Tour the family tree
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Going On Faith
Are you scratching your head trying to come up with an unusual, original trip for your senior group? Try shaking the family tree for ideas. Genealogical tourism is becoming more and more popular in cities around the country, where new research libraries are continually cropping up to put visitors in touch with their heritage. Groups that are interested in knowing where they come from may enjoy visiting local genealogical or historical societies as part of a larger tour or even as the main thrust of a visit. Most popular with genealogists are places like Salt Lake City, home to the world's largest repository of genealogical information, and Fort Wayne, Ind., where a new facility is being constructed to handle the thousands of visitors who come yearly to peruse government and military records. Visitors to genealogical hubs come for libraries and historical societies, which are often founts of information for those plotting their family trees. The Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne is so popular with genealogists that it's in the midst of a two-year renovation that will more than double the amount of space available for historical research. "The library will be very nice, because they're set up to handle both the experienced genealogist and a beginner," said Andrea Detlefsen, tourism director at the Fort Wayne Convention and Visitors Bureau. "We have a video for beginners to watch, and then they can go look at lists from the National Archives and at military records." The Kentucky Historical Society in Frankfort has also seen an increase in visitors, who browse genealogical records from the Kentucky Archives. The society's special-collections library houses additional historical or extremely rare records for research. "We have copies of a lot of the material from the Kentucky Archives and then some very unique things that they don't have," said Jim Kastner, library manager at the historical society. "A lot of people have no idea we have this much material." Des Moines, Iowa, is home to one of the country's biggest spots for family research. The Iowa Genealogical Society, which offers in-house information and electronic uplinks to nationwide data, can host a whole motorcoach full of genealogists. "They have one of the largest facilities for genealogy in the Midwest," said Becky Gruening, director of tour and travel at the Greater Des Moines Convention and Visitors Bureau. "They can host an entire motorcoach, and they have Internet hookups and a whole room of microfiche." But, by far the granddaddy of all genealogical sites in the country is in the middle of Mormon country. "The Family Research Library is the fourth-most-visited place in Utah," said Natalie Clawson, director of tourism at the Salt Lake City Convention and Visitors Bureau. "It's the largest genealogical library in the world. They have over 2 billion names available for public use and over 2.4 million rolls of microfilm records." The library was founded in 1894 by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which encourages family research among its members, and offers records from more than 110 countries on all six major continents. Although genealogical pilgrimages have typically been an individual leisure market, these cities have seen an increase in the number of groups planning trips specifically to visit historical libraries. "Groups generally stay in Salt Lake City for five to seven nights," Clawson said. "They usually stay at the library from open to close, but some will plan a day trip or arrange dinners at a restaurant in the city." Family heritage tours are such a source of revenue to the city that the CVB has designed a special brochure for researchers that outlines accommodations and genealogical service providers in the area. Genealogy is also attractive for tour companies. Because many libraries charge no admission and because researchers rarely venture out into town, Clawson said, tours are affordable and easy to organize. The Kentucky Historical Society holds a special weeklong event each year specifically for senior travelers. "We have an Elderhostel program once a year for people who come and simply do their genealogy," Kastner said. "We help people who are beginners learn how to do their genealogy. We also do sightseeing events and have speakers on Kentucky history and genealogy. That attracts people from all over the country." It's rare to find young people chomping at the bit to get into their family trees, but libraries across the nation are seeing increasing numbers of seniors digging into genealogy. Jason Mathis, director of communications for the Salt Lake City CVB, thinks that as people age, they begin to have more appreciation for knowledge of past generations. "A majority of people who use our library here are mature — 55 and up," he said. But a quickly aging baby-boom generation means that interest in this area is growing — and fast." "The level of interest in genealogy has definitely increased," Detlefsen said. "It seems to be skewing a little bit younger. We're seeing more middle-aged people come in, and schools are also incorporating a little bit of genealogy." |
| By Brian Jewell Going On Faith: The National Travel Newspaper for Religious Organizations. October/ November Volume 8 - Number 6 Going On Faith newspaper is published by The Group Travel Leader Inc., a Lexington, Kentucky based publishing company that produces niche travel market publications. Complimentary subscriptions are available to religious travel planners by visiting our website at
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