Ballycarbery Castle Ruins in Ireland

Walk In Your Ancestors’ Footsteps: 8 Tips for Planning Genealogy Travel

Genealogy travel is one of the biggest travel trends in recent times, allowing people to find their extended family, discover ancestral roots, and understand their lineage. Today’s information age has made it easier to learn known and unknown facts about your family history and walk in your ancestors’ footsteps. These facts can be life-changing, helping you get closer to your family.

If you’re thinking of taking a genealogy tour, these tips will come in handy.

1. Plan in Advance

Genealogy travel may require you to visit unknown or remote regions of the country. Planning in advance will give you enough time to prepare travel documents and other necessities accordingly.

Make sure you plan this trip differently than your usual trips because there will be a lot of genealogical and cultural exploration, library research, and visits to the mayor’s office, churches, and relatives involved. So you should create a detailed plan that includes how you’ll fulfil every goal.

2. Start Saving for the Trip

Genealogy tours can be expensive depending on the option you choose. The best way to ensure last-minute hiccups is to start saving for the trip. Even if you feel you have enough money for the trip, make sure you save some extra because you never know when you can need them. Create a budget and spend accordingly to avoid breaking the bank.

3. Make Sure You Have Gathered Accurate Facts & Information

A google search can give you a lot of valuable information and misleading facts at the same time. Verify every piece of information before collecting it, or you can hire us for your ancestry research. We have all the legitimate resources to offer you precise and accurate information.

4. Book The Tour Early

Most heritage tourism companies, including our company, take limited travel slots per day to offer a comprehensive experience to every group or individual. So you must book the tour in advance to get your desired slot.

5. Don’t Forget Adoptions and Blended Families

We can say from experience that most of our clients assume that including adoptions isn’t essential. However, to fully understand your family history and stories, make sure you’ve included everyone in your family tree, even if they are adopted.

6. Visit Neighbours, Friends and Acquaintances

During your ancestral research, looking for neighbours, friends, and other acquaintances of your ancestors will give you some more valuable stories that they witnessed themselves. You may even discover some more secrets and travel back in time.

7. Do Your Homework

Before starting your trip, make sure you’ve researched everything to enhance your overall experience. Even though you’d have a professional guide, researching will make it easier to understand everything.

8. Hire A Professional Heritage Tour Company

Genealogy research is extensive that requires a lot of time and experience. Doing it for the first time can be overwhelming, and you may not find the answers you’re looking for. Hiring a professional company like ours will make things a lot smoother, and you’ll have peace of mind that everything is planned properly.

Temple Bar located in Dublin, Ireland

Our company, My Ireland Family Heritage, is considered one of the best ancestry tour companies globally, and we have been offering our services for over 20 years. We offer ancestry research heritage trips, genealogy tours, family tree vacations, self-drive options and more genealogy services in Ireland. Reach out to us for more details.

Scroll to Top

Customised Genealogy & Historical Tour

Review of My Ireland Heritage Tours Presented on Trip adviser Oct 2024 By • Family TomBarron2013 New York City, NY2

Once in a lifetime experience

Oct 2024 • Family

We highly recommend My Ireland Heritage for anyone who wants to learn and be guided to their Irish “roots” and much, much more. Sean Quinn and Ian Darragh of My Ireland Family Heritage have deep knowledge or the areas we wanted to visit in Meath, Sligo and Kilkenny. While we knew about one side of the family history back to 1690, there was nothing known about the other that arrived in the US in the 1870s.

Ian, Sean, and Nicola did thorough research on our localities and locations from which our ancestors left for America in 1849 and later. In addition, Ian and Sean did separate day-long “recons” in advance of our time with them, seeking out local people and the specific properties with maps and whatever records still available. Their results were absolutely outstanding! In both our cases, they found and took us to our still-existing cottages and shops from the early 1820s.

It was so enjoyable to be with Ian for three days and for a special day with Sean. Whether it was the Newgrange World Heritage sites 5,500 years old , the Battle of the Boyne 1690 , or the local cemeteries and churches of our ancestors. Ian was especially attentive to my wife throughout the travels after she twisted her ankle in a rain-soaked old cemetery.

Throughout the process of trip preparation over months to giving us the final, wonderful books of Meath and Sligo, Aisling was highly professional and responsive with all the many details. The bound books she prepared are treasures! Thanks to all for truly exceptional experiences.

Newgrange World Unesco Site 5500 years old
Battle of the Boyne 1690 AD
Customised Historical Tours Trim Castle
Entrance stone at Newgrange

Self Drive Product

Review of My Ireland Heritage Tours Presented on Trip adviser by Shelley L @ sjlively

Exceptional in every way!

Over the last few months of preparing for our trip, every single detail was meticulously attended, not only professionally, but helpfully, and in such a friendly manner, that I felt as if I knew Sean, Aisling and Ian before I even stepped off the plane.

The amount of work these wonderful people put into our personal history is mindboggling. My mother was an avid amateur genealogist, and had worked for decades to bring to light the trail our family took, but our resources are limited.

Sean knows exactly where to look, and was able to fill in so many gaps that had eluded us for generations. Some of the information he found, unbeknownst even to him, actually solidified the findings we had amassed over the years. Ours was a family in coal mining – I only found on our tour that they had originated from a mining area, and their arrival on the  border coincided exactly with the decline in the mining industry in County Wicklow.

I would have been overjoyed simply with the knowledge of why they left when they did, about 12 years before the famine. Breaking through our brick wall of great grandparents even farther back on the family tree was a dream come true, but to be able to set foot on not only the area they lived, and find that the house is still there was overwhelming. Seeing the family church and cemetery where our ancestors and extended family still rest is a truly moving experience.

The care taken by this company in each and every aspect of the journey cannot be overstated. Only about 2 weeks prior to my trip, Sean contacted me to let me know that he had also stumbled across some of my husband’s family name in the process and included them as well in his research. How often can anyone say that they not only got what they paid for, but more than they ever imagined? I can say that. They were even kind enough to answer a few follow-up questions after my return home, as I was so stunned on my tour with Ian that I didn’t think ask at the time.If you have the opportunity to make the trip to Ireland, contact My Ireland Family Heritage before you go.

If your family was there, Sean will go above and beyond to find them. Even without family, contact them anyway. Ian is a walking encyclopedia of history, and so fun to talk to. Aisling will make sure every “I” is dotted, and every “T” is crossed.  Thank you so much for the trip of a lifetime, and the opportunity to pass on everything we have discovered to future generations

The Consultation at Hotel / Office or by Phone opens all doors
Genealogy gets you off the Beaten Track to see the Real Ireland

Unique to Every Address with My Ireland Family Research