My grandfather emigrated from Glasgow in the ’20s. We visited ninety years later. His actual address in Dalmarnock had been recently bulldozed so we didn’t make it out that way, but we enjoyed the hell out of our stay. And my wife discovered she liked really good single malt. Bonus.
It was alright. I did a semester in the UK not far from where mine came from. I went to the specific town and met a security guard with the same last name as me. His resemblance to one of my uncles was uncanny.
I visited the country where my mom’s ancestors were from, but not my dad’s. It was great and she was in contact with a couple of her cousins who hosted us and did a lot to show us their culture and country. I had a great time and would love to go back soon.
Fairly underwhelming. Went to Ireland, and to the county where my ancestors were from. It was pretty, but I I could see why they would leave. Dublin was cool, but underwhelming in a different way. After spending months traveling central Europe, it seemed so familiar and boring.
My great grandfather immigrated from Ireland to the US in the late 1910s during the Irish revolutionary period. He was one of 4 or 5 and was the only member of his family to immigrate. My grandmother and mother have visited Ireland several times, and I visited last year. It was great to see a lot of the family, see the family landmarks, etc.
My ancestors came from numerous European countries. I’ve visited one of them – Norway. It’s an absolutely beautiful country, and I’m proud to be descended from these people. My father, my uncle, and I traveled there together. We blended right in with the locals. Some of them were surprised we didn’t speak Norwegian!
My family has been living in what is now the state of Texas since Spanish colonial times. So yes, I’ve been to Laredo many times.
As for what it’s like: It’s a typical border town. People who know nothing about what life is like on the border make it sound like a hellhole. You will die in Laredo…of utter boredom
I got stationed in one with the military at one point. I don’t really care about all that sort of thing, to be honest. It was just another place, neither at the top nor the bottom of my list.
Several times if I think about it, but I wasn’t in those places for genealogy reasons. Apart from a few things like “hey, some of my people lived in this town”, or “this distant ancestor was a church musician in this church”, I was focused on other things. I have a couple places I want to visit though in England related to family and that might feel
different, but it’s also close to other things I want to see anyway.
I don’t know that it was any different than any other tourist experience in the countries save a detour to the non-touristy small towns my family lived in 150+ years ago for lunch and to visit the old church in town
My ancestors have been in America since the colonial era.
In Indiana, I can drive to the local cemetery to see my 6th great grandfathers tombstone, along with my great grandparents, and other family members. If I drove east, I could see the grave of my 11th great grandfather.
When I visited Taiwan, my father’s native country, for a summer, I was glad for the experience, but also glad that I didn’t grow up there. My body handles that type of weather badly. So badly that I collapsed from heat stroke.
My Mandarin language ability was already good before, but I didn’t default to thinking in Mandarin. After maybe two weeks in Taiwan, speaking no English, I found myself defaulting to Mandarin when counting in my head and started thinking in Mandarin.
I met relatives I didn’t know existed which was nice.
I haven’t, but I don’t really have a desire to. I have German, French, British, and Irish in me. I don’t really have a strong attachment to any of them, though, because they’re all 300+years old. That being said, I have this insane lifelong draw to go out West. I guess it’s that manifest destiny DNA lol.
It’s quite lovely, I’ve been to most of them. I had a lot of fun there and it did help me feel a bit more connected to my ancestors. Especially when I went to Quebec.
I visited Balk, Netherlands, the birthplace of my great-grandfather. The Frisians are among the tallest people on Earth. At 6’4″, I suddenly felt right at home.
It was fun. I was in the military and was doing a lot of traveling in Europe. Reached out to “family” via ancestry and explained who i was. It went back to my great grandfather. The people I contacted knew who my great grandfather was. It was my great gf sister and brother children and great gc who I contacted. The stories we both heard were correct. It was Norway where I got to meet them. It was awesome. We still keep in contact. Share photos, what’s going on with the family. I was single with no kids at the time. I now have kids and would love to bring them over the Norway to visit their “family” overseas
I thought it was great and learned a little something about the blood line. But I didn’t have an overwhelming feeling of I’m finally home or anything to that nature.
I went to Killarney, Ireland when I was 35 for my birthday .This is the town I can trace my family to. It was kinda funny because it’s a huge tourist town since it’s on the ring of Kerry and they love Americans so much they have a 4th of July parade every year. We ate at a Mexican restaurant and they had a western themed one.
We had a unique experience. Before my parents went, we met a man from the area of Czechia our family was from with our same last name – it was a complete coincidence and it still blows my mind how all this came about from a chance meeting in our home town.
