In the mid-1800’s, some Luxembourgish families trekked out to the state of Iowa and settled a town called St. Donatus. There’s not too much information, but here are some things I found. Hope you can glean some stuff from this!

A very old video giving a brief history (mostly indigenous): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21oio5PemI0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21oio5PemI0)

A photo from around the beginning of the town: [https://www.iowapbs.org/iowapathways/artifact/st-donatus-1869](https://www.iowapbs.org/iowapathways/artifact/st-donatus-1869)

Some biographical records (you’ll have to sort through some pages to find those who came from Luxembourg): [https://archive.org/details/historyofjackson00west/page/680/mode/2up](https://archive.org/details/historyofjackson00west/page/680/mode/2up)

A restaurant that serves some Luxembourgish dishes in St. Donatus: [https://kalmesrestaurant.com/](https://kalmesrestaurant.com/)

8 comments
  1. Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and Nebraska had large numbers of Luxembourg immigrants. Nearly half of my family immigrated from Luxembourg in the late 1800s.

    If you have all male lineage to a Luxembourg citizen, remember you can have your citizenship recognized and be an EU citizen!

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