My own ancestry experience…

Ancestry Tours – Family Stories: a tour inspired from my own story.

Two years ago I discovered, by chance, my great-grandfather’s story – a story nobody in his/my family (quite a large one) has known about. I didn’t know too many things about my ancestors and I was pretty sure they were all little farmers from around Sibiu. But, my great-grandfather’s story was such a surprise…

I found out he was a sailor in the Austro-Hungarian Navy. In 1913 he went on an expedition journey with a cruiser ship – Kaiserin Elisabeth – and visited India, Egypt, Hong-Kong and China. In 1914, in September, when WWI started his cruiser ship was in Tsingtao, a German colony in China. Japan attacked Tsingtao so Kaiserin Elisabeth crew had to fight back and defend it, as Austro-Hungarians were allies of Germany. One month later, the cruiser ship was defeated by the Japanese so, my great-grandfather and his crew were taken prisoners. He spent 5 years in the prisoner camps, in Japan. He was released in 1919, came back to Sibiu, made a family and… here I am:)

In the latest years, I noticed this new trend…. Many tourists make their DNA tests and realize that their ancestors had their origins in Romania. Many of them emigrated at the end of the 19th century, beginning of the 20th. Some left the country even later, around WWII. Actually, most probably my great-grandfather enrolled the Austro-Hungarian Navy hoping to leave for USA…

If you have origins in Transylvania and want to learn more, we are happy to help you and join you. We had so many tourists who didn’t know too many things but their trip here was revealing and they discovered lots of interesting things.

If you let us know your family story (and origins) we can customize the tour and the itinerary!