Anyway, we are related like 10 generations back. His partner (who speaks English) talked to the local historian and found some of the properties owned by our family. They also spent a few hours with the mayor of this small town and the historian. They had a great time.
We (the kids) went with them the next time and got the same tour. This time we also met the current owners of one of the properties and he called in his parents and grandparents to meet us. We took a small tour of the grounds behind the gate and then had coffee with them at their home.
The timing of our trip was because every 5 years they have a festival that’s like a homecoming – the goal is to bring back everyone that has moved away and just have fun like a big block party and talent show. My parents got to be in the parade as they traveled the farthest to be there. We were presented with some gifts from the mayor, and also the family we met. The father’s business was engraving, so he presented us with a wooden box laser engraved with a photo of us all they took the other day.
We ended the day at the history center and then the historian casually said – oh hey, you want a tour of our basement? No biggie. Turns out it was probably built in the 1300s, so you know, just a casual dungeon.
Overall we felt very comfortable and welcome, and not just for this amazing event. The country looks like my home state and I can see why so many immigrants would feel at home here. I would love to go back and explore more, as well as exploring other parts of our heritage.
Ahaha I was raised in New England and my entire extended family are in Brazil.
What can I say… I said “no touchy” a lot. It was awkward, they’re very touchy feely people. Nice wonderful people who don’t know the meaning of personal space 😭
Most Americans have ancestors from multiple countries. I have a surname from the Netherlands, but have ancestors from there, England, Ireland, Scotland, Germany, Switzerland, France, etc. I’ve been to many of those countries, but I don’t consider any of them “the homeland.” I’m just an American. Or a North American or a United States citizen if you’re a pedant.
I am third generation American. My grandparents immigrated from Latvia to flee the Nazis. Stayed in the US because the Soviets took over basically immediately after.
Latvians, generally, have really maintained their cultural roots in America. I grew up going to Latvian school on Sundays, going to Latvian camp in the summer, and going to the Latvian Song and Dance festivals (which I still attend). It also helped that my great-grandparents immigrated as well and were alive until I was in high school. So my great-grandparents were real people to me, not just people of stories.
I went to Latvia for the country’s centennial celebration in 2018. I loved every minute of it. However, in the end, I was a tourist there. I have no blood family in the country left. They all died/were killed or were deported during the Nazi regime and then the Soviet one. My roots are memories.
But it was eye opening in the sense of why so many Americans identify as XYZ-American. Irish-American, Polish-American, Italian-American, etc etc. Because I really am Latvian-American. So much about me is quite Latvian. I was born that way, raised that way. But just as much of me is very American, especially the ways I was socialized. Things like manners, social etiquette, clothing, are all very American of me.
I am glad I went and I would love to go back. I’m not Latvian though and never will be. I’m Latvian-American which is its own identity to be cherished.
So not really country. But different parts of the US. My maternal lineage (mother’s mother’s mother’s mother’s and so on. My grandmother is a voting tribal member) are Hualapai Indians from the Grand Canyon area of Arizona. I have visited their capital city of Peach Springs, the last time being 20 years ago.
I am a White Guy, and so is my dad. We were traveling on a cross country road trip and we pull into Peach Springs. This would have been late 2004 and I was 20. I approached an older gentleman who was driving an official truck. I honestly can’t remember how I started the conversation, but at some point I explained who my great grandmother was (she was alive at the time) and who my grandmother was. He knew of them both but I am not sure if he knew them personally, he did know that my grandmother had a daughter and that daughter was my mother. He did point out that there were some cool information centers that could be helpful but they were closed at the time (it was either a Sunday or early in the morning and we were just passing through). He did say I should return for some event they had coming up if I had the time and I would just have to explain who I was.
On my dad’s side. His ancestors came to Buffalo NY. Some of our distant family members still live there. We spent a few days in the area but I didn’t feel any sort of connection to the area. I have go to knew a few family members still in the area, some are pretty cool and some are absurdly rude people.
My most recent European ancestors came here in the 1880s. For whatever reason, they didn’t really do much with the local diasporas. My grandmother’s grandparents were all from Germany, all of her ancestors came from Germany, she mentions that her parents spoke German too each other but didn’t teach the kids. She didn’t cook German food, or use German words, or have any German traditions, or even consider herself German American. She went to Europe several times in her life, she was interested in the Queen of England as a person and really liked the UK, even though she had no English ancestry, and I don’t think she even visited Germany or expressed having any interest in it what so ever.
25 years ago, one of my uncles married a half Mexican half Dutch woman (born Texas to immigrant parents) and something she noticed was that our family had zero immigrant traditions. Everything we did was distinctly American or Californian. She was expecting us to do Irish or German stuff and was surprised when we had no family traditions from either one.
