I have never been to the country where my ancestors came from but many of my sibs abd my folks have. Due to its very poor air quality and severe covid lockdowns, I don’t expect to go there in the foreseeable future. I have enjoyed my two visits to Taiwan.
Was the ancestor a hated tyrant or some such, and the name uncommon enough to lead to an assumption of relation?
The ancestor had been the mayor, and when the city was surrounded by the “heathen” enemy and was starving the population, the relative wanted to surrender. They ran him out of the city and was forever hated.
Have been to the towns in Ireland where my dad’s father’s side of the family originated. A cousin and I both do genealogy, but have never been able to get confirmation beyond the 2nd great-grandparents. (GGM came to the US in 1843 at age 11 with two 14 & 16 yo sibs.) Apparently parents sent them here to avoid starvation and so they could feed their younger children. I’ve been to some of the countries where my mom’s ancestors came from, but not to specific towns.
Had a birth record for H’s GM, which led to searching for his Eastern European Jewish ancestors once I was able to translate it. Never thought I’d find so many of them. Most lived in the Pale of Settlement (Galicia, which was part of Austria-Hungary/Russia/Poland/USSR/Ukraine depending on which gov’t was in charge at the time), though some are from shtetls near Kyiv, Bessarabia and Belarus.
S2 now lives in western Ukraine, less than an hour from where H’s GM and her ancestors were born. S and GF have been to the town a number of times. Full circle.
FamilySearch has some records that Ancestry alludes to – I always check both when looking for something that pops up on Ancestry but the actual doc isn’t listed/scanned. Newspapers.com got me wedding announcements, details on the murder of H’s GGF, my GF’s track records, and an obit that broke down several brick walls that had plagued me for the past eight years. Fold3.com has military records, though Ancestry has some as well.
Newspapers.com and Fold3.com have free weekends a few times a year where you can search without a subscription.
My H and sons refuse to do DNA testing, so my research will only get me as far as the records can carry me.
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Italy (Sicily) - no
Ireland - no
Scotland - no
Canada (Prince Edward Island) - yes
But the first three are on my bucket list when I have the money and time.
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Yes, I’ve visited not only the countries, but the old family homesteads.
1-Paternal Grandfather is from Sardinia. Only one of eight to come to the U.S., when he was just 18. His entire family/descendants still live in the mountain farming town and surrounding area. My father visited when he was in the military in the late 50s, but no one else in my family had been there. My husband and I went about 20 years ago, didn’t have an address, just names and old photos. Walked into a local bar with the photos where the patrons walked me around the corner to my father’s first cousin’s house. Next thing I know, a huge gathering of cousins was planned. We stayed for three days and had a great time!
2-Paternal Grandmother’s parents emigrated from Sicily (my great grandmother was pregnant with my grandmother). Tho many of their extended families also emigrated, there are still a ton of relatives in their Sicilian town from both families. When I studied in Italy in college, I went to visit them for a week. My grandmother was still alive then so she let them know I would be contacting them. Really enjoyed the visit. My parents and uncle have been to Sicily in more recent years to see them.
- My mother’s side is from Ireland. Great-grandparents came over in early 1900s. One of my grandfather’s aunts stayed in Ireland and owned a farm. A local family worked the farm for her. They are now gone, but the descendants of the caretakers are still there and have remained close with my mom’s family. I visited with my parents as a kid, then about 10 years ago, my husband and I went. The woman whose father was the caretaker took us to the farm. The house and farm buildings now abandoned and in disrepair and owned by someone else, but we were able to inside. Our family friend knows all of our family history and took us on a tour (saw relatives grave sites and well as a church where donations are inscribed with our family name).
Dh’s family has been in the U.S. longer than mine (Irish, French and Dutch) and has no historical info about where they came from. I think his extended family has done some research, but we have never visited the specific places from where they came, tho we have been to the countries.
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