grew up there or sometimes it is the sacristan at the local church. Ask the person at the commune to connect you with the local historian. This could prove very positive for making a personal connection to your ancestral village.   

You should also ask if any historic books have ever been written about your ancestral village. Most villages have had books written about their history over the years. Some of these books have information on immigrants to America from that village and other offer listings of various family homes. Who knows? You might hit the jackpot and find a biography for your immigrant ancestors or be able to discover your original family home in the village.  

Finally, ask the commune if it is possible to have the local church opened for your visit, as many of the churches in Luxembourg are now locked during the day, and if they know what year the church was built. Then, you can determine if your ancestor was perhaps baptized or married in the church. 

A few additional suggestions: 

• When you visit your ancestral village, take a ton of photos so you have no regrets later.
• Try to take a photo of yourself or your group at the village’s yellow sign at the entrance of the village. These signs contain the name of the village in French in larger print and beneath it, in smaller print, the name of the town in Lëtzebuergesch. 
• Get the names and email addresses of the people that you meet from the commune or village. You might need these for further reference. 
• If you find an ancestral home, write down the address of the home. This is also for future reference or if other relatives want to visit the home in the future. 
• Ask the commune or village historian if they would like any additional information or photos of your ancestors from that village for their archives or collection. 
• Express gratitude to all the Luxembourgers who assist you with your visit.