Ancestral Tourism

An article by Joe Saunders

In the cold and dark of winter many of us look to escape. For some, the getaway is with a holiday to somewhere warmer and lighter. Many people turn to researching the past, and travel back in time. It is possible to do a bit of both through ‘Ancestral Tourism’, by visiting the places related to your ancestors. 

Understanding the social and local history of our family trees is incredibly important. Genealogy tourists take this a step further by walking in the footsteps of our ancestors.[1]  

The main form of ancestral tourism involves a holiday. Many family historians will tie in a visit to a place where our ancestors lived as part of a trip, if we happen to be near to somewhere with a family connection. An ancestor-hunting holiday can however, be a distinct trip in itself. Such holidays might contain other activities but will be mostly geared around visiting places our ancestors lived and perhaps useful trips to local archives. Such ‘working-holidays’ might be a rare treat (and dependent on the goodwill of travelling companions!) but they can be joyous experiences combining on-the-ground exploration of places our ancestors will have known along with practical archival work and some cultural immersion. Ancestral tourism in this way ‘forges deep and lasting connections’.[2] 

When planning such a holiday it is key to think ahead of time. Some important considerations include research on local museums to shed light on local life, getting to grips with distances (people in the past could travel a lot!) and local transport options, checking to make sure archives and other institutions are open on the days you intend to visit and even booking items ahead if you can. Booking a tour or even hiring a tour guide can help you make the most of your time.[3] A bit of language preparation, if travelling where English isn’t the first language, is always helpful. 

For those of us whose time and budget restrict our ability to visit all the places connected with our ancestors, it is possible to ‘visit’ many places from afar through online resources. Use something like Google Maps to take yourself around the place in the first instance, then see if there are historic maps you can look at to see the layout of a place when your ancestor lived there. It might be possible to read some literature and eat some food from the area, to assist with the virtual immersion. 

Ancestral tourists in Britain are well-served for virtual visits. The National Library of Scotland online maps should be your first port of call, with a huge range of digitised Ordnance Survey and other historic maps, https://maps.nls.uk/. Use Geograph, https://www.geograph.org.uk/, a brilliant site which aims to crowdsource images for each grid square of Britain, to look up particular viewpoints. 

There are many ways to be an ancestral tourist, beyond the starting thoughts shared here, and certainly no set way. However you go about it, the most important thing is to have fun. You will be pleasantly surprised by how much better you will feel you know your ancestors. 

Pharos courses:
For more on exploring the places of our British ancestors, perhaps to prepare for some ancestral tourism of your own, then Pharos have a range of courses to help. These include our courses on, Local History, One-Place Studies and House History as well as Researching Ancestors in Continental Europe.

Sources:
[1] G. Higginbotham, ‘Seeking roots and tracing lineages: constructing a framework of reference for roots and genealogical tourism’, Journal of Heritage Tourism 7:3 (2012), 189-203.
[2] Sandhya Suresh, ‘Clan Graham Society donates £5,000 to Mugdock Castle', Glasgow Times [21st August 2025]
[3] British Guild of Tourist Guides, https://britainsbestguides.org/