In 1911 my Swiss grandparents came from Hergiswil, Willisau to America. Siegfried and Katherine Scharli came over on La Provence, a ship out of France, and came into Ellis Island. They settled in Monroe Wisconsin where grandpa got a job as a cheesemaker. His brother John was already living there. He had come to America 2 years earlier, I guess to check things out, and then went back for his wife, Katherine (they were married in 1911).

Most of their 9 children were born in Wisconsin, and then they moved to California, where they worked on a dairy farm and eventually got their own land to raise their own dairy cows. The house my mother and here siblings grew up in is still there, on the same property where my Uncle Louie and his family lives. Louie is now in his 80s.

Siegfried died in his fifties of luekemia, and Katherine lived to her mid 90s. I never knew my grandfather, but would usually see my grandmother once or twice a year. She did not like to talk about Switzerland because I think she missed it so much and it made her sad. But sometimes she would, and my Aunt Vivienne, who was married to Tony, one of the sons, spent time writing down the things that grandma would say about home.

The photo shows the whole family on the farm where they worked when they first came to California, according to my mother, who is the middle child, and in the photo she is 7 years old with her hands on her hips.

I have been to Switzerland once for a very short stay and hope to go back. We still have family there, and have been in contact with some of them, though it has been awhile since I have contacted any of them.

I have kids now who are young adults, and one of them, my son, is starting to show an interest in going to Switzerland.