Family Ties

In 1862 when my great great grandmother, Anna Ruedi, was not yet 16, she left Tamins Switzerland to travel throughout Europe and Northern Africa, eventually finding her way to Fairbolt MN at the age of 21. There she met my great great grandfather and they were married within weeks. It’s a story that’s always intrigued me, and has left many unanswered questions. Why would she leave her home when she was so young, why are the majority of cities in her passport mining towns, why did she marry so quickly in America, why did she never go visit the friends she supposedly traveled from Cairo to see that were only 15 miles away in the next mining town? My fabulous Uncle Dave had researched her and studied her records, so I had some clues as to who she was, but without a doubt the things he would uncover just led to more questions

When I found out I was going to St. Moritz I took a look at the map and realized that Tamins was in between St. Moritz and Zurich, I decided to stop for a couple nights to check it out.

Tamins doesn’t have a hotel, in fact when I mentioned to the stoner ski rental guy that I was going there, he asked me why. The train ticket guy in St. Moritz also explained that I would not find much, but he became very helpful when I explained it was where my family was from.

I was staying at the near by city of Chur (pronounced Khur), in the morning I took the bus to Tamins (it doesn’t even have a train station). When we arrived at the stop that had Tamins written in flowers I looked around and my heart dropped, it was worse than I imagined, nothing but condos from the 80’s. Oh well, at least this will be a quick day and started to get off the bus. The driver stopped me and said that I had one more stop. Then we went up these tiny windy roads into the hills and into this beautiful hillside village that looked like something out of a Swiss story book. I walked around some, there was the occasional people on the street, but not many and I realized they were not used to tourists with cameras and eyed me suspiciously. The mailman spoke to me, and I asked him if there were any Ruedi’s left in town, he said no.

I made my way up to the church on top of the hill, hoping it was the one where Anna was baptized, but it had been replaced by a new church in the 1880’s and the graveyard was very new. But I did find two Ruedi’s who had died, one in 1993 and one in 1995, one was 87 and the other 74 when they passed. Well, at least that’s a start. I spoke to the baker (whom I bought a piece of rhubarb pie from, but it wasn’t rhubarb pie, it was rhubarb quiche, and surprisingly, not as disgusting as you would have thought) she mentioned a Ruedi and wrote down a name for me, but she didn’t speak English and I’ll have to figure out what she said. I spoke to another man who didn’t know of any Ruedi’s either. At this point, I figured it was time to give up and go back to Chur. As I was making my way down the hill I noticed a restaurant, I figured I might as well have lunch before I go.

I walked in, and you could tell they weren’t quite sure what to do with me. I stood there waiting for somebody to help me, finally a woman who was eating lunch with a large group got up from her meal and approached me. She spoke some English and guided me to a seat and said she’d be back with a menu. She came back and explained that there was no menu today they were only serving one dish I had no idea what she said it was, but I told her it was exactly what I was in the mood for. The group next to me kept looking at me, but I knew they didn’t speak English so I’d just nod. But for the most part I was left in peace to read my book. After lunch (which was pork with bernaise sauce, once again not as disgusting as you’d think) I decided to go for it and showed the history my Uncle Dave had written down and pointed to Anna’s name to the woman who had seated me. She said “yah I know, one moment let me go get my mom.” In the mean time all the customers are just going behind the bar and getting what they wanted, a few were doing dishes.

The mom came over and her daughter translated (daughter happened to be there on vacation with her 9 month old son and had lived in London 20 years ago, so it was her job to serve me as she was the only one who knew English). They knew my family and started telling everybody who I was and much discussion started happening. She smiled at me and said they are talking about your family. We have all been here hundreds of years and know your family, the postman and the others are not from here, we are. Her mother gave me a name of Margrith Ruedi Streil and told me she owned a restaurant in the town of Sufers and I should go meet her, they would tell me about my family. At one point, an old dyky woman gave me the multiple kisses on the cheek and then snuck a kiss on the lips. It was rather awkward and I was not expecting it. My new friend then walked me to the Ruedi’s house on the hillside. A very unassumming house that had the year 1970 painted on the chimmney. I mentioned that the house was new, so maybe the last house a Ruedi inhabbited, but couldn’t have been where Anna lived. She said no, 1970 was the last year it was rennovated, but the house has always been here.

We walked back down the hill she mentioned that the man who kissed me was one of the greatest ski trainers in Swiss Olympic history and is from Tamins. I exclaimed, Oh my, that was a man, I’m so relieved, I was really kind of creeped out. We had to stop in the street to catch our breath from laughing so hard. (his hair was amazing).

I said, I should go back to Chur to catch a bus to Sufers, she said the bus didn’t show up for another 30 minutes, so I should have a beer first. So I came back in, the group was really in full swing with drink at this point, and I was the center of Swiss attention. The ski trainer was in full swing trying to flirt, as far as I could tell the only English phrase he knew was “you have a nice body”, which would bring cheers and laughs from the rest. Oh and one woman was wearing a check blue and white shirt, with long black braids. She looked just like Heidi would have if Heidi was 40. They wouldn’t let me pay for my beer, and sent me off with business cards and promises to let them know what I found.