{"id":3002,"date":"2018-08-05T01:44:05","date_gmt":"2018-08-05T01:44:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thefhguide.com\/blog\/?p=3002"},"modified":"2019-01-16T20:40:03","modified_gmt":"2019-01-16T20:40:03","slug":"the-transformative-power-of-family-history-field-trips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thefhguide.com\/blog\/the-transformative-power-of-family-history-field-trips\/","title":{"rendered":"The Transformative Power of Family History Field Trips"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A family history field trip could be across the country, to another continent, or just around the corner. When you visit places your ancestors lived and worked, or visit places where they traveled, you can gain a new perspective which is impossible to experience while looking at a computer screen.\u00a0Sunny Jane Morton quotes Dr. Carla Santos in an article entitled, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.familytreemagazine.com\/premium\/genealogy-insider-genealogy-tourism\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Genealogy Tourism: Have Ancestors&#8211;Will Travel:<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 90px;\">\u201cWhen people experience different things and places, they come back transformed&#8230;Genealogy is so personal that I imagine the transformative power of a trip like this is really great. Exploring, redefining and confirming our identities are life-long projects. This kind of genealogical travel gives us a practical way to think about belonging, home, heritage, and identity. Online &#8216;armchair&#8217; genealogy doesn\u2019t substitute for this type of experience\u2014it enables and facilitates it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"680\" height=\"383\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/swANptPeLrs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Perhaps you remember how your parents tried to make family trips fun, meaningful and memorable. Melissa Blake takes on this concept in <a href=\"http:\/\/theweek.com\/articles\/787566\/priceless-nostalgia-childhood-family-road-trip\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Priceless Nostalgia of Childhood Family Road Trips <\/a>\u00a0and discusses the herculean effort parents (and\/or grandparents) make to get the desired result when taking children or teens to the destination of choice. Melissa talks about how her family would travel across America when she was a child and states that she would rather be in the car listening to the case of CDs she had brought. &#8220;I was too tired and didn&#8217;t want to get out of the car. I was hungry \u2014 when were we going to stop for lunch? I&#8217;m sure my new, surly attitude had something to do with just being a teenager, but it didn&#8217;t seem to faze my parents, who still got out at every scenic overlook while I sat in the car&#8230;&#8221; But she feels their efforts were worth the price:<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\" style=\"padding-left: 90px;\">My real &#8220;aha&#8221; moment didn&#8217;t come until years later when those teenage memories slowly began to take on a much deeper meaning. Sure, I may have complained about all the off-the-road stops we were making (the Arch was boring! The Smoky Mountains were too hot!), but as an adult, I can see my parents were trying to create memories for us, the kind of memories that lasted long after we got back in the car and drove away. It was quintessential America \u2014 a snapshot of the United States. Wrapped up in these vacations was the perfect history lesson. My parents saw it as a way to bring history to life for my sister and me. But these trips are also our family&#8217;s history. It&#8217;s the story of our journey and our past and the story of our family.<\/p>\n<p>The Family History Guide suggests a fun re-visiting the past in the &#8220;Family Activities &#8211; Documenting the Past&#8221; section:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>F4-04:\u00a0\u2014<a href=\"http:\/\/thefhguide.com\/act-family.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Back To Your Roots<\/a><br \/>\nPlan a visit or family reunion at\u00a0<a class=\"lk\" href=\"http:\/\/gretchenrubin.com\/happiness_project\/2010\/07\/do-you-have-happy-memories-of-a-place-associated-with-your-grandparents\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">places your parents or grandparents were raised<\/a>\u00a0or places where they lived or liked to spend time. Visit and record the memories of your loved ones and their family and friends who still live there. (If you can&#8217;t visit in person, try a virtual visit with\u00a0<a class=\"lk\" href=\"https:\/\/earth.google.com\/web\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Google Earth<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>According to\u00a0Angie\u00a0Lucas in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.familysearch.org\/blog\/en\/family-history-month-journey-to-the-past\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Journey to the Past,<\/a> a great idea is to plan a &#8220;quick trip back to a favorite childhood picnic spot, resort town, caf\u00e9 or diner, canyon, lake, amusement park, national park, city park, or other tourist destination. Bring your grown siblings or an old friend with you for an extra\u00a0dose of nostalgia, or take the opportunity to introduce your spouse or children to this cherished place.&#8221; She offers a printable\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.familysearch.org\/blog\/en\/family-history-month-journey-to-the-past\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Photo Checklist<\/a>\u00a0of ideas for photos on your visit. Returning to a childhood place can help children to know more about parents and grandparents &#8211; how they grew up, their<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1669 alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thefhguide.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/CIMG0034-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thefhguide.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/CIMG0034-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.thefhguide.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/CIMG0034.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/> values, experiences\u00a0and what was important to them. Feelings of belonging can be nourished &#8220;on site.