Another passion of mine, apart from travel, is genealogy. I have spent years doing research on my family background and found tons of interesting stories buried in ancestral records. There’s nothing I love more than when I can combine my love of travel with the opportunity to visit some place that I am connected to or to do a deep dive into the local records of that place. This does take some planning. How does one go about this?
- This may seem very basic, but it’s a must. You must start with doing some basic genealogy research, if you haven’t already done so. You start very simply with yourself and your parents and work back. The world just starts to unfold like magic once you start digging. I’m a long time user of Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org. Ancestry you are probably more familiar with, but FamilySearch is a great site run by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, based out of Salt Lake City, Utah. It is basically free and has an amazing wealth of records from around the world. You can start a tree and do other fun things like find famous relatives. I discovered I am an 11th cousin once removed with Diana, Princess of Wales. 🙂 I am also apparently a 7th cousin seven times removed with Marie Antoinette! I’d say that makes me royalty. More on FamilySearch in just a minute.
Doing this basic beginning research will give you a basis of areas your ancestors are from and you can start to build a list of areas you will want to visit. For example, I know that I have family history in Italy, Germany, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Ohio to name a few. - Attend a Genealogy Conference. There are a number of options of genealogy conferences that occur throughout the year and this can give you an opportunity to visit some areas of the country that you haven’t been before. These also give you an opportunity to network with others, get some inspiration and help with your own research. There are dozens offered throughout the year, with many that are state and locally focused.
- The National Genealogical Society Conference is being held in Richmond, Virginia
- I was fortunate enough to attend the RootsTech Conference in 2016. RootsTech is a family history and technology conference and trade show held annually in February at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. There are fabulous keynote speakers, and it’s actually free now to attend virtually! I highly recommend attending in person though, as you can meet tons of fellow researchers and learn from the best. Not only can you explore Salt Lake City, and see the famed Mormon Tabernacle, but you can take advantage of of the LDS Family Search Family History Center research library. This place is an absolute gold mine to view original documents and they have the best volunteers and even language interpreters who can assist you in translating documents in most major languages. I was able to find my great grandfather Alessandro di Grappo’s birth record from Italy, among other great finds.
3. Visit the local genealogical or historical society of the areas you are interested in. I have found this to be extremely fruitful and a great way to do a deep dive into the local records of an area that will allow you to see further into the lives of the ancestors you are looking at. I have visited genealogical and historical societies in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida and been in contact with many others around the country and even abroad in Italy, looking for estate records, birth records, telephone directories, yearbooks, and more. Hop in the car and go! These are usually a treasure trove of information.
4. Visit a Graveyard. Hear me out, I know this sounds a little morbid, but a walk amongst the tombstones can be very telling. If you are unsure of where to look for your ancestors final resting place, Find a Grave is a fantastic site. This site catalogues more than 220 million tombstones and graves around the world (though the majority is in the United States). You can upload your own photos and documentation of your ancestors grave or it has probably already been created by the many volunteers that go out and document all these. There can often be biographical information included in these memorials as well. It’s simply an amazing resource. Once you find where the graves you are interested in visiting are located, hit the road and start walking amongst the tombstones to pay your respects.
5. Visit Places of Family Lore. This is something that can be a lot of fun. For me, I discovered that my great-grandfather Alessandro had been incarcerated for a short time in 1912 at the Mansfield Reformatory in Mansfield, Ohio, a short drive from Columbus where I live, after a knife came out following a dispute with some guys spouting anti-Italian sentiments. You may recognize it as the place where Shawshank Redemption was filmed, as well as the prison scene from Air Force One. This prison was used as a reformatory as the goal was to “reform” and help inmates learn a trade. I understand my great-grandfather learned landscaping there. It is now a museum as they work to restore different areas of the prison and you can see a lot of interesting information about what went on there, etc. I was also to find my great- grandfather’s Bertillon card, which was a booking card used by police in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century to record information on suspects and criminals, names after a French police officer Alphonse Bertillon. This is still one of my most exciting finds and I was told by the researchers at the Ohio History Center I was incredibly lucky to find it.
Another place of family lore for me is Ellis Island. This is the island in New York that was the main immigrant inspection and processing stations in the United States, particular in the later 19th century and early 20th century. My grandmother Chiara Maria (Clara) came into Ellis Island from her home in Bonefro, Italy with her mother Maria Luisa and sister Maria Carolina. I highly recommend the behind-the-scenes tours they offer there. We got to go and see the hospital wing and other areas you are typically not able to see with general admission and hear much more about the history of the island and what it was like for immigrants who came in there. You can of course research any ancestors that came in, and see the ship manifests!
I hope this inspires you all to hit to road and explore your own family histories. It’s an addiction, once you get started, but it’s extremely interesting and will take you to new places.
Buen viajes and happy researching, gnomies!
Beautiful!