As much as I would love to I haven't been invited.

And realistically, I don't really know him, so staying someplace else and getting to know him would be the wiser and safer thing to do. He's offered to help me find a cute holiday rental for the week.

I checked out New Zealand since it's going to be close to summer in November... Absolutely beautiful. And double my vacation budget... maybe next year.

Oops, I didn't want to interfere there

More like a month if you keep giving me places to visit, lol

Thanks larsi

Keep them for the next visit. And bring Mikey with you

nz is definitely stunning lars sounds like he would be fun to visit I would plan your itinerary around him

Lol, I'm sure I will be fine on my own.

Delightfulillusions is in Scotland and I want to visit the West coast, so I might spend extra time in Scotland and visit a while with her.

Yay, I'm looking at other tours that fit my interests a little more rather than my budget. They focus more on one country, but are still really nice. The one I really like isn't available in the winter. That one would have been perfect. Starts around your area and ends up in London.

Either way, once I pick my tour let's get together and make some plans of our own

Cool, me too!

http://www.waterfordtreasures.com/news/worlds-longest-viking-sword-finally-arrives-in-waterfords-viking-triangle

http://visitkilkenny.ie/heritage_kilkenny


Only went to Kilkenny last month

Cool, thanks Larsi. I'm going to do some research of the area my family is from and see if I can find anything about them.

It would be really great to see where your family came from. I’ve always said I would go to England to see where the first of my family came from...but just figuring that out will probably require magic. Ancestry.com is not even sure.

Whereabouts are they from, mind me asking? Prolly I know the area

My father did a family tree a while back when he was still alive, but I'm not sure where it is. I'll check with my sister. Oh wait, he did it of his side and they are all from Pennsylvania... so guess that doesn't help.

I'll have to contact my Aunt.

Larsi, they are from the area around Devon, not totally sure yet, but that's what my sister said.

Yeah, I did the whole geneology thing for my kids.
It was tough but I found out I have ancestors in Wales, England, Scotland, Poland and Ireland.
My biggest help was when I found a living relative (now dead) that had already done much of the research. My dad's family was there but they had no data on his children, which I gave them freely for helping me.
With 14 grandchildren, I could really give them an update.
You should not give up.
Ancestry.Com is not the only resource.

http://www.genealogy.com/
http://www.411locate.com/
http://www.intelius.com/
http://publicrecords.searchsystems.net/

Plus there are a lot of cemeteries that have digitized their populations.
Have fun.

Back on topic:
Pisces,
If you are really interested in touching with your roots you can do some cemetery touring and take rubbings of tombstones. Its tedious but not expensive and kinda interesting.
Once you have some actual names and dates, you can check out the local libraries and newspaper archives to find out where they lived and go visit the neighborhoods.
Just an idea.

Those are old world countries that preserve heritage so you might even find some stores and such that haven't really changed over time.

Whatever you plan Pisces, Im sure your holiday will be exactly what you desire it to be. *wink*

That sounds intriguing Tom. I'm actually getting a little excited over the idea of exploring this. It adds so much more to the adventure. Thanks for the suggestions.


Thanks Stormy for the encouraging words... I very much agree with you!

Devon? That's England

Larsi, I think Devon may be a bit risky still, they are still at war with Cornwall over who invented the clotted cream scone

It is lovely down there!

Thanks for the advice Tom. I’m continually checking back on all of those sources to see if a clue surfaces. They were two brothers who came to America in the 1850’s and had extremely common names. We can see the ship manifest from their voyage, but it doesn’t say where they had lived in England, or who their parents were. I actually hired a professional a few years ago who couldn’t figure it out. We think their naturalization papers were lost...or maybe my family is here illegally after all these years. Think they’ll ship us back to England?

I thought they came over from Ireland, that's what the family's been saying. I have ancestry in Germany, Scotland, and Ireland... oh and Yugoslavia. Hmmm... guess I have more inquiring to do.