A Quick Guide to Heritage Travel

Walking on the same ground as your ancestors can be incredibly meaningful and deeply personal.  You’ll gain a whole new sense of place by being in the location where your family once lived—to walk by the house where they lived in the 1920s, to stand on (or near) the farm your family had in the mid-1800s, or even to be in the general area where they lived in Ireland or Germany in earlier times, for example. 

Three Ways to Pick a Travel Destination

If you're not sure how to start your own family history travel adventure, here are some tips for getting out there and exploring your roots.

1. Narrow down the world with a DNA test

   Whether or not you know which world regions your family came from, the results from an AncestryDNA test can help you focus your travel plans. Your DNA test results will highlight your ancestral origins—family lines that can go back over 1,000 years. Test takers can also discover places where their ancestors may have lived in the last 200 years. These DNA-related ancestral journeys (formerly known as “communities”) can be very specific and show precise locations in a country. 

   You could, for instance, find a new connection to the Caribbean. Or you could confirm deep ties to Italian ancestral origins and the regions of Campania and Molise in Southern Italy.

2. Explore records related to your family tree to find distant origins

   Find connections to heritage travel destinations by building out your family tree. You might, for example, find out in a census record that your English grandfather was actually born in Ireland. 

   If you already have a family tree on Ancestry, the “hints” feature might point you to a passenger list or naturalization record that describes where a family lived before migrating.

    

3. Dive deeper into your ancestor’s experiences 

   Did your ancestors arrive at Ellis Island in the U.S. in the late 1800s or early 1900s? Learn more about the immigrant arrival experience by visiting that location. And if your ancestors traveled to California during the Gold Rush era, consider exploring an old mining town in California’s Sierra Nevada foothills. If your family members worked in a South Wales mine, then an industrial heritage museum could shed light on their experience. And, like the Marsdens in their family story, you might learn more about your African American ancestors who fought in the U.S. Civil War by visiting a place like Camp William Penn where they prepared for service.

Connect With Your Heritage

If the idea of planning a heritage trip is daunting, reach out to AncestryProGenealogists. They can match you with the travel plan that best suits your needs. Heritage travel options include: 

• Ancestral Home Visits: Explore the sights, cuisine, and culture where your family once lived, accompanied by a genealogist guide. Talk with a local expert on the history of families in the area, and visit places that your family would have known, like the local school, church, and town hall. See where your ancestors made their home, and where they were buried. 

• Personal Heritage Journeys: Travel with a professional genealogist on a tailor-made and privately guided exploration of your ancestral homeland. On-tour help also includes meeting with local experts and private guides. Kensington Tours makes all of your travel arrangements.

• Virtual Heritage Travel: Take a live, privately guided and interactive walking tour to learn more about the history, heritage, and culture of your family's ancestral region. Upcoming tours will explore Nigerian roots via the Kaduna National Museum; the Małopolska Region (Austrian Galicia), Poland; Munster Province, Ireland (County Waterford); and Umbria Region, Italy (Perugia).

If you’d like professional help to design an international ancestral home visit—whether you’re traveling on your own or with a group of family members—learn more about what  AncestryProGenealogists can do for you. 

Road trip anyone?