VINTON – Thanksgiving Day is a time for families to gather. However, how many families across the nation would have been able to fill the dining hall for a pot-luck dinner at the historic Sierra Valley Grange in Vinton with 88 diners, more than two-thirds of whom were blood relatives descended from a single person?

Pietro Vincenzo Michele Roberti Maggiore, more commonly known as Michele (Michael) Roberti, was born in 1829 in the village of Giornico, located in the Alps in Switzerland’s Ticino Canton. In 1860, he married Florinda Guidici, and together they had five children – Catterina, Rosalia Sofia, Pacifico Hugo, Floriano and Guiditta. Of those, two crossed the Atlantic to the New World, then traversed the Wild West to Plumas County, California.

Rosalia Sofia came with her husband, Emilio Alessandro Guidici, immigrating in 1887. They settled off of what is now Dotta-Guidici Road north of Vinton-Chilcoot and had six children together – Alesandro Evardo (Alex), Alfredo (Fred), Delia, Francesca (Francis), Irena and Chester. Alex’s legacy, if he had one, is something of an enigma, while Fred’s lineage remained on the historic ranch where his adult grandchildren still live today. Delia married Isaac Martinetti and settled in Sattley, while their descendants have since spread and taken on other names such as Reeves, Utterback, Bradley, Harnach and Kennedy – the lineage from which I come from.

Chester married Lena Sobrio and his children dispersed from Sierra Valley as well; his daughter Gloria owned the White Sulfur Springs ranch for a time. Francis married Marcel Bony of Sierraville, one of the founding fathers of the Plumas-Sierra Rural Electric Cooperative – however, one of their sons perished in World War II, and the other never had children. Finally, Irena married Riziero “Riz” Canonica and settled in the eastern Bay Area, where some of their descendants still live today.

Meanwhile, Michele’s son Floriano immigrated at roughly the same time and, in 1889, married Virgilia Guidici. They had seven children – Alfred (Fred), Lizzie, Floriano Jachino (Jack), Paul, Joseph, Celestina and Rena. Fred is arguably the most noteworthy to Sierra Valley lore, as he married Josephine Dotta and had three children, two of which survived to adulthood and were larger-than-life figures in the community for over 70 years – Elmer Roberti and Elia Miles. Celestina, meanwhile, married George C. Goodwin, another major family name in Sierra Valley history. Their descendants make up much of the modern Goodwin family, both in and out of Sierra Valley.

Lizzie married Oliver Scolari and had two children, while Jack married twice and had a daughter with each of his wives – one settled in Richmond, while the other ended up in Reno. Paul also married a Scolari and lived first in Beckwourth and then Reno; whether or not he had children is unknown. Joseph married Mabel Grandi, representing another big pioneer name in Sierra Valley, and they had three children – Florence, Betty and Joanne. Finally, Rena married Albert Ede; they had two children, Leslie and Elaine.

For this reason, this event was every bit as much a family reunion as it was a Thanksgiving potluck, celebrating the Swiss-Italian pioneer heritage that gave rise to the three family branches present that evening—Guidici, Goodwin and Roberti—groups still influencing Sierra Valley’s agricultural economy and local politics to this day. But, if one was to presume that the evening’s festivities were the end of the story for this gathering, then you might be surprised; because, in the words of master of ceremonies Rick Roberti, “The show’s not over yet”.

The next morning, the Grange was still anything but deserted, as a smaller group of members from across all the family branches gathered in the building’s kitchen for a different sort of lecture on family heritage. The mother-daughter-grandmother trio of Jennifer Kennedy, Jade Kennedy and Nancy Harnach gave a presentation on a culinary tradition unique to Ticino Canton’s Leventine Valley with the assistance of Goodwin descendant Sarah Johnstone and Grange member Laural Colberg.

Crèfli di Giornico, or crafoli when Anglicized, is a type of seasonal pastry unique to the Alta Levintina of south-central Switzerland; it is thought by some to be an offshoot of the German Krapfen pastry family, since it is a filled biscuit of sorts. The earliest mention of this type of pastry in regional records dates back as far as the 9th century A.D., though the term crèfli is much more recent. Because it originated as a tradition for special, holy occasions in a time when sweeteners were rare, it is still typically only made for Christmas, though in some cases it was made for Easter. In the 20th century, it became favorable to hand some out every holiday season to the snow shovelers who kept St. Gotthard Pass open for travelers. Much of this information is still found in Giornico’s Museum of Leventina.

In this particular family of Roberti descendants, making this pastry was for the longest time a lost art, kept alive mostly by the efforts of Delia (Guidici) Martinetti, her daughter Rita Bradley, and Rita’s daughter Nancy Harnach. Though there are many potential variants on what the hardened butter-honey biscuits can contain, the modern Crèfli de Guidici variant is filled with a mixture of dried elderberries or currants, honey, crushed walnuts and grappa or a similar liqueur.

These pastries are formed in decorative molds, which may be passed down through the family line for generations, and baked until golden. After they have cooled, they are brushed with brandy every day for three weeks to enhance their flavor – a process that concludes just in time to distribute them for Christmas. While some are sure to eat theirs quickly, others may make their portions last far longer – Harnach recalls in amusement a time when her brother, the late David Bradley, managed to still have some in July because he may have forgotten he had them.

This Thanksgiving Weekend celebration demonstrates the value of a rich family heritage and the importance of keeping festive holiday traditions alive – and of course, also shows that it is worthwhile to stay in contact with one’s extended family in a world growing louder every day.