HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2017-08-24, Page 10PAGE 10. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, AUGUST 24, 2017.
The Ringgenbergs: From Switzerland to Walton
An enduring trip
The Ringgenberg family first made its way to Canada a number of times before Albrecht and
Annelies decided to uproot the family in search of a new life in Canada. This picture was taken
on their family trip in 2000 at Lake Louise. They would become Canadian citizens in 2004.
From left: Albrecht, Caleb, Elise, Nadine, Annelies and William Ringgenberg. (Photo submitted)
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen
While nearly 20 local landowners
are coming together to jointly host
the International Plowing Match in a
few weeks, it's the Ryans and the
Ringgenbergs who are at the centre
of it all.
Jack Ryan and his family will be
playing host to tented city, but it's
Albrecht and Annelies Ringgenberg
and their children who will be
donating their land for the all-
important RV park this September.
The Ringgenbergs have been
members of the Walton community
for over 15 years, making their way
to Canada from Switzerland in 2000.
They immigrated to Montreal,
which eased the transition as many
of the members of the family already
spoke French in Switzerland.
Both Albrecht and Annelies were
born in villages, Leissigen and
Mollens respectively, that would be
considered to be in the German
region of Switzerland. However,
both of their families eventually
moved to the French region of the
country, which is where the two
would eventually meet. (The
northeastern part of Switzerland
A long road
It was in 2013 that Walton was announced as the host site for the 2017 International Plowing
Match. The announcement was made at a special ceremony in Seaforth. Among the hosts
were Annelies and Albrecht Ringgenberg, who will commit their land to the match next month
for the match's all-important RV park. (File photo)
borders Germany and Liechtenstein,
while it borders France in the west
and Italy in the south. Those regions
of the country contain a high volume
of native speakers of the bordering
country's language.)
Albrecht came from a region of
Switzerland where there was very
little crop land, so his family ran a
dairy farm. Throughout his
childhood, Albrecht said he
remembers helping to make hay and
do chores in the barn, alongside his
two sisters, until he was old enough
to take on some of the farm's more
complicated and advanced tasks.
Annelies was also born in the
French region of Switzerland on a
mixed -farm operation that
incorporated some crops, as well as
some livestock. As one of eight
siblings, Annelies said they all
helped out on the farm in those days.
When Albrecht's family bought a
farm in Montricher, a community
less than an hour's drive from the
Swiss -French border, they were in
search of a better life.
Albrecht said that his parents
owned small parcels of land all over
Leissigen and with the economy at
the time, it was becoming hard for
them to make a living, so they
moved to Montricher where they
could buy one large farm and
improve their lives.
Little did Albrecht know, however,
that he was moving to a community
that neighboured the family of his
future wife.
The families knew of one another,
Annelies says, as they were both
German-speaking families in the
French region of Switzerland, but
they had never met. Then, one day,
one of Annelies's brothers went to a
concert with both his sister and
Albrecht, who met Annelies that
night and the two hit it off. Albrecht
was 29 at the time, while Annelies
was just 18.
Albrecht and Annelies married in
1985 and they lived on the farm
Albrecht shared with his parents in
Montricher. They have four children,
all of whom were born in
Switzerland. Nadine was born in
1986, followed by Elise in 1987,
Caleb in 1990 and William in 1995.
A few years after William was
born, Albrecht and Annelies began
considering a move to Canada,
which would uproot the entire
family from the only world it had
ever known.
Albrecht said that in the 1970s and
1980s a lot of Swiss families made
the journey to Canada, so much so
that a book was even written about
it. So, the country was on their radar,
but they hadn't given it much
thought until the late 1990s.
Albrecht and Annelies would
travel to Canada two times before
deciding to make the move. First, the
two of them travelled to Alberta and
British Columbia as part of a farm
tour through a Swiss agricultural
magazine and then later they would
return with their two daughters,
visiting friends in Quebec and taking
in some of the sights in southern
Ontario.
When they came to Canada for a
third time, this time it was for good.
While they had briefly considered
landing in Alberta, Albrecht said he
always knew that Ontario was where
the family wanted to be due to its
rich, productive soil.
Having said that, the
Continued on page 11
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