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>For many years, our family members have taken turns bringing my mother back to her childhood hometown of Panguitch, Utah. We video\u00a0her stories as we tour\u00a0the town, watch her in the Panguitch July 24th Parade with her high school classmates (those who are able to come) <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-3010 alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thefhguide.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Panguitch-parade-300x191.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"337\" height=\"214\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thefhguide.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Panguitch-parade-300x191.png 300w, https:\/\/www.thefhguide.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Panguitch-parade-768x488.png 768w, https:\/\/www.thefhguide.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Panguitch-parade.png 868w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 337px) 100vw, 337px\" \/>and experience what it must have been like to grow up in this fascinating town &#8211; the sad and the happy times. The memories we made of HER memories are priceless and treasured. It was on one of these trips that we stopped in a neighboring town to reunite my mom with a relative with whom she had had a miscommunication decades before and not spoken to each other for that long.\u00a0 The two of them fell into each other&#8217;s arms and repaired their damaged relationship within minutes. That trip made new history and solidified the value of family history road trips in our book!<\/p>\n<p>I googled &#8220;family history tourism is on the rise&#8221; and got about 90,600,000 results! Jordi Lippe-McGRaw\u00a0 gives some reasons why Americans\u00a0(and this applies to people all over the world) are traveling to heritage sites in his article\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cntraveler.com\/story\/why-heritage-tourism-is-more-popular-than-ever\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Why Heritage Tourism Is More Popular Than Ever<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 90px;\">For some travelers, turning to their family tree for inspiration has become the latest\u2014and most interesting\u2014way to plan a trip. And while the idea of traveling to investigate your legacy and culture isn\u2019t exactly something new, there are more tools now to make it a reality. \u201c&#8230; Americans are spreading far and wide to experience their cultural and spiritual roots and catalyzing the rise of operators, agencies, and guides dedicated to this segment,\u201d Christina Tunnah, Regional Manager for the Americas at\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.worldnomads.com\/\">World Nomads<\/a>, told\u00a0<em>Cond\u00e9 Nast Traveler<\/em>.\u00a0She added, \u201cNot just for the bucket list boomer crowd, this theme serves as a significant thread of self-discovery amongst millennials who choose to study abroad and become digital nomads in places where they have a tendril of familial connection in search of generational sense of self.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>An example of going to &#8220;the homeland&#8221; is captured in a video produced by the Gene and Lucy Peterson family (created by Cammy) and found in the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thefhguide.com\/act-individuals.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Activities for Individuals Section <\/a>\u00a0(I2-06: Plan a Family History Trip).<\/p>\n<p>More ideas to &#8220;look&#8221; into the past:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thefhguide.com\/blog\/creating-ancestor-connections-fun-ideas-from-the-family-history-guide-childrens-activities-section\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Creating Ancestor Connections<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thefhguide.com\/blog\/interviewing-and-recording-family-history-stories\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Interviewing and Recording Family History Stories<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thefhguide.com\/blog\/integrating-the-fhg-countries-section-with-google-earth-a-winning-combination-for-family-fun\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Integrating the Family History Guide&#8217;s Countries Page With Google Earth<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\u201cwv-ignore\u201d>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/widget.websitevoice.com\/gdg8sme9Co8djc4uHOHRfA\"><\/script><br \/>\n<script>\n  window.wvData=window.wvData||{};function wvtag(a,b){wvData[a]=b;}\n  wvtag('id', 'gdg8sme9Co8djc4uHOHRfA');\n  wvtag('text-selector', '.entry-inner');\n  wvtag('widget-style', {\n    className: 'wv-circle-small',\n    contrast: 'wv-contrast-dark'\n  });\n<\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A family history field trip could be across the country, to another continent, or just around the corner. When you visit places your ancestors lived and worked, or visit places where they traveled, you can gain a new perspective which is impossible to experience while looking at a computer screen.\u00a0Sunny Jane Morton quotes Dr. Carla Santos in an article entitled,&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3012,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,75],"tags":[113,115,197,114,262,263,265,264,266],"class_list":["post-3002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-family-history-activities","category-memories","tag-activities-for-children","tag-activities-for-families","tag-activities-for-individuals","tag-activities-for-youth","tag-family-history-field-trips","tag-family-histoyr-activities","tag-homeland","tag-travel","tag-visist-to-grandparents"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thefhguide.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thefhguide.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thefhguide.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefhguide.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefhguide.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3002"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefhguide.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3002\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4160,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefhguide.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3002\/revisions\/4160"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefhguide.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thefhguide.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefhguide.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefhguide.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}