Losch, Closener, Simmerl
Message from Jean Ensch ( jean.ensch@ci.rech.lu
)
Greetings from Luxembourg,
A few days I got contacted by Henri Losch, retired teacher, author, actor, conférencier etc, who wanted to find out some information on the emigration of his grandfather Nicolas Losch and Nicholas’ brother Guillaume, who emigrated to the United States and them came back again to Luxembourg. According to family tradition Nicholas was married, but date and place (Lux or US) were not known. He asked me if there was some possibility to find out more about this short emigration episode.
The book by Änder Hatz: « Emigrants et rémigrants luxembourgeois 1876-1900 » p. 29, indicated that Nicholas left (alone) in 1890 and his brother Guillaume left (alone) in 1893. Guillaume came back alone in 1897, the same year as did his brother. Nicholas return was marked as 1 male person and one female person: he must have married in the United States then.
Since, after a short stay in his native village of Oberfeulen, Nicholas eventually settled in Luxembourg-City I checked our old card files, where I could find the following information:
Nichoals LOSCH, * 2 Jan 1871 in Oberfeulen + 17 Nov 1945 in Luxembourg. He married 15 Feb 1897 in Chicago, a Luxembourger girl CLOSENER Louise, who was born (guess where) ..in Oberfeulen. And now comes the interesting part for you: the parents of Louise Closener were Closener Michel, born 3 Feb 1841 in Buschrodt, and Barbara SIMMERL, born in Oberfeulen 11 Jun 1842. Our card file for the Losch-Closener couple indicated that Closener Michel, died in Diekirch and that Simmerl Barbara, died in Ettelbruck.
I checked out with Diekirch and Ettelbruck: Closener Michel, died 4 April 1924 in Diekirch at the hospital, aged 83 years, widower of Barbara Simmern (sic!), Barbara Simmerl died in Ettelbruck 21 Jan 1914. (I have a faxed copy of these records, if you want to get one, let me know.)
Now that there is another member of the Simmerl family accounted for, an interesting question remains. Did the Closener-Simmerl couple emigrate and return to Luxembourg (they are not mentioned in the Hatz book, but the lists he worked on are incomplete) or did Louise Closener emigrate alone? Since she married relatively young (21 years) I think the Closener-Simmerl couple came together with their daughter. Checking out the marriage record (St. Henry’s maybe?) of Cook county censuses might give an answer to that question.
In case you want to get in contact with Henri LOSCH, here is his address:
6, rue des Thermes Romains
L-8266 Mamer
Ph and fax : +352 318043
Best regards,
Jean
Jean Ensch
Ville de Luxembourg
Bierger-Center
jensch@vdl.lu