39th Luxembourg Fest Part 2: Cultural Forum, Fundraising Dinner

For the first part of this article on the 39th annual Luxembourg Fest organised by the Luxembourg American Cultural Society (LACS) in Wisconsin, USA, click here.

This second part covers the second day, Friday 8 August 2025, which saw the Luxembourg American Cultural Society (LACS) continuing its four-day 39th annual Luxembourg Fest in Belgium, Wisconsin (USA), with its Cultural Forum on genealogy and the Luxembourg Under the Stars fundraising dinner.

Cultural Forum on Genealogy

While last year's Cultural Forum addressed Luxembourg's Culinary Tradition in a community hall in nearby Grafton, this year's forum took place in the Cedarburg Cultural Center on Friday morning and focussed on genealogy, with Caitlin Armstrong, LACS Museum Curator, introducing the guest presenters, Jean Ensch, LACS Board Member and founding member of the Luxembourg Genealogical Society (ALGH) as well having authored books and publications on genealogy, and Debby Warner Anderson, who has been running Debby's Family Genealogy Blog for ten years, to the 50+ attendees.

Debby Warner Anderson talked about "Begin Researching your Luxembourg Ancestors", in a case study sharing her journey to research her Luxembourg ancestors. She introduced basic genealogy techniques and practices to help people start their own research. She also offered guidance on where to find records and resources within the US, advising those interested in tracing their family roots to first find out what one can discover locally before travelling.

She talked about writing her blog and members of her extended family being eager to find out more; for example, her mother's family came over on the Mayflower and her father's side came from Luxembourg, despite her learning through her family that he had originated from Germany (which she clarified to them).

In addition to formal records at libraries, churches, museums and societies/associations (such as LACS), she also advocated using online research groups on Facebook, etc., including the FamilySearch.org wiki, of which there is a Luxembourg division which she described as a "goldmine". She then explained that there are various online resources for creating and maintaining a family tree and confirmed that she uses one called "Legacy". She also advised caution on different spellings of names.

She explained that she plans her research and advocated narrowing one's searches by identifying a specific question to which one wants to find answers. She also urged caution on being distracted and going off on tangents ("BSOs" - Bright, Shiny Objects) and stick to the original question. She also stressed that not all family records are yet indexed, so manual searches also yield results.

Jean Ensch spoke on "Finding and Reading Luxembourg Records", addressing resources available for 19th century Luxembourg, focussing on the structure and content of civil records. He talked about genealogical resources including Luxroots.org (available via LACS) and Luxracines.lu, as well as printed books on various Luxembourgish family histories, some of which date back to 1910, with other records going back to 1795 (Napoleonic times).

He also provided key French and German genealogical vocabulary and tips for deciphering old German script/handwriting, helping to navigate historical documents with confidence.

The ensuing Q&A session addressed issues such as death records and church records, mis-spelling of names and the scope of LuxRoots versus the national archives.

Documentary film screening

In the afternoon, the Belgium Cultural Centre located opposite the LACS premises hosted the first of two screenings of Geoff Thompson's documentary film "Luxembourg in America" which he filmed at the 38th annual Luxembourg Fest in 2024.

Welcomed by Caitlin Armstrong, curator at the LACS' Roots & Leaves museum, the full house heard an introduction by Geoff Thompson prior to the 40-minute documentary screening, following which he answered a number of questions from members of the audience.

Luxembourg Under the Stars fundraising dinner

Moved from the traditional Saturday evening spot, the fundraising dinner was held on the Friday evening at a new venue locally, the Buechler Farms, in a rustic barn / an outdoor pavilion that had been recently built / renovated to form a unique event venue.

Hosting around 200 people, the event commenced with an informal cocktail reception (described as a Cocktails and Appertizers hour, with Opyus gin, Vinsmoselle wines and Bofferding beer served) in the covered pavilion, before the first two courses of a four-course meal were served at tables in the barn.

LACS Chairman, Mike Rock, welcomed everyone and stated he was "thrilled to have you with us this evening" and added "thanks to those all who travelled from Luxembourg". He also recognised a number of organisations represented including the Luxembourg Brotherhood of America (based in Chicago), the Honored Family, the Burmesches, and the festival Duke & Duchess, as well as representatives of the Roots & Leaves society in Luxembourg (including Guy Dockendorf and Carlo Krieger) and the various sponsors, before adding a special thanks to Mike Ansay and his organisation for his / their generous support to the LACS.

The menu consisted of a salad starter, a main course of pork roulade / salmon / vegetable dumplings, all served with broccoli, and a dessert choice of chocolate apple cake or Luxembourg pretzels.

After the main course, the raffle was drawn, with tickets drawn by Carlo Krieger, representing the Roots & Leaves association which he explained was the successor of the society founded in the 1980s by Georges Calteux, and had been involved in restoring stone houses and barns. He added that it also hosts LACS trips to Luxembourg, and he also mentioned the ongoing history project involving Guy Dockendorf and Mike Ansay.

Four winning tickets were drawn, with the prizes including two tickets to the Luxembourg Under the Stars 2026 dinner, a Ramborn sampler kit including glasses, a puppy carrying case and the top prize of Dinner for eight with Luxembourg's Ambassador to America, Nicole Bintner.

Roseann Geib of the LACS then made a presentation to Patricia Lutz (in front of a different / larger audience than who were present at the LACS Members Meeting the previous evening), in recognition of her hard work as Executive Director (handing over to Travis Gross who started in the role at the beginning of the month).

The event then moved back out to the covered pavilion for dessert and coffee / tea, with music by the Tonic Roots four-piece band.

The 39th Luxembourg Fest continues with the Saturday parade and festival and screening of the documentary film "Luxembourg in America", before the Sunday Mass and Sheepshead card tournament.

ED