A "Cousin" Bill Wichser from Indiana had been corresponding to George and Gertrude (Wichser) Smith who had recently retired to Florida. A Jacque Wichser had passed along a German text which is translated here. This is the original text of the letter of which I only have a copy.

Dec. 8, 1971

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Smith,

Thank you for the Xmas card and for keeping in touch with us.

So you have now joined the refugees from the north. My wife tried to promote me into moving to Florida after we first got married but then I did not like it there during the summer months. Now that air conditioning is commonplace I would probably feel differently. We are quite familiar with Ft. Myers. My wife was born there, then when she was about eight or nine years old they moved to Tampa where her father was an auditor for Tamiami Trailways Corp. Her father is now retired and lives in Sarasota; one of her mother's brothers was an auditor for many years for Tamiami also and still lives in Tampa although he left his old job sometime ago and I believe now has his own business. So you are located in an area very near and dear to my wife. We have not been there for several years but when we do get down we certainly will contact you and stop by to get acquainted.

The enclosed information was sent to me by Jacque Wichser of Maienfeld about a year ago. I intended to send you a copy, possibly I already have but not being certain decided to include one with this letter. It was sent to me in German of course. I tried to translate it but had to give up and take it to an expert. She had a struggle too because many of the words and phrases are no longer in use. This information came from very, very old record books that were recorded by hand in old German Gothic script. It is amazing to me to realize that such old records even exist.

My wife and I are going to night classes this winter studying German. We spoke it in my home when I was young and I was exposed to it almost daily until I was sixteen years old but after my grandparents died it was no longer used, shortly after I left home for Indianapolis and through years of not using it at all it was forgotten, however I find that it comes back to me fairly easy. It is not so with my wife. She is having a difficult time with it but recently seems to be catching on better. I wanted to be able to speak to people when we do visit Switzerland. The German they teach here in school varies considerably from the Swiss dialect my family spoke though.

Thanks again for letting us know your new address.

Sincerely yours,

C. F. (Bill) Wichser