Emigrants

The Vienna Congress, which rescheduled the political map of Europe after the French Revolution and the defeat of Napoleon, curtailed Luxembourg and left a miniscule country with a poor soil, bare of any natural resources until the development of the steel industry in the 1890ies. It is therefore not surprising that a substantial part of the population tried to improve its living condition by leaving its home country. France was a close and easily accessible host area, but it was the emigration towards the United States that took dramatic proportions in the years between 1850 and 1890. All families were touched, and so was the Lanners family.

The table below sums up the emigration status in Spring 2011 as the author could know it. Most of the European family members have apparently been found. This is not so for the United States according to the entries of the name found on the Net and on the social networks like Facebook.

Emigration is not a closed episode, but it continues on a smaller scale in a globalized world with increased mobility. Career opportunities might have replaced sheer economic need as a main motivation factor.

Note: Numbers for the United States include 847 descendants of Lanners from Germany who emigrated to America.

Emigration of LANNERS from Luxembourg 1780 to 2009

Note : Numbers differ from the table above as children of emigrants are included in the graph.

The graph above illustrates the history of the emigration of members of the Lanners family in time and space. It highlights the peak of the emigration during the second half of the 19^th century and the preferred destination, the United States of America.