Prologue: England 2019
I'm going to England again!
I was hesitant to book this trip because this one feels much more...indulgent. It's mostly for pleasure. Okay, it's all for pleasure. The ancestry connections are quite distant. The majority of the time I am visiting places I want to see and explore, not where I have roots.
Another reason I was reluctant to go is because I know I'm lucky to travel as much as I do from a financial and vacation time standpoint and feel guilty that others don't always have that opportunity. I also feel pressure to not travel alone, like my experiences don't mean as much or that it's weird since I'm not with someone else. Sometimes I get this vibe from people when I tell them my plans. (To be fair, I also get a lot of positive feedback, but of course it's the weird vibes that stay with me.) Additionally, I don't feel the overwhelming need to go like I did last time. I just want to...and was struggling with if wanting to was a good enough reason.
Essentially I was spending a lot of energy worrying about what other people thought of me doing it and justifying it to myself.
But enough with the qualifiers. It all came down to this: I can go, so I'm going. I don't expect anyone to be as excited about it as I am or even fully understand why I'm doing it. But I'm going. And I'm going to love it!
I plan to blog every day like last year and I invite you to follow along!
England 2019!
I'm exploring the southeast part of England this time called Kent and East Sussex. Below is a map with the county names listed; I've circled the area for my 2019 adventure. Comparatively, I was way up north last year in the counties of Durham and Tyne & Wear.
My stops will be Canterbury, Whitstable, Dover, Tenterden, Rye, Eastbourne, Tonbridge, Hadlow, and a few days in London at the end. Here is a zoomed-in version of the area I'm visiting with pins in the cities and towns I'll be.
Tenterden, Tonbridge, and Hadlow are the towns where I have distant ancestry in this part of the country. Hadlow is the pin near Tonbridge on the map above; it's too small for its name to show. I likely will only be able to see one tangible place related to my ancestors and it's in Hadlow. But it's meaningful enough for me to just roam streets and think about the people who were born and buried these places who had my blood in their veins. Hadlow in particular is pretty cool because many of my ancestors who emigrated to America were born there.
It's been such a pleasure doing the research about these towns and cities and putting together my itinerary for the trip. I'm excited for this experience and to share it with you!
Ancestry Update
Soon after I got back from England last year, I got an Ancestry.com update with more precise data on regions from which I descend. I found out that I am more English, Welsh, and Northwestern European than I thought--17% more, in fact. Ireland, Scotland, and Norway lowered a bit, but Germanic Europe also increased. The Scheffert side is where the Germany areas come into play. Super interesting!
