Heritage Travel
Wondering what your ancestor's life was like? Looking to connect more deeply with your ancestors? It's time to plan your first heritage travel experience!
Heritage travel has exploded in recent years. With the popularity of DNA testing and the discovery of one's ethnic origins, family history enthusiasts and travelers in general are seeking out the lands where their ancestors lived.
But do you have to travel overseas to experience our heritage? No! Heritage travel can be experienced close to home, too. Explore your ethnic heritage by making a culinary dish one weekend. Explore your heritage through music and dance. Visit a local museum dedicated to the area where your ancestors lived or a specific group of people.
When you are ready to take your travels overseas, find lots of resources to help! Start with Heritage Travel 101: How to Begin to Plan a Heritage Trip. Decide where you want to go and which ancestral homeland you want to visit. Will you take a private tour or do you prefer a group tour? Or....do you prefer creating your own tour?
Cemeteries always seem to be on the genealogist's "to see" list when traveling. Create your own cemetery tour and make sure you are getting all of the clues and stories from that cemetery and the family plot.
Visiting your ancestor's homeland - whether an hour down the road or across the ocean - add the travel plans to your research! Gain a new perspective on your ancestors and begin to connect on a deeper level to your family's past generations.
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Heritage Travel 101: How to Begin to Plan a Heritage Trip
It was a handwritten map. One my new-to-me cousin drew it out on the back of his mother’s lunch menu. If I followed the map I would drive past past the river my grandmother and her cousins swam in. I would find the church where the family attended for generations were buried. I would find the home place and stand where my great great grandparents lived and worked. Scuffletown, Virginia. Not exactly a tourist destination, but a destination my family history took me. Heritage travel , also know as heritage tourism, is a fast growing area of the travel industry. The rise in DNA testing and the growth of genealogy…