The Netherlands. My grandma’s entire family emigrated in 1955, but grandpa’s family stayed behind. I still have many second cousins in the Groningen province. I visited them when I was in high school. Fortunately, everyone in that country speaks English 😁
My family came here in 1902 and Japan feels like a foreign country.
Felt about as familiar as Germany to me as a Midwesterner. Like, I can recognize certain elements as familiar and influential in my childhood environment, but it’s ultimately a foreign culture and a foreign language.
I grew up thinking I was about 90% German. Both parents had Germanic last/maiden names.
I was lucky enough to be stationed in Germany for 2 years while in the US Navy in the mid-1990s.
I didn’t bring my “Germanic Heritage” up, but my German friends would sometimes say something about my surname. I had a ton of German friends who were mostly college students majoring in English. I didn’t go there thinking I was going to find a link to my past, but I had never felt like I belonged in a place like I did when I was there.
I drank way too much, partied way too hard, and had the best two years of my life (pre-marriage). I had more fun than any one human deserves.
The people, food, beer, sights were all amazing.
I sobbed like a toddler the day I had to leave. I felt like I was leaving home. I wasn’t that upset leaving home to go to bootcamp, but I knew I’d get to go back home… I knew I’d never get to go back to that version of Germany. (my life would be different if I went back)
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Does Ohio count?
My grandfather emigrated from Glasgow in the ’20s. We visited ninety years later. His actual address in Dalmarnock had been recently bulldozed so we didn’t make it out that way, but we enjoyed the hell out of our stay. And my wife discovered she liked really good single malt. Bonus.
The country? Singular?
It was alright. I did a semester in the UK not far from where mine came from. I went to the specific town and met a security guard with the same last name as me. His resemblance to one of my uncles was uncanny.
I visited the country where my mom’s ancestors were from, but not my dad’s. It was great and she was in contact with a couple of her cousins who hosted us and did a lot to show us their culture and country. I had a great time and would love to go back soon.
Fairly underwhelming. Went to Ireland, and to the county where my ancestors were from. It was pretty, but I I could see why they would leave. Dublin was cool, but underwhelming in a different way. After spending months traveling central Europe, it seemed so familiar and boring.
My great grandfather immigrated from Ireland to the US in the late 1910s during the Irish revolutionary period. He was one of 4 or 5 and was the only member of his family to immigrate. My grandmother and mother have visited Ireland several times, and I visited last year. It was great to see a lot of the family, see the family landmarks, etc.
Israelis yell too much. The kossel and old cities were cool, but I didn’t pick a very good program and it was a whirlwind tour.
My ancestors came from numerous European countries. I’ve visited one of them – Norway. It’s an absolutely beautiful country, and I’m proud to be descended from these people. My father, my uncle, and I traveled there together. We blended right in with the locals. Some of them were surprised we didn’t speak Norwegian!
It was nice, mom always talked about it with her side of the family and it was interesting to see where she was from.
My family has been living in what is now the state of Texas since Spanish colonial times. So yes, I’ve been to Laredo many times.
As for what it’s like: It’s a typical border town. People who know nothing about what life is like on the border make it sound like a hellhole. You will die in Laredo…of utter boredom
I got stationed in one with the military at one point. I don’t really care about all that sort of thing, to be honest. It was just another place, neither at the top nor the bottom of my list.
Several times if I think about it, but I wasn’t in those places for genealogy reasons. Apart from a few things like “hey, some of my people lived in this town”, or “this distant ancestor was a church musician in this church”, I was focused on other things. I have a couple places I want to visit though in England related to family and that might feel
different, but it’s also close to other things I want to see anyway.
Scotland, and I loved it. Went to a church in Troon that was founded my 4x great grandfather
I don’t know that it was any different than any other tourist experience in the countries save a detour to the non-touristy small towns my family lived in 150+ years ago for lunch and to visit the old church in town
I’m only 3 generations removed… so, looking at possibility of citizenship being reinstated with all the chaos the US is currently creating.
My family is from Québec, which I’ve never been to, but Toronto is the nicest city I’ve ever seen. I want to visit Montréal next.
I still have family there and we’ve visited multiple times. I like it.
Thank god they left for America
My ancestors have been in America since the colonial era.
In Indiana, I can drive to the local cemetery to see my 6th great grandfathers tombstone, along with my great grandparents, and other family members. If I drove east, I could see the grave of my 11th great grandfather.
I haven’t visited any countries of my ancestors. But all of them (that I have knowledge of) are on my list. Ireland, Lithuania, and Germany. ☺️
I’ve been to Ireland twice, and both times were lovely.
