Taking a Family History Vacation

Family history vacations are either famous or infamous. It all depends on how in-tune the trip planner is with the tour participants and how much he or she knows about the family. There's a fine balance to be reached, but you can meet the challenge if you are willing to follow these steps:

1. Track down your relatives. Try finding relatives that are further up on the family tree. If you can find someone from an older generation, he or she might be able to give you valuable information about your family's past. They may also have entertaining stories that might be of particular interest to you or your children, which may play a part in helping you choose as a family which sites to visit. You may also wish to find living relatives whom you can visit while traveling.
2. Gather genealogical information. You can get quite a bit of information through the library, whether it be through personal research with a computer, or with guidance from a historical society or genealogical group. You can also find quite a bit of information on the internet. However, you must be careful with the information gathered online. Not all of the things you come across will be accurate. Be aware that much of the genealogical information online will need to be purchased.
3. Research which sites are still there. Make sure that the sites you'll be visiting are still there, or you may find yourself looking at an empty field in the middle of nowhere, wondering if you are even at the right place. It may be a great lesson on change, but it could also be a lesson in great disappointment if you drove all day to get there.
4. Choose age-appropriate activities. This one's self-explanatory. Just make sure you take into account not only age, but attention span as well. You also may wish to prepare travel kits to occupy the children while they are in the car or on the plane. This is, of course, probably moot if only adults are going on the tour.
5. Assemble the relevant data into an itinerary. Include only the most enjoyable and interesting sites on your tour. You may wish to allow everyone to choose a place to visit on the trip so that everyone is interested, but assure that the trip will not be too taxing on everyone by taking care that there are not too many sites to visit with too small an amount of time to visit them. Allow plenty of time for the family stuff, but plan just-for-fun things, too, and see the local sites that may not have been there way back when your family was first in the area.