AncestryDNA Delves into Genealogy Travel with New Go Ahead Tours

Editor Shannon McMahon is always planning her next trip and often writing in her travel journal. Follow her on Twitter @shanmcmahon_ and on Instagram @shanmcmahon.

Shannon joined SmarterTravel in 2015. A former news reporter, she's lived in the south of Spain, spotted elephants in Sri Lanka, gone spelunking in the Caribbean, hiked Jordan's Petra Basin, interviewed Sao Paulo's Michelin-Star chefs, and explored China via bullet train. Travel trends, news oddities, and her visits to up-and-coming destinations are some of her favorite things to write about.

Her stories have also appeared online on USA Today, The Sun, Huffington Post, Business Insider, blog.TripAdvisor.com, Boston.com, and more. Her educational background is in journalism, art history, gender studies, Spanish, and film. She's been quoted as an expert travel source by CNBC, People.com, MarketWatch, The Washington Post, USA Today, and more.

The Handy Item I Always Pack: "Plenty of extra thick hair elastics. They tame my frizzy curls and come in handy in a surprising number of packing and hotel dilemmas."

Ultimate Bucket List Experience: "Climbing (yes, climbing, it's steep!) the Great Wall of China before it's gone."

Travel Motto: "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness." - Mark Twain

Aisle, Window, or Middle Seat: "Window, of course."

Email Shannon at smcmahon@smartertravel.com.

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DNA technology is increasingly changing the way we view the world, and now it may be changing travel. If you’ve ever considered taking a DNA test to uncover your heritage, or have gone down a records rabbit hole to find your ancestors, you can now physically follow your roots to the far-off destinations they’ll point you to.

Ancestry.com has partnered with Go Ahead Tours to launch heritage-geared tour offerings, led by an expert genealogist and based on your own DNA test.

The first group tours of their kind, these genealogy itineraries by Ancestry.com and Go Ahead will be offered for Ireland, Italy, and Germany in 2018 to start. Ancestry.com’s genealogists will lead the personal history charge, which is based on an AncestryDNA kit travelers take before departure.

How Go Ahead Uses AncestryDNA

The tour’s genealogist will discuss travelers’ DNA results with them before the trip, and can assist in building a family tree to use on the tour. During this consultation, travelers will have the option to add on site or home visits to specific villages or towns their ancestry searches lead them to—for an added price. “If you’re interested in an ancestral home visit, ask about organizing one during your pre-trip family history review,” Go Ahead notes.

Go Ahead’s local directors will also be on the journey to guide the itinerary and provide expert insight about the destination. Group sizes for these tours are limited to 15-28 travelers total.

Not of Irish, German, or Italian descent? Go Ahead says additional destinations will be announced early next year, with first departures slated for 2019.

Why Ancestry?

Smaller tour operators with a focus on genealogy have been on the rise in recent years, but this seems to be the first large family of tour offerings relying heavily on expert genealogists—and ones from the largest for-profit genealogy company in the world, no less.

It remains to be seen if travelers will appreciate this slightly pricier opportunity to follow their roots to a physical place, or if (as many testy travelers are wont to do) they’ll be disappointed by their own immense expectations. Uncovering centuries of personal family history can be difficult to accomplish. But perhaps no one knows better than an AncestryProGenealogist that these things are complicated, but worth trying.

“[Personal genealogy] certainly means different things to different people,” said Kyle Betit, Senior Genealogist and Travel Program Manager at AncestryProGenealogists. “We believe that these trips will give people the opportunity to trace their roots on a deeper level and maybe even discover something new or exciting about their own ancestors.”

That “maybe” is probably key.

Would you travel through your family history with a genealogist? Comment below.

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Associate Editor Shannon McMahon writes about all things travel. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

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