When I visited Taiwan, my father’s native country, for a summer, I was glad for the experience, but also glad that I didn’t grow up there. My body handles that type of weather badly. So badly that I collapsed from heat stroke.
My Mandarin language ability was already good before, but I didn’t default to thinking in Mandarin. After maybe two weeks in Taiwan, speaking no English, I found myself defaulting to Mandarin when counting in my head and started thinking in Mandarin.
I met relatives I didn’t know existed which was nice.
I’ve always wanted to visit wales. But my pocketbook always gives me a firm no.
I haven’t, but I don’t really have a desire to. I have German, French, British, and Irish in me. I don’t really have a strong attachment to any of them, though, because they’re all 300+years old. That being said, I have this insane lifelong draw to go out West. I guess it’s that manifest destiny DNA lol.
It’s quite lovely, I’ve been to most of them. I had a lot of fun there and it did help me feel a bit more connected to my ancestors. Especially when I went to Quebec.
I have visited my parents home country of Canada several times
Family came from England. It was basically what I expected.
I’ve been to 3 out of the 4 countries my ancestors acme from. It was always for work, so nothing exciting happened.
I visited Balk, Netherlands, the birthplace of my great-grandfather. The Frisians are among the tallest people on Earth. At 6’4″, I suddenly felt right at home.
It was fun. I was in the military and was doing a lot of traveling in Europe. Reached out to “family” via ancestry and explained who i was. It went back to my great grandfather. The people I contacted knew who my great grandfather was. It was my great gf sister and brother children and great gc who I contacted. The stories we both heard were correct. It was Norway where I got to meet them. It was awesome. We still keep in contact. Share photos, what’s going on with the family. I was single with no kids at the time. I now have kids and would love to bring them over the Norway to visit their “family” overseas
I thought it was great and learned a little something about the blood line. But I didn’t have an overwhelming feeling of I’m finally home or anything to that nature.
Went to Denmark with my mom. She was impossible to spot in a crowd because she blended in so well.
I went to Killarney, Ireland when I was 35 for my birthday .This is the town I can trace my family to. It was kinda funny because it’s a huge tourist town since it’s on the ring of Kerry and they love Americans so much they have a 4th of July parade every year. We ate at a Mexican restaurant and they had a western themed one.
We had a unique experience. Before my parents went, we met a man from the area of Czechia our family was from with our same last name – it was a complete coincidence and it still blows my mind how all this came about from a chance meeting in our home town.
Anyway, we are related like 10 generations back. His partner (who speaks English) talked to the local historian and found some of the properties owned by our family. They also spent a few hours with the mayor of this small town and the historian. They had a great time.
We (the kids) went with them the next time and got the same tour. This time we also met the current owners of one of the properties and he called in his parents and grandparents to meet us. We took a small tour of the grounds behind the gate and then had coffee with them at their home.
The timing of our trip was because every 5 years they have a festival that’s like a homecoming – the goal is to bring back everyone that has moved away and just have fun like a big block party and talent show. My parents got to be in the parade as they traveled the farthest to be there. We were presented with some gifts from the mayor, and also the family we met. The father’s business was engraving, so he presented us with a wooden box laser engraved with a photo of us all they took the other day.
We ended the day at the history center and then the historian casually said – oh hey, you want a tour of our basement? No biggie. Turns out it was probably built in the 1300s, so you know, just a casual dungeon.
Overall we felt very comfortable and welcome, and not just for this amazing event. The country looks like my home state and I can see why so many immigrants would feel at home here. I would love to go back and explore more, as well as exploring other parts of our heritage.
As a 1/2 Cajun, France is a dream. I love going to explore while the Tour de France is happening because I love to cycle.
My heritage is mainly Dutch, Scottish, and English
I’ve been to the Netherlands, Scotland, and England and love them all..but that has nothing to do with my heritage. They’re just nice places.
I saw the town in Ukraine where my great grandmother was from. I could see why she left.
Ahaha I was raised in New England and my entire extended family are in Brazil.
What can I say… I said “no touchy” a lot. It was awkward, they’re very touchy feely people. Nice wonderful people who don’t know the meaning of personal space 😭
I grew up there. I was 11th generation born in the Bay Area. I moved.
I loved it. My parents did not. Paris France
Most Americans have ancestors from multiple countries. I have a surname from the Netherlands, but have ancestors from there, England, Ireland, Scotland, Germany, Switzerland, France, etc. I’ve been to many of those countries, but I don’t consider any of them “the homeland.” I’m just an American. Or a North American or a United States citizen if you’re a pedant.
Not yet but I hope to one day.
