{"id":3775,"date":"2018-12-16T20:12:27","date_gmt":"2018-12-16T20:12:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thefhguide.com\/blog\/?p=3775"},"modified":"2019-01-16T23:21:15","modified_gmt":"2019-01-16T23:21:15","slug":"the-benefits-of-discovery-in-traveling-to-our-ancestors-homelands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thefhguide.com\/blog\/the-benefits-of-discovery-in-traveling-to-our-ancestors-homelands\/","title":{"rendered":"The Benefits of Discovery in Traveling to Your Ancestors’ Homelands"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you haven’t ever traveled to do genealogy and your family history\u00a0I would highly recommend it.\u00a0 My husband\u00a0and I have traveled quite a bit in the last 10 years. We have\u00a0had a yearning deep within us to go and see the places where our ancestors lived.\u00a0 We have had marvelous experiences\u00a0both in and out of The United States. The trips have produced nothing less than miracles each and every time.\u00a0 It is true that many of the\u00a0records are now\u00a0available online, but some can only be found in the localities.\u00a0 But with this kind of family history\u00a0travel, the benefits are so much broader than just records.<\/p>\n

There is much more to walking where they have\u00a0walked\u00a0than we had\u00a0ever imagined.\u00a0 Once you have identified\u00a0your family the fun part is making them more than just a name on a pedigree chart.\u00a0 You take the records and\u00a0scour them for details.\u00a0 The skeleton of a pedigree chart is great, but putting the flesh on the bones of our ancestors is the best. The more\u00a0we know, the more we love them and appreciate them and\u00a0learn from them.<\/p>\n

In my book, the very best way to do it is to go visit them in what was their previous home, taking\u00a0in the whole picture. You study the historical, and\u00a0cultural aspects of where they originated and when you go you will be ready to see what\u00a0it is like today. Even with the passing of time, you will learn so much from the topography, the climate, economics and the people that live there now.\u00a0 With The Family\u00a0History\u00a0Guide, we are so fortunate to have the Country Pages found on the Homepage Dropdown\u00a0menu.\u00a0 thefhguide.com<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0With The Family History Guide’s Country (and State) Pages you can be very\u00a0prepared before\u00a0you even go.\u00a0 \u00a0When you arrive prepared you can take it all\u00a0in more fully.\u00a0 The landscape, the people, the economic history of your ancestor’s day, the cemeteries\u00a0where they are laid to rest will all mean more.\u00a0 When you arrive at your destination, you should look for information available\u00a0in their libraries, archives and historical societies that cannot be found online. You have already hopefully found what is online at home.\u00a0 \u00a0Preparation is key and saves\u00a0you so much time, effort and money in the long run.\u00a0 Although that seems intuitive, with every trip you will learn something new that you should have done before\u00a0you left.<\/p>\n

I have Welsh\u00a0ancestry and spent years tracking down my great-grandfather, Thomas Reese.\u00a0\"\" \u00a0I only had a name and no location except Wales, but finding one piece of information made all the difference.\u00a0 I blogged about this last year\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

From the information that was gleaned from his obituary written in Welsh and about six months of prep time, we were ready to go to Wales.\u00a0 See the Country Page for Wales<\/a> here that is available today in the Family History Guide. It contains a lot of good information and if you click on the beautiful header photos in the Country Pages, they even take\u00a0you directly\u00a0to Wikipedia for your location.\u00a0 So thoughtfully convenient!<\/p>\n

From Carmarthen, we drove to Llandovery. We stopped in Llandovery to gather more information from the local residents.\u00a0 We learned so much from the historical society about our specific family and got a hand-drawn map on a brochure by a kind lady, that directed to exactly where we needed to go.\u00a0 My family members were miners and so I was expecting a brown,\u00a0rocky, even ugly kind of destination.\u00a0 Boy, was I surprised as we drove down the narrow road. It was gorgeous, in fact, stunning!\u00a0 The only thing that was rocky was the cars and lorries that came head-on at us on the narrow and winding roads!\u00a0 \u00a0\"\"<\/p>\n

Before going to Rhandirmwyn in Carmarthenshire where my great-grandfather was born in 1846, I learned that the houses there were all named.\u00a0 The obituary gave me the name of Thomas’ house, it was called Crincae.\u00a0 One of the things we have\u00a0learned over time is to not be shy in talking to the locals.\u00a0 Every person we spoke with helped us eventually get to the actual place where my ancestors lived for three generations. We even found the house where they lived. It is still there!\u00a0 I never dreamed it would still be standing.\u00a0 What a joy to have this photo!\u00a0\"\" To have been there right where my great-grandfather was born was a joy!\u00a0 Through this trip we’ve have learned so much, and had added many family members and generations to our pedigree and learned to love them.<\/p>\n

I met a living historian, Alun Jones, of Rhandrirmwym, a tiny place that consists of two churches with cemeteries, a post office, and a pub\/hotel and private dwellings. That is it!\u00a0 He has offered us a personal tour of the region\u00a0and the mine site, now long since closed, when we return in 2019.\u00a0 He asked me to submit a written history of my branch of the Rees family which I have done.\u00a0 It was published in their local genealogy newsletter and archived for others that come along someday seeking answers.<\/p>\n

My great-grandmother,\u00a0Mary Davies, was born in 1846 and raised just four miles from Thomas Rees in Cilycwm.\u00a0 She\u00a0followed him to America five years after he emigrated, where they were wed.\u00a0One of the things we wondered about is why they would leave to come to the stark lands of a prairie town in the United States.\u00a0 We asked a local resident and the answer was poignant.\u00a0 “Well, you cannot eat the beauty.”\u00a0 When the mines closed they were hungry.<\/p>\n

If you want to see why we asked this question here is a short (3:55 minutes) video<\/a> of the beautiful Towy River that separated\u00a0the hamlets of Rhanderimwyn and Cilycwm where my great grandparents were born and grew up.\u00a0 These are the fun things that come from traveling with a purpose. Sightseeing is great but this is\u00a0better.<\/p>\n

If your personal circumstances prevent you from traveling, be sure to explore and take a virtual walking tour of your ancestors’ places with Google Earth.\u00a0 That is fun and beneficial as well. Happy family history travels to you!<\/p>\n

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