Did you ever visit Switzerland before you knew about your Swiss Boltshauser family?
I don’t know how old I was when I found out I was Swiss, but I was very proud of it. I first visited Switzerland in 1959, when I was about 24 years old. I went to Zurich and visited my grandfather’s (Jacob Boltshauser) sister. I did not know any Boltshausers when I first went there, as Jacob’s sister also was not called Boltshauser anymore, as well as the rest of her family. I remember talking to one cousin who always said he would like to come to the US some time. Unfortunately, it never worked out and he actually started crying a little because he really wanted to come here.
What did you think about this country first? Do you believe that there are any major differences between Switzerland and the United States?
There are some differences, but they are nice differences. I am very much impressed, and most Americans are, by all the different languages that most of your population speaks. In America we are very lazy when it comes to languages. Do you know the joke about languages?
Do you know how you call person who speaks three or more languages? They’re called polyglots.
And how do you call a person who speaks two languages? That’s a bilingual.
Now do you know what you call a person that speaks only one language? They’re called Americans.
(Laughs)
Americans joke about that because most of us speak just one language.
However, I don’t see too many differences. I feel at reunions people are very much like me, except they speak a different language.
When and why did the Boltshausers immigrate to the US?
It was my grandfather Jacob who came to America at the end of the 19th century. I believe his father was a shoemaker and his family did not have enough money for his education, so he left for the United States. He was about 17 or 18 years old when he went to New York with an uncle who left him there all on his own. Somehow he came to California then, and I would say he probably came by train. Back then people thought that there were more opportunities in California. Jacob made some good money over here and prospered very well. He eventually married a woman who was raised in Sweden. Jacob went back to Switzerland twice, by train and by ship. I have tried to hunt for other people with the name of Boltshauser who immigrated to the US, but I didn’t find any. Jacob is the only one I know of.
When you found out about the Boltshauser Club, Internet did not exist yet. How did you first get in touch?
In 1985 my son spent half a year at a College in Oxford, England. He was going to travel around as well, so Alicia and I met him in Zurich. We were staying in a hotel and I told the manager that we were doing research on my Swiss roots. When asked him if he knew anyone of the name Boltshauser, he said that he did not know, but that it might be a name of a small town. He gave me the telephone book and there I found Boltshausen. The manager told us that it was located about 50 km from Zurich. So we drove up there and in the region of Weinfelden we saw a little road with a sign that said Boltshausen. We got really excited as we went into Boltshausen. We saw that there was Ottoberg up above and we were looking for a place where we could meet people. So we went into a restaurant and luckily its owner spoke English. He showed us all around town that day and he told us that the Boltshausers held reunions in his restaurant every four or five years. After our visit, the restaurant owner told the Boltshausers about us, and that’s how we got involved.
You have your own Boltshauser reunions in California. How often do you meet?
We never had any reunions until I came back from Switzerland in about 1988. I had a reunion at my house because everyone wanted to hear about how I went to Boltshausen. So we had a big party at my home and after that some other people thought that it was fun to do. Since then we’ve been getting together every four or five years and we usually have it at a person’s home. In September we had a reunion in a little town close to San Jose. We get together when somebody feels like doing it at their home, but mostly we have a party when someone from Switzerland visits.
How would you describe your relationship to the Boltshauser Club and to your Swiss roots?
Most Americans are very proud of their heritage. There even are Swiss American clubs. Alicia and I have loved the get-togethers you have in Switzerland. Any time when you have one we’re happy to come over and we find it so nice that people have treated us so well. For Americans this is a great experience. We consider ourselves very fortunate to have relatives in Switzerland and to be able to visit, because a lot of people don’t. We’re very proud and tell people about this wonderful situation. We really love to get together with you people. You’re so much like us in many ways, but still so different.
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