That includes spending on travel, an ancestry industry in itself. Numerous tour companies cater to that hunger to visit the homeland—planning the logistics, conducting research, even helping track down relatives.

For many Americans, visiting their native lands is not only an emotional quest but a logical step in their family-tree research. They want to learn what they can’t at home, walk where their ancestors walked and meet relatives they never knew existed. Here are three travelers who did just that.

GENEALOGY BEGAN to interest me in 2022. I started looking up information on my grandparents in Hawai‘i, building my family tree and collecting documents.

In April 2024, I traveled to Japan on an Ancestry/Kensington Tours’ Personal Heritage Journey with a genealogist, Yuzo Ochiai. We walked through my maternal grandmother’s city of Itoman with a photo of a dental office and a prewar address we thought might be connected to my family. The building was gone.

We entered a hardware store and shared our information. The owner pulled up a map and said, “Go to this address and somebody should be able to help you.” No one was home, but three women came out from across the street. One of their husbands called a man who used to live there and told him, “I’ve got a genealogist with a guy from Oregon who thinks he’s related to you.” When we met, his sister was there too. We discovered that their dad and my mom are first cousins.

I had a picture of two parents and two young children. The back of the photo said the baby was named Junko. “That’s me!” the sister said. It was surreal: A few hours before, she was at home, minding her own business, and then she’s meeting a relative. It was like a reality show.

I didn’t consider how meeting my distant relatives would impact them. They bombarded me with questions. Even when the genealogist wasn’t available to interpret, we communicated and joked by pointing. It was like being with my cousins in Hawai‘i.

MY KIDS GAVE me an African Ancestry DNA test for a Christmas present in 2022. It showed that I’m from the Temne people in Sierra Leone. I was so excited, and in April 2023, I took a two-week tour with African Ancestry. Twelve of us were in the group: Some were Temne; others were from the Mende people.

The trip was profound. Sometimes I was in awe; sometimes I was in tears. We held a memorial on the shores of Bunce Island, where ships brought in and shipped out slaves. We dressed in white and stood in silence. Some prayed. Most of the slaves were shipped to South Carolina and Georgia, and I felt a connection: My mother was from South Carolina.

We met the Temne on a trip to Tasso Island. The ladies and children sang welcome songs as we left the boat, and we sat under a wide, beautiful tree. The chief attended, and we were inducted into the tribe.

I wanted to join the Tasso Island community long term. I’m learning the language, and I am now a chieftain. My title is ya bomposseh, which I have been told means “woman chief.” I’ll work with the head chief to help women and girls in the villages. My daughter and I returned to Tasso in November 2023 and brought food and baby formula. Now that I’m retired, I’d love to go back once a year. I don’t feel like a visitor there. I feel at home.

IN MAY 2023, my cousin welcomed me and my husband to his farmhouse in Amelsbüren. He held a round tray with tiny shot glasses and caramel liqueur. He couldn’t speak English—our guides translated—but he toasted us, welcoming us to the family.

We came here because I’ve researched my family history for over 40 years, and I’d exhausted the records at home. I wanted to see where our ancestors came from. Family Tree Tours handled the logistics, helped with my research and found relatives. In the town of Offenbach an der Queich, I met about a dozen fifth cousins from the Gensheimer family, on my father’s side, at the community hall. The mayor attended and gave us a tour. Three different Gensheimer families live there. My research showed they’re all related, which they didn’t know.

Throughout the trip, I learned about my family. I received names and charts. I saw houses where my maternal and paternal ancestors lived. I learned that my cousin—the one who served us caramel liqueur—lives and farms on ancestral land, as our family has lived and farmed there for centuries. I learned that my maternal ancestors were in Amelsbüren before 1500. I discovered that one cousin on my paternal side works for the mayor, one is an elected official and other family members own a winery. I’ve been corresponding with some of my German cousins since our vacation, and we’ve exchanged names, dates and photos. I feel like I have a bigger family now.

As I walked through my ancestors’ villages and met relatives, I felt awe and gratitude and amazement at their hospitality for someone they’d just met. And I felt happy. I was like a sponge, taking it all in.