My Wanderlust List: Heritage Inspired Travel
wan·der·lust (WAHN-der-lust) noun
a strong or irresistible impulse to travel
origin | German : wandern, to wander (from Middle High German) + Lust, desire (from Middle High German, from Old High German)
I’ve always felt an incredible urge to travel, to see the world and everything within it. To marvel at soaring cathedrals, centuries old. To witness natural wonders like Aurora Borealis. To discover hidden waterfalls off unbeaten paths. To feel how insignificantly small I am compared to the grains of sand in a vast, never-ending desert. To experience other cultures, eat local food, hear languages, listen to music, and learn about traditions. To live anew, and, above all else, to find someplace that would bring peace, solace and an end to my wandering ways. Because, like one of my favorite lines from one of my favorite movies:
“I don't want to own anything until I find a place where me and things go together. I'm not sure where that is but I know what it is like. It's like Tiffany's... Calms me down right away. The quietness and the proud look of it; nothing very bad could happen to you there. If I could find a real-life place that'd make me feel like Tiffany's, then - then I'd buy some furniture and give the cat a name!”
Growing up, my dad was—and still is—an over-the-road truck driver. During my childhood, most of his routes were delivering to the coastal ports, like Long Beach, CA; Seattle, WA; or Norfolk, VA. As kids, my brother and I took turns traveling with him over our summer and Christmas breaks. I’d carefully pack my “Going to Grandma’s” red suitcase, with more books than it could hold, and imagined myself off on adventure to discover all the wonders of the world. I marveled at the breathtaking vistas: from the crisp, pine-scented air of the Cascades to the mist-filled Smoky Mountains. Gaped at the oceans and the endless horizon beyond. And snapped endless photographs on disposable cameras of landscapes and wildlife foreign to my midwestern mind.
Yet it wasn’t until I was in my teens that I recognized the importance of traveling back to where our families departed. When I was in high school, my grandmother, along with her two sisters, joined a tour group destined for Ireland. The trio was dubbed “The Three Sisters” and in a chance stop along the way, they discovered a pharmacy that bore a similarity to their maiden name: Kennaley. Upon her return, whenever she reminisced over the trip, she always included the owner joking with them that they may be long-lost cousins returned home.
Around 2015, when my genealogy hobby became more of an obsession in trying to solve missing links, I purchased each of my parents an AncestryDNA test to learn more about their individual inheritances. At the time, I understood only the basics of DNA: that each individual person has their own individual DNA makeup, inherited by each parent, yet I had no idea that that also individual markers might be applied to a person’s ancestral region. But, when you look at in context, it makes complete sense.
You receive 50% of your DNA from your mother, and 50% from your father. And each of those halves contains entirely random sequences of data. Each of your parents received 50% from their mother, and 50% from their father. Again, each half containing random sequences of data. Meaning, your unique sequence is going to be different from your siblings (with the exception of identical twins). The more siblings and family members you test, the more you learn about your family’s ancestral history as a whole because each of your siblings can received different sequences of ancestral, regional history.
While your DNA doesn’t change, our knowledge does. Over time, the amount of data Ancestry.com has increases, and they are constantly improving the ways they can analyze it. When that leads to new discoveries, they update your results. And those results have come a long way since those early days where I was excited each time a new “match” appeared. These days, I’m now excited to see how much the results have refined to specific regions.
My Mother’s AncestryDNA Results
With each update, the regions become more defined. Where her test used to say “Ireland” has now refined into Connacht, Ireland on the western coast. Additionally, broader areas like: Germanic Europe split with her results narrowing into Northwestern Germany. Most surprising of all, her once 10% Denmark origins are no longer reflected. Instead, her results now show a 2% increase in The Netherlands, a 3% increase in Slovenia, a 6% increase in Central Scotland & Northern Ireland and a 1% increase in Sweden.
My Father’s AncestryDNA Results
My father’s results were less pronounced with only a 1% loss of Swedish origins and a 1% increase each in Denmark and The Netherlands, however, he had the larger number of regions that refined. His once broad regions of Ireland split with results from several locales include: Munster, Leinster, Connacht, and Donegal. Additionally, his “Germanic Europe” region split with his DNA results more aligned with Southern Germanic Europe.
Below is my personal wanderlust list based on my parent’s AncestryDNA results. With every test, their results become more and more refined. I’ve created a template that can be copied.
