Ancestral Tourism
Ancestral tourism, also known as genealogy tourism or heritage tourism, is a type of travel where individuals visit places connected to their family history or ancestry.
People engage in ancestral tourism to explore their roots, learn about their ancestors’ lives, and connect with their cultural heritage. This can involve visiting towns, villages, or countries where their forebears lived, as well as historical sites, cemeteries, churches, or archives that hold records of their family’s past.
Key aspects of ancestral tourism:
Personal Connection: It’s about connecting with one’s family history and cultural heritage.
Exploration and Discovery: Visiting places where ancestors lived, worked, and were baptised, married or buried.
Cultural Immersion: Experiencing the environment and history that shaped one’s family.
Identity and Belonging: For families whose ancestors left their homeland many years ago, it’s a way of reconnecting with their roots.
Services offered by HDFHS:
Itinerary Planning: Tailored itineraries to relevant locations (churches, burial grounds, ancestral homes, places of employment, etc.).
Preliminary Research: Investigating historical records and local archives.
Guided Tours: Researchers can accompany/guide visitors to ancestral locations in the Huddersfield and district area.
We ask for a donation to the Society which can be discussed with our researcher prior to your visit. If you are interested please get in touch with our Research Co-ordinator: research@hdfhs.org.uk
Ancestral Tourism – Beaumont
We recently welcomed Robbie Beaumont from Canada. Our researcher had discovered that Robbie’s ancestors were cottage weavers in Farnley Hey & Upperthong. Robbie and the researcher visited Upperthong Church where his great-grandfather Sam Beaumont got married, before they emigrated to Canada and we also showed Robbie some family graves. For textile history we went to the Colne Valley Museum and of course the pub, the Beaumont Arms! Robbie was fascinated that there are so many Beaumont connections in the Huddersfield area.
One comment on our Facebook posting for Robbie’s visit that made us smile – “It’s like Who Do You Think You Are for non-famous people”
