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Have you ever had the chance to travel and see the cities, towns or farms where some of your ancestors lived?
For that purpose or just as a side trip?
I have a view from a slight different angle.
I am adopted and I was born in NZ to an Australian bmother. When I was 8, my afamily and I moved to Australia. I have to admit, I wasn't that happy about living in Australia and didn't really like the fact that I was of Australian rather than Kiwi heritage. Though I knew my bmother was Australian, I had no idea whereabouts she was from.
Anyway, in my later primary school years, our class went on a trip down south and visited some lovely caves. The next night, we went a bit further south and thought we stayed in a reasonably sized country town (I'll call it X) and ended up visiting a school (which to this day I can't remember the name of) and being billetted that night with students from that school. A couple of other girls and I went and sent in a field on a granite rock and I remembered feeling this extraordinary feeling of peace and from that day, I loved that particular area.
In my 20s, I got my OBC and discovered that my bmom was from near "X". I just went about living life for the next 20 years and, eventually, about 3 years ago, I finally decided to try and contact though I was too late (in fact, I was always going to be too late as she passed away while I was in my teens). I did contact an uncle. Anyway, my contact uncle and I went on a drive to visit some other uncles, one of whom lived in town "X", however, the surrounding scenery was not quite the same. However, when we set out to visit the tiny town "Y" where my bfamily and their ancestors have lived for over 150 years (a long time in Australia), the scenery was much more reminiscent of what I remembered (large granite rocks in fields) and now wonder whether in fact, the school we were billetted in was in my bfamily's home town (the school seemed similar too). I can't imagine that would be possible (because it is hardly on the beaten track) but hopefully one day I find out exactly where the school is (which is definitely within 50km of town "X").
So, the point of this rambling post is that though of course it may just be mere coincidence, it is sort of weird that a town I felt such a connection to over 35 years ago is in the very area that my biological family has resided for over 150 years.
IM just back from Ireland where my maternal grandparents were from.. I visit at least once a year, sometimes twice and always drive though the two wee towns. Fivemiletown and Clogher where they both came from... It makes me feel good to think of them as teenagers walking about both villages, not much at all in both as the railway was taken away some years ago leaving them almost ghost towns.. only a few shops , pubs and some churches remain. With the help of a second cousin over there Ive also found graves of my grannys sisters and brother... and saw where their parents were married .
Yup, I've been to Norway and England which is the bulk of my ancestry. I haven't been to Ireland or Germany which I also apparently have some blood from, but I'm not as interested in going there.
Quote:
Originally Posted by susankate
So, the point of this rambling post is that though of course it may just be mere coincidence, it is sort of weird that a town I felt such a connection to over 35 years ago is in the very area that my biological family has resided for over 150 years.
I also felt this when I was in Lillehammer - I remember thinking while I was there "this feels like home". I later learned that my grandmother's family was from that area (Oppland).
A humorous anecdote about Google Earth you may want to examine for your past residences. I discovered this accidentally when using the time date feature. If you're not aware, Google has been acquiring old satellite imagery of mostly large metro areas (I think the oldest images go back to 1930's - some small town in Ontario Canada) and while on a geo location you can move the 'time' slide rule to an earlier date.
So awhile back, when I googled the house I grew up at, I found of all things a ghost image of what has to be my dad taking out the garbage in 1994! I surmise some of the older satellite imagery google purchased used different technology and in this particular shot when I zoom to point of best acuity, I swear it must have been a satellite view with some level of thermal imaging as I can see the figure outline of a man, turned facing toward the angle of view and when I zoom just right i can make out what looks like a ghost outline with a garbage can on the treelawn! Don't know what the conditions and satellite type that would have caused this but by the time and sun it makes sense too. Now my dad will live forever on google earth : P
I do a lot of travel for work, and have ended up making several side trips to visit ancestors locations. It's been pretty interesting as several locations are ghost towns, others still have the old family farm.
My parent spent close to 20 years driving to the state, county, and city of our ancestors.
Visiting library's, county offices, cemeteries, churches, getting copies of wills, photos of grave stones, interviewing people still alive using cassette recorder to get more clues, much more. Going to the locations where relatives once lived and taking photos of the houses, or the property.
Never once was a computer used.
These trips were planned ahead of time, since my parent's step sister did live in the same state.
Everything was documented by hand. Word, or other program, was not used.
I have not had that chance and would like to visit Budapest, Hungary where one of my grandfathers was born and would also like to visit Belgium where the other grandfather was born.
A humorous anecdote about Google Earth you may want to examine for your past residences. I discovered this accidentally when using the time date feature. If you're not aware, Google has been acquiring old satellite imagery of mostly large metro areas (I think the oldest images go back to 1930's - some small town in Ontario Canada) and while on a geo location you can move the 'time' slide rule to an earlier date.
So awhile back, when I googled the house I grew up at, I found of all things a ghost image of what has to be my dad taking out the garbage in 1994! I surmise some of the older satellite imagery google purchased used different technology and in this particular shot when I zoom to point of best acuity, I swear it must have been a satellite view with some level of thermal imaging as I can see the figure outline of a man, turned facing toward the angle of view and when I zoom just right i can make out what looks like a ghost outline with a garbage can on the treelawn! Don't know what the conditions and satellite type that would have caused this but by the time and sun it makes sense too. Now my dad will live forever on google earth : P
Have you ever had the chance to travel and see the cities, towns or farms where some of your ancestors lived?
For that purpose or just as a side trip?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tallysmom
Oh, heck, yeah -- still have relatives that live there.
While home for a wedding my sister and I visited our aunt and she went along with us around the large area where my family is from. We went to a graveyard and found our great grandfather.... and LITERALLY I turned around and found our great great grandfather.
And then my aunt told me how his name was pronouced. His name is Mahlon, wihch I figured was Maw-lin... and it's May-lin.
I also got to see more of the area, and found out that it really is a Amish/Mennonite area. There's an author named Tamar Myers who writes funny murder mysteries based in a fictional town there in Bedford County PA (turns out we are very distant cousins) and she always talks about the large Amish population there. I never saw that growing up, because we went to one set of grandparents home in Maryland, and on the way home went to Grandpas in Bedford County, took a main road to Bedford got on the Turnpike and went home.
So in reading these books I always thought that was fictional.
Turns out there's a ton of Amish there. Going along the back roads to these graveyards, got to see a ton of Amish...
And a great lunch at the Casslemen River Inn.... came home and started making my own bread again.
I wished I had more time there -- I could have a list of people to "visit"....
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. I actually found Google Maps useful when organising my last trip.
