Walking in Your Ancestors Footsteps: The Most Meaningful Trip You’ll Ever Take

Sitting on the stone wall that once surrounded my Irish Great-Grandfather’s thatched roof cottage

It is no secret that an overseas assignment provides amazing travel opportunities for military families. While checking famous landmarks off your bucket list no doubt delivers on thrills, few experiences are more rewarding than discovering places that hold historic significance for your own personal family history.

My parents raised me to be conscious of my family’s roots. I grew up knowing that, almost without exception, all my great-grandparents immigrated to Chicago from Europe around the turn of the 20th Century. I always felt both pride and gratitude when I imagined what must have motivated them to leave their homes for America. And, as a life-long history buff, I also wanted to know more. After finding my great-grandfather’s passenger record at Ellis Island during a trip to New York City, I earnestly began to research my family history.

My Great-Grandmother’s Island in Ireland’s Clew Bay

Since that time, our family has been lucky enough to be stationed in Europe. We have seen much of the world. Yet, without a doubt, the travel memories we hold closest to our hearts are those from the hometowns of our ancestors.

In Ballinrobe, Ireland, I sat on the stone fence that once surround a thatched-roof cottage where my great-grandfather was born and grew up. On Ireland’s west coast, I looked out on the spectacularly beautiful Clew Bay from the tiny Island of Inishcuttle, the home my great-grandmother left behind when she came to America. In Dublin, I took a tour of one of Ireland’s most historically symbolic sites: Kilmainham Gaol – and later learned an ancestor of mine was imprisoned there in the 1920s.

Racalmuto, Sicily —

My Great-Grandmother’s hometown

In Sicily, I strolled the streets of Racalmuto, imagining my great-grandmother walking in the same piazzas as a young woman. A few dozen kilometers away in Campofelice, I photographed my husband at the very address where his great-grandfather was born.

In Denmark and Germany, I visited the churches where my second great-grandparents where baptized.

In Normandy, I stood looking out over Omaha Beach a place of historic significance not only for my country, but also for my family, as my great-uncle was among the thousands who stormed the beach on June 6, 1944.

Such experiences no doubt await many of us, if only we take the time to research. Even if you are unsure of your family’s origins, you might be surprised how much information you can find. Here are a few tips to get started:

My husband at the very address where his great-grandfather was born in Sicily

 1.       Start with what you know and work backwards. Gather information from older family members about your ancestors and where they came from. Be sure to write down the information you gather and note where it came from.

 2.       Decide whether you want to conduct further research on your own or hire a professional. I personally fell in love with the research process. I made mistakes along the way, but by the time I lived overseas, I had been doing genealogy long enough to count most of those mistakes as learning experiences. Good genealogy takes time and effort. Considering the cost of travel expenses, a few extra hundred dollars spent on professional research can be well worth the assurance that you found the right place to visit.

3.       If you decide to do the research yourself, take all information with a grain of salt and don’t jump to faulty conclusions. Use the information you receive from other family members or from online sources as clues to help you in research. Do not assume it is all 100% accurate. Similarly, do not assume a person you find in the records with the same name as your ancestor is your ancestor or relative. Always confirm with evidence. Otherwise, you might find yourself researching someone else’s family, not yours!

 4.       Bring your research findings with you.  I compile notebooks for each location we visit. The notebooks contained family tree charts, maps to the specific location we were seeking, copies of records and pictures of my family. This proved an invaluable resource when we talked to locals or when we had to find our way in rural areas.

Visiting the Church where my 2nd great-grandfather was baptized and my 3rd great-grandparents were married

 5.       Don’t be afraid to talk to locals. I am somewhat shy by nature, so I surprised myself when on my great-grandmother’s home island, I knocked on stranger’s door and introduced myself.  The man who lived there not only remembered by family but he and his wife later came to our hotel to visit with us. He shared priceless stories about my great-great grandfather and related what it was like to grow up on the Island.

 6.       Share your experience with your family back home. Our travels created a buzz of excitement with our families back home. Our grandparents were touched that we took the time to visit the places their parents came from. Our pictures and stories also enabled us to connect with branches of the family we had never met or hadn’t seen in some time. Some family members were even inspired to start planning their own trips! Most importantly, it sparked a dialogue with our loved ones about our family history, which is now a theme of every family get together.

Omaha Beach — My Great Uncle was among the thousands who stormed the beach on 6 June 1944