3.21.2008

Zillis, the tunnel, Polin or Pullinn

Dear Marisa,

I do not know much about Anna Polin, other than the family called her “Tanny” as a nickname. I know that she moved to Canada after her marriage. I believe that Cullen has more information than I do.

I told you all that I know about Aunt Elsie’s trip to Switzerland. However, I have visited Zillis twice. The first time was with Mother (Rose), my sister, Karen, and her husband. We arrived on a day that the town was having a funeral and didn’t want visitors which was a disappointment. We recognized the Polin Inn from the picture in my grandmother’s bedroom. However, we met a couple from California at a village 2 miles down the road where we spent the night.

About ten years later, one of my sons, Michael, and I spent 3 weeks in Europe and visited Zillis. The woman, Annie, whom I met on the first trip, arranged for us to meet the oldest (at that time) villager in Zillis. She never invited us inside her house, but communicated through Annie in her garden, about the family. She showed us a second Polin house, and said the roses in that garden were planted by a grandmother ? relative in about 1820 and that her mother had been a best friend of that particular Polin. When we asked about the spelling of a similar name on a pew in the church, she told us that was how we were supposed to spell our name---Pullinn. Whether that is true or not, I do not know as I never had heard this before. We asked about the tunnel that mother said her grandfather, Martin Polin, had told her about from behind the altar to the priest’s house. The answer was, “How did you know about that?” It seems that the entire village had not known about it until about 2 years before we arrived because some gravediggers had fallen into the tunnel while digging a grave. She was very concerned that we had known about it.

Karen and her family went back several years ago. She went on the internet prior to her trip and found someone who spoke English. She was told there was a summer cabin even further up the hill and brought home pictures of it. Sounds like something out of the book of Heidi.

Hopefully, my husband and I will make the trip this year or next, as he has never seen Switzerland or Italy and it is very beautiful.

I will try to work on my part of the research after Easter as we have family coming.

Best wishes,
Rosemarie

From Rosemarie Carrington

1 comentario:

Marisa Polin dijo...

Dear Rosemarie,

Thank you very much for the last mail.
I will write you soon my Zillis experience.
But what I can tell you know is that your mother told me about the church chair with the family name and when I saw there: Anna Pullinn, I thought that was it! So I am also confused. But on the other hand there are so many Polin in the Zillis archives from the 17th century that it may be that they were two families.
To be continued....

I feel you near.
All my regards,
Marisa