My dad’s grandparents came from Northern Italy. Unfortunately I didn’t get enough information when my Dad, Aunt, Grandparents, etc. were alive so I do not know the names of the villages they were from just the general location. My parents were in that area several years ago and were able to meet one of the few family members on my Dad’s side (she was a professor), but I only have her first name. I really regret not getting more information then.
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I’m 100% Italian on both sides of my family. I started visiting Italy as a club trip in high school. I’ve been back numerous times with a long trip to just Sicily. Unfortunately there is no exact location to visit there, though there are people in my family doing research. I’d like to visit Puglia and Abruzzio next, both on their own and where my mom’s side came from.
My husband is a mutt. We have been briefly to Warsaw, but that is not where his family is from.
Our youngest was adopted in Ukraine. We had a family plan to retrace her adoption but this awful war has put that on hold. She has a huge interest in her birth country and in her birth region of Dnipropetrovsk. I hope we can all go there one day. I hope our adoption team is alive and well when that happens.
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All of my ancestors came from various parts of Eastern Europe and as Jews, were chased out. I’ve never visited, and likely never will (or at least, not as any sort of tracing my ancestry trip).
My husband’s family came from Syria, but left Aleppo when the Jews were…yep, chased out in the last century. I’m sure we’ll never visit there, either.
See a pattern? The world has not been kind to the Jews…
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I’m very sorry if I brought up an issue that seems very difficult for many and there are definitely places that some came from that are not safe to visit these days. I am not Jewish but have seen info about Jewish Heritage tours of Eastern Europe. Maybe it is sometimes a family by family decision about wanting to visit countries there or not? Just trying to become more educated and understanding on this issue.
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I think it’s an important lesson for all of us.
When you’ve been persecuted, you look at things through a different lens.
We need to learn these lessons so that they are never forgotten or repeated. I don’t think we talk about issues such as anti semitism enough.
I’m not that interested in checking out my ancestors. My sil, her family puts a lot of importance to it. Even if their history isn’t what they want it to be, they want to celebrate the ancestors that they think they want to be associated with. (Meaning those that are the correct color and religion, don’t want to be opaque)
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I guess from my point of view, my heritage comes from the people rather than the location. My brother and cousin have researched a couple of villages but I feel they have nothing to do with me. I feel no relationship to Russia or Poland or Lithuania. I have been much more interested in what my forebears did after arriving in America. That for me is my heritage.
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Hungarian Jewish on one side. Grandmother and all her sibs and her parents all immigrated here before WWII. As far as I know, everyone who didn’t leave was murdered in the Holocaust, with the help of the local population. Absolutely no desire to go back there. Other side Russian Jewish, actually Byelorussian, I think. Same exact story. No desire to go back there.
No relatives in Israel, but I’ve been there probably a dozen times, and will continue to go as long as I’m able to travel.
My people came to this country in the 1600s and 1700s mostly, so that was a long time ago. I have been to some of the countries of my ancestors and would like to go to more, but I’d like to go other places, too. If I have relatives left there they are likely 30th cousins or something. We’ve been here for many generations.
I don’t think I have any Native ancestry but I have visited some Native sites and enjoyed those, too.
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I only have a second cousin in Scotland because my father was first generation here and he had older siblings that were born in Scotland . I heard heavy Scottish accents from a couple of my dad’s elders growing up. Tea and toast with Lyle’s golden syrup solved everything! I have an affinity for Scotland, I admit, and hired a bagpiper to see my dad out at the end.
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Don’t be. It’s a good topic, considering that the USA is a country of immigrants. The fact that visiting “the old country” is painful for many people is also an important part of this discussion.
It is always good to remember that many of the immigrants were refugees from awful situations, and I think that sharing this aspect of being a nation of immigrants is important.
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I am an immigrant. My kids have been to my home country several times, and also to my husband’s country, a different country in a different continent from mine.
ETA My husband and I immigrated to the US as a family with our older daughter. The rest of my family is all in my home country. My husband’s family is spread throughout the world, with some still in his home country.
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You have no need to apologize! I truly think it is interesting and am a bit envious of people who have a strong connection to another country in that way (thinking especially if my many friends of Irish, Italian and Greek descent who have a strong connection to their respective homelands). It’s just not something that most American Jews that I know feel.
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First generation US born here. My parents were both born and partially raised in India, but their families eventually migrated to Pakistan after the partition of 1947. They married in Pakistan and within 2 years immigrated to the US in the early 70’s. As children, we spent a few summers in Pakistan. I married a Pakistani, so after my marriage went back a few more times. My kids have not ever been because my husband’s whole side of the family is here in the US now and mine has been here for decades (aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents etc).
It’s my dream to visit India though, and see where my family actually started but my Pakistani born dual citizen husband won’t ever be allowed an Indian visit visa so either I go alone or patiently keep waiting for our two countries to make nice lol.
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I am Italian with some Scottish, English and Canadian mixed in and have visited all 4 countries multiple times over the years. I often visited my Canadian relatives but the other visits were not connected to my ancestry. I spent some the lockdown tracing my roots and am currently in the process of applying for citizenship from one of them. DH is all Swedish and he’d like to visit at some point.
I love visiting the countries I listed and plan to go back to each many more times. Now that I have more specific information on where my great and great, great grands lived it will add a new facet during my visits. It also makes me even more grateful that they decided to make America their home.
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I’ve visited 3 of the 4 countries where I have significant ancestry but not because of family - just happened to be places I wanted to visit. I am doing more genealogical research now and may eventually try and see the specific spots my great grandparents came from.
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@vpa2019 I am not Mormon but have a first cousin who married a Mormon. She had lots of info about my dad’s Scottish family going back centuries and she passed the info on to the family. Husband and I did a 17 day driving trip of Scotland decades ago(his grandfather was also Scottish) and we used the info to trace some of my families ’ progression over time- more rural initially, then ended up heading to near Glasgow and city areas. Having that kind of info you now have will definitely add a new facet to your travel. My trip to Scotland was one of my favorite trips ever.
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We could be related, as my ancestors came around the same time. Lol
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I could write a book on this topic! Both my parents were immigrants from Croatia (Yugoslavia when they immigrated to the US) who met and married in the US. My Dad returned often to visit his family. My Mom had no family there and no interest in returning. In 2019, my cousin and I traveled to see the town where our maternal ancestors were born and met several distant cousins. In addition, we also met cousins from our fathers’ families (different places but in the same area). Afterwards we went on a small cruise ship where we joined a group of Americans who had ties to the area and wanted to learn more about the culture. My cousin and I had a great trip and would return on our own.
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No. Two of my lines were German who each came over in 1738. I visited Germany but not for that reason. Certainly I thought of them while I was there and have always wondered what drove them away at that time period.
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you may be able to find out more info about your dad’s grandparents using ancestry.com research tools (or a smaller set of similar free ones at familysearch.org). In the luckiest case a not-to-distant relative has already built a public tree with the info you want. Barring that you can look at the records. If you can find arrival passenger records they may list the name and address of the nearest relative in the country they are from. If they were naturalized the doc will list where they were born. Resources like newspapers.com may have their obituary; sometimes the obituary gives a comprehensive summary of their life.
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