Thank you for visiting cleenewerck.org! I am maintaining this professional website at the request of EUCLID where I serve as International Faculty Coordinator and on the Oversight Council.
Please note that I do not maintain any social network accounts except for a LinkedIn account, again strictly for professional purposes. I am not crazy about social networking to be frank…
There is also a Cleenewerck.international website which I helped set up and maintain, and which is for the international Cleenewerck family association which I think is a great project for the many Cleenewercks living away from the ‘motherland’ which in this case is the region of Hazebrouck and Bailleul/Steenwerck (French Flanders). It makes sense to me that the Cleenewercks came out of Steenwerck!
Above: Map of the North of France near Lille, home of 500 years of Cleenewerck generations!
As for me, I was born in France but not in the Nord at all – in Montpellier instead – and raised in part in the US, enjoying the questionable privilege of holding both US and French citizenship. It is a headache for tax and banking purposes due to US FATCA requirements, but still great nonetheless. My full name of 27 characters sadly does not fit on a VISA card as they have a hard limit of 26 characters, but credit is due to CHASE for working out a solution! The US State Department is more generous with last name length (21 characters), so Cleenewerck de Crayencour (the very long last name of the senior branch of the family) would not work but Cleenewerck de Kiev fits just fine!
For information about my pastoral work in Eureka, CA, please visit the website of St Innocent Orthodox Church.
The purpose of this website is twofold: to provide an official site for the professional work of Pr Laurent Cleenewerck (of USA, not to be confused with at least two other individuals by the same name in France, but my legal last name is actually Cleenewerck de Kiev), notably:
- academic teaching work
- publications (books and articles)
- musical releases (classic French poems as songs – Laurent de Kiev) including a catalog of “Faith & Doubt” albums and future sacred music releases
The second purpose of this website is to provide genealogical and family information regarding the Cleenewerck last name, notably:
- the main Cleenewerck branch (north of France) (see International Family Association)
- the important (and officially knighted) Cleenewerck de Crayencour branch (also north of France but also Belgium), made somewhat famous by Marguerite Yourcenar
- the Cleenewerck d’Oudenhove, an interesting but little-known branch (sadly now extinct)
- the American Branch (Désiré Cleenewerck) and the possible ancestry of noted painter Henry Cleenewerck.
- my Cleenewerck de Kiev branch (United States and France) with a focus on spiritual ancestry and Swiss genealogy (going back to St Vladimir of Kiev and beyond that St Constantine).
A disclaimer: this website is maintained with the kind technical support of EUCLID, but it is strictly personal and may contain inaccuracies and other opinions that only engage the author.
