Friday, December 17, 2010

Thoughts About Tiny Villages and Ancestors

Lately I have been trying to put together a potential escorted tour to Ireland for people with Irish ancestry. One of the difficulties that I run into is that an escorted tour will not be able to hit all the different cities and towns that those ancestors actually came from. Instead, it has to be more of a general overview.

One way of resolving that problem is to have the escorted tour followed by personal time to explore Ireland. That way people can visit their ancestors' villages but also get a good overview of the country they lived in.

While I've been doing this, I have also been thinking about the way it seems that everyone's ancestors came from tiny villages instead of large cities. Why is that? You would think more people would have ancestors from London, for example, instead of some little village way out in the English countryside.

Maybe it is just a perception I have because people enjoy visiting those villages and trying to find their ancestral church or cemetary. It would be interesting, though, to run into someone who's ancestry comes primarily from large cities like Boston, New York, London, Berlin, Dublin, et cetera. I'm not saying I don't like working with small villages. Actually, I like it quite a bit. I'm just making a general observation.

No matter where ancestors hail from, though, their homes are worth visiting. Whether it is a small village or a large metropolis, roots travel is the way to go.

P.S. Don't forget to vote for Roots Traveler in the Family Tree 40!  http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ft40-2011voting

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