The 19th century landmark study of Luxembourg immigration to America was Nicholas Gonner’s book Die Luxemburger in der Neuen Welt (Luxembourgers in the New World). Gonner, who was born in Pfaffenthal, Luxembourg, in 1835, immigrated to America with his wife and three small children in 1866.
A civil engineer by training, Gonner first settled in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, then in 1872, made Dubuque, Iowa, his permanent home. There, he became editor of the Luxemburger Gazette, which had been founded in 1871. Gonner brought the Gazette to life as America’s national weekly newspaper for Luxembourgers. His network of correspondents and distribution agents in Luxembourg-American regions kept Luxembourgers informed and connected.
In the early 1880s, Gonner sent roving reporters to Luxembourg regions throughout the Midwest. Their writings became a series of columns in the Gazette describing Luxembourgers in Ohio, Wisconsin, Minnesota and other states, and served as the foundation of Die Luxemburger in the Neuen Welt. Gonner expanded on the columns, offering information about the push/pull factors that impelled Luxembourgers to immigrate, as well as historic facts about the immigrant experience.
Gonner’s book, written in German, was widely read in the United States and Luxembourg in the years following its publication. However, with the demise of spoken and written German in the states following World War I, it was largely forgotten and became inaccessible to the modern Luxembourg American.
In the 1980s, historians Gerald L. Liebenau and Jean-Claude Muller took on the daunting task of translating Gonner’s book into English. In 1987, as a tribute to Gonner, Die Luxemburger in der Neuen Welt was released as a two-volume set entitled Luxembourgers in the New World. Volume one was the translation of a large portion of Gonner’s book, while volume two was an index to Gonner’s Luxemburger Gazette. The index was painstakingly done by Jean Ensch, who after his day job with the City of Luxembourg, worked into the wee hours of the morning for many years reviewing microfilm of the Gazette.
In the early 1990s, Luxembourg Legacy founder/ CEO Kevin Wester learned that Gonner’s entire book had not been translated by Liebenau and Muller. While researching relatives who had settled in Stearns County, Minnesota, Wester visited the Stearns History Museum and archives and met associate archivist Bob Lommel. Lommel, who is also of Luxembourg descent, shared that he had translated a previously untranslated section of Gonner’s book, which he offered to Wester for use in his publications.
The section Lommel translated, “Recommendations for Emigrants to North and South America,” was one of the most fascinating parts of the original book. It discussed who should immigrate, who should stay home, what immigrants should take along, how life would be on the ship and what would happen upon arrival in New York City.
As a tribute to Lommel, who passed away in 2013, Luxembourg Legacy is proud to share this fascinating, virtually unknown chapter, which offers insight into our ancestors’ decisions to immigrate to America and what that experience was like.