The Exciting World of Genealogy Travel: Finding Your Roots.

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You may not know this about me, but I’m one of my family’s historians: I’ve been researching our genealogy for at least 20 years now (yikes). In fact, this research (and meeting Jason) is one of the things that started my interest in, and now passion for, traveling. I grew up in rural Iowa with strong German, Scandinavian, and Irish heritage that is still present today, though maybe not quite as strong as it used to be. For most of my formative years, we were trying to gain and maintain a foothold on a prairie six generations after my ancestors arrived, which didn’t give us many opportunities to travel. Instead, I spent my time in books dreaming about faraway places, and when I discovered genealogy, all bets were off. I was determined to go see these places we had come from, learn how/why I carry the traits I do, and understand why I’m a bit different from the rest of them!

Thanks to this research, one of my favorite things is when my dad calls to ask what I know about a particular (possible) ancestor. Like the time he found a grave marker for someone he didn’t know with our same last name (which isn’t super common) mowing in a cemetery in Iowa. Or the time he ran into someone he’s always been rumored to be related to but has no idea how. If I don’t know the answer off the top of my head, I set to work scouring old records, photos, stories, newspapers, medical records, etc. to figure it out. It’s thrilling every time I learn something new, even better when it’s slightly scandalous! I’ve been a resource for obituaries, medical histories, visas, and just plain fun trivia, and I absolutely love it! It’s also pretty much the only way I’m directly using that expensive college degree. Gulp.

And your point is?

You may not think these are important things (and why the heck am I mentioning it in a travel blog?), but would you be shocked to hear genealogy travel is an enormous and growing industry? It’s worth remembering if you’re an American, unless you’re Native (and even that’s debatable), you came from somewhere else. Heck, even if you’re not an American and you’re reading this from Lichtenstein (or wherever), odds are, your ancestors came from somewhere else. Humans have been on the move, looking for better opportunities from day one. And so, with the advent of ever-easier access to almost everything (except money…*tears*), including genealogy records thanks to the internet, the amateur genealogist has been born and is ready to travel!

In fact, we are planning another genealogy tour of our own this summer. I spent HOURS this winter searching immigration records for a hint of where my Neubauer family is from in Germany. It turns out many of the ship manifests on the American end of the immigration journey only list the port or country of departure for each passenger. The fun part is trying to find those records from their port of departure (in my case, Prussia) and translate them IF you can decipher the handwriting correctly. Sometimes you just have to take a stab in the dark with Google Maps and see if a town name comes up that makes sense and then go searching for birth records in that area. Unfortunately, MANY records in Germany have been destroyed thanks to two world wars and centuries of squabbling over territory in the Baltic North. But, every now and again, you strike gold. Fortunately, I’ve had two strokes of luck with church records this past winter. I’m feeling like it’s time to visit.

How do I know where to go?

For some people, having a general area to explore their ancestry is plenty of good fun. You can see the sights and get a feel for the culture in the area and that’s enough. For others, you may want this opportunity to do a little deeper digging and spend time looking for more physical records that may not be available online. I haven’t decided which camp I sit in yet, mostly because some of these records that I REALLY want lie in western Russia! I don’t believe we’ll be visiting this time, folks. For now, we’ll focus on eastern Germany and see how good my German is when we get there (it’s not, Mrs. Hollander – my elementary German teacher – would probably be disappointed, but maybe tickled that I’m still trying). We’re headed to some pretty remote areas for starters. Your best wishes for a stable internet connection and working Google Translate are much appreciated.

In my case, I don’t know of any relations who are still in Germany, so this part of our trip will be a bit more imaginative. I’m a 5th or 6^th generation Iowan (depends which line you look down) and my family didn’t keep any German connections, so I don’t have any specific family contacts for us to reach out to. Yet. However, that small German town where I grew up in Iowa has a “sister city” in Germany it has been in contact with since its founding in 1899. While I don’t personally know anyone there and haven’t turned up any family records in the area, I feel confident we can make some fun connections in the area.

I also happen to be an excellent social media researcher. Is that a resume skill? It should be these days. I’ve been trying to contact someone in this same area of Germany who looks exactly (doppelganger-style), like one of my aunts. I haven’t heard back from her yet, but I’m hopeful I’ll make a connection. Contacting complete strangers is probably one of the weirdest parts of genealogy research, but every once in a while you get lucky. Odd? Probably (ok, yes, absolutely). But if you’re smart about it, there’s a wealth of information to be gained from other people and it’s always good to have connections.

What if I do know where to go?

Now, a different perspective. Jason’s family, or part of it, is from Holland (the Netherlands) and they DO have contacts. His family has scattered over the years but they originally settled in North Dakota five generations ago. He’s had the privilege to personally know four of those generations thanks to long lifespans and tight family ties. So for him, the tales and contacts are still fresh (super jealous) and so we’ll send a few emails to family before we go and gather our photos of places in the Netherlands to seek out. We’ll get off the train and pop in to visit family and gather stories. It should be fun.

Is a general idea good enough?

One last type of genealogy travel that we’ve experienced is what I’ll call…winging it. You may have read elsewhere in our blog that we love to spend time in Scotland (how could you miss it at this point?). We just so happened to stumble into Scotland for the first time back in 2017 because they have a castle called Huntly and Jason’s mom’s maiden name is Huntley. Obviously, we should go see it. While my research has not turned up a specific link to this castle and its area (of the same name), I do know that his Huntley family came from somewhere in the UK. So, maybe they lived in this area working as coopers (I do know they were coopers) near the castle. Thanks to the way the clan system works in Scotland, I may never know. Everyone adopted the name of the clan chief in an area whether they were a descendant or not. But hey, it’s good fun.

A quick checklist for you

So how about you? Are you like me and LOVE to eat this stuff up and use it to plan your next trip? Or are you more of Jason’s mentality and just like to travel, not worrying about where or why? We’d love to know! After all, apparently, this is a booming industry. You may find yourself in the middle of it sooner than you think.

Here are the steps I go through when planning a genealogy trip:

1. Define your trip goal – research, heritage, or touring?
2. Are you booking a guided tour or planning things yourself?
3. Do your research before departure.
   • DNA Test – ancestry.com, 23andMe, etc.
   • Search your family archives and photos
   • Search online genealogy records – census, church (marriage, birth, baptism, confirmation), cemetery, ship manifests, military records, obituaries, wills, newspapers, etc. (I use ancestry.com and newspapers.com most frequently)
   • Digitize your records so they’re easy to travel with (I use Dropbox and ancestry.com’s app)
4. Plan your itinerary & book your trip.
5. Keep a journal on your trip for reflection, things to share, or things to remember.