Watch your family history come to life on a once-in-a-lifetime tailor-made travel experience. Our professional genealogists will uncover the stories in your family tree and partner with a destination expert from award-winning travel company Kensington Tours to create a personalized itinerary around the most meaningful places and moments of your past. Your entire trip will be privately guided by local experts in family history and culture.
Bring your family history to life with a Personal Heritage Journey built around the most meaningful places and events in family’s past.
Your experience includes:- Pre-trip research with an expert genealogist
- Summary report of your research project that highlights key findings
- Copies of documents and images found during research
- Specially designed itinerary focused on your goals
- On-tour help from local experts, private guides, and a professional genealogist
What You Can See on an Ancestral Home Visit
You may schedule an Ancestral Home Visit as part of your Personal Heritage Journey with Kensington Tours and AncestryProGenealogists®, or schedule an Ancestral Home Visit to your ancestral village/town/parish/district separately. Using records, maps, and local knowledge, an ancestral home visit with an AncestryProGenealogists® team member may include the following, based on your ancestors’ circumstances:
- The exact plot of land where the family once lived. You may find an existing house, the ruins of a dwelling, a new structure, or even an empty field.
- Meet the people who live on that land now or any relatives living nearby.
- Talk to any local resident who may be an expert in the history of families in the area.
- Visit the church the ancestors attended.
- Visit the cemetery where the ancestors were buried and see their burial plots.
- Visit the school the ancestors attended (or the site where it once stood).
- Visit the town hall where your ancestors would have congregated with neighbors.
- See unique attractions in the immediate area. For instance, visitors to Ireland might visit a holy well, ringfort, famine house, bog or peat gathering place, or mass rock. Visitors to Italy may take part in festivals for the local patron saint or visit a shrine in a village church. Battle sites, historical markers, geographical attractions like lakes or rivers, or markets may be tour stops in any country.
- See where the local landlord lived.
- Have a meal in a restaurant to enjoy the local cuisine.
- Visit a local museum to learn more about your ancestors’ daily lives, housing, and trades in which they may have worked.
Ancestral Home Visit Experience
California resident Vicki Stuber went on a recent tour to Ireland with AncestryProGenealogists® and found her ancestral home visit to a small village in County Clare to be the most unexpectedly moving stop for her. She had arranged for a day-long visit to the village of Cree and Ballynagun West Townland in Kilmacduane Civil Parish of County Clare, where her paternal ancestors lived.
"You know, I'm not a wealthy person, but it was just something I set aside for, and it was worth it to me. Because my dad died in 1979, and he couldn't share all this stuff with me. I just thought at the time, 'This is something I've always wanted to do. I've set aside money for it. I'm going to take advantage of everything,'” Vicki said.
Joanna Cicely Fennell, a researcher from AncestryProGenealogists® Dublin office, met her in Cree with a bulging file of documents she had found regarding Vicki’s ancestors. Vicki knew she would need professional help to sort out the many local residents with her family surname, Considine. She and Joanna hit it off immediately.
"She's my little Irish doll! She was so much fun,” Vicki said. “And what I love about the Irish is they're so welcoming, and they're so family-oriented. And we drove around to cemeteries, and she would point out her relatives and my relatives. We had so much fun that whole day. She was just so excited about my journey and what I was doing."
As they drove through the village, Vicki saw businesses with her family name, Considine, on them, and her excitement grew. People at local pubs were curious about her search, and many chimed in with information and tips. They spoke so fast in their thick Irish brogue that Vicki was again grateful for Joanna, who understood every word. After some colorful conversations with friendly village residents, they drove out to the farm where Vicki’s great-grandmother grew up.
I felt at home,” Vicki said. “I felt very comfortable there. And I thought, 'She was here!'”
They took a chance and knocked on the door of the home that now stands on the property where Vicki’s great-grandmother, Mary Considine, once lived. Peader Considine, who turned out to be Vicki’s third cousin once removed, answered the door. He celebrated with Vicki when she described their connection. He even spread out photos and family pictures and got on the phone to call other relatives who lived down the street.
Joanna then led Vicki to the home of Mary Considine’s father, where they again found a gracious homeowner who shared what he knew of the farm.
"It was so emotional,” Vicki said. “And I could never have gotten to those places without that help. I could never have found those places."
Another discovery was in store—this one astounding even the genealogists. Vicki had taken an AncestryDNA® test before she left home, and the results revealed a cousin match who lived in Galway. (News of this match fittingly arrived while Vicki was in County Clare on her ancestral home visit, in the exact area where their common ancestors lived.) She contacted the cousin, Peggy Doherty, via Ancestry® messaging service, and they arranged to meet a few days later when Vicki arrived in Galway.
Vicki said the time she spent with Peggy felt like a reunion, even though the two women had never met and likely never would have without the help of AncestryDNA®. Their common ancestors lived so far back in time that historical documents alone are not able to prove their connection; DNA analysis was the only conceivable way they could have realized they were related.
“We're friends for life now," Vicki said.
The women shared the research they had done, and Peggy’s work opened up an entirely new branch of Vicki’s family tree. Now Peggy plans to visit Vicki in California to continue researching their family together.
Each step of her journey revealed a new part of Vicki’s ancestry, and she struggled to articulate how much it meant to know more of her own identity, not to mention the deep connection she felt to her own father after all these years since his death.
"You know what it did? I always thought I was a mutt, just not ‘anything of anything,’ ” Vicki said. “And I found I'm almost half Irish. I feel like I'm somebody now. I have a sense of who I am. I have a culture, and I'm proud of that. And my dad would be so thrilled, you know? I mean, this is what I'm going to pursue now. It has really meant a lot to me. It's changed me."
Vicki is now planning her next research pursuits, hoping to follow her great-grandfather’s story in the coming months. She already made reservations for another Ancestral Home Visit.
“I had the time of my life,” Vicki said. “It was the ultimate trip for me. I want to say this was a once-in-a-lifetime trip, but now that I’ve done it, I know it’s not going to be only once.”
The ancestral home visit can be added to your agenda on your own personal trip or can be scheduled as part of a regular guided tour—before, after, or in the middle of a tour itinerary. Costs vary based on location, transportation, and research needs. Consult an AncestryProGenealogists® representative for more information.