It ( Ireland ) was a blast – treated me as a much loved but somewhat dense cousin. I now know a couple Red Army chants
I am third generation American. My grandparents immigrated from Latvia to flee the Nazis. Stayed in the US because the Soviets took over basically immediately after.
Latvians, generally, have really maintained their cultural roots in America. I grew up going to Latvian school on Sundays, going to Latvian camp in the summer, and going to the Latvian Song and Dance festivals (which I still attend). It also helped that my great-grandparents immigrated as well and were alive until I was in high school. So my great-grandparents were real people to me, not just people of stories.
I went to Latvia for the country’s centennial celebration in 2018. I loved every minute of it. However, in the end, I was a tourist there. I have no blood family in the country left. They all died/were killed or were deported during the Nazi regime and then the Soviet one. My roots are memories.
But it was eye opening in the sense of why so many Americans identify as XYZ-American. Irish-American, Polish-American, Italian-American, etc etc. Because I really am Latvian-American. So much about me is quite Latvian. I was born that way, raised that way. But just as much of me is very American, especially the ways I was socialized. Things like manners, social etiquette, clothing, are all very American of me.
I am glad I went and I would love to go back. I’m not Latvian though and never will be. I’m Latvian-American which is its own identity to be cherished.
I went back to the old country to look into places where my family had spent time. Nothing was there anymore. Even the names of places were gone.
So not really country. But different parts of the US. My maternal lineage (mother’s mother’s mother’s mother’s and so on. My grandmother is a voting tribal member) are Hualapai Indians from the Grand Canyon area of Arizona. I have visited their capital city of Peach Springs, the last time being 20 years ago.
I am a White Guy, and so is my dad. We were traveling on a cross country road trip and we pull into Peach Springs. This would have been late 2004 and I was 20. I approached an older gentleman who was driving an official truck. I honestly can’t remember how I started the conversation, but at some point I explained who my great grandmother was (she was alive at the time) and who my grandmother was. He knew of them both but I am not sure if he knew them personally, he did know that my grandmother had a daughter and that daughter was my mother. He did point out that there were some cool information centers that could be helpful but they were closed at the time (it was either a Sunday or early in the morning and we were just passing through). He did say I should return for some event they had coming up if I had the time and I would just have to explain who I was.
On my dad’s side. His ancestors came to Buffalo NY. Some of our distant family members still live there. We spent a few days in the area but I didn’t feel any sort of connection to the area. I have go to knew a few family members still in the area, some are pretty cool and some are absurdly rude people.
My most recent European ancestors came here in the 1880s. For whatever reason, they didn’t really do much with the local diasporas. My grandmother’s grandparents were all from Germany, all of her ancestors came from Germany, she mentions that her parents spoke German too each other but didn’t teach the kids. She didn’t cook German food, or use German words, or have any German traditions, or even consider herself German American. She went to Europe several times in her life, she was interested in the Queen of England as a person and really liked the UK, even though she had no English ancestry, and I don’t think she even visited Germany or expressed having any interest in it what so ever.
25 years ago, one of my uncles married a half Mexican half Dutch woman (born Texas to immigrant parents) and something she noticed was that our family had zero immigrant traditions. Everything we did was distinctly American or Californian. She was expecting us to do Irish or German stuff and was surprised when we had no family traditions from either one.
The Netherlands. My grandma’s entire family emigrated in 1955, but grandpa’s family stayed behind. I still have many second cousins in the Groningen province. I visited them when I was in high school. Fortunately, everyone in that country speaks English 😁
My family came here in 1902 and Japan feels like a foreign country.
Felt about as familiar as Germany to me as a Midwesterner. Like, I can recognize certain elements as familiar and influential in my childhood environment, but it’s ultimately a foreign culture and a foreign language.
It was like being home. Cause I live there.
I grew up thinking I was about 90% German. Both parents had Germanic last/maiden names.
I was lucky enough to be stationed in Germany for 2 years while in the US Navy in the mid-1990s.
I didn’t bring my “Germanic Heritage” up, but my German friends would sometimes say something about my surname. I had a ton of German friends who were mostly college students majoring in English. I didn’t go there thinking I was going to find a link to my past, but I had never felt like I belonged in a place like I did when I was there.
I drank way too much, partied way too hard, and had the best two years of my life (pre-marriage). I had more fun than any one human deserves.
The people, food, beer, sights were all amazing.
I sobbed like a toddler the day I had to leave. I felt like I was leaving home. I wasn’t that upset leaving home to go to bootcamp, but I knew I’d get to go back home… I knew I’d never get to go back to that version of Germany. (my life would be different if I went back)