Travel records are records that were produced by individuals as they traveled, whether that travel includes driving across a city, state, or country. This could include getting on an airplane, ship, train or any means of travel our ancestors chose to use to get them from one place to another. As people traveled, they could have produced city, state, or federal records.
Researching our ancestor’s travel history can be very beneficial to our overall genealogy research. Whether this travel involves immigration to a new country, moving from one city to the next, or taking that annual vacation, there could be records to help you document your ancestor’s travels.
One of the first obstacles to researching travel records is the question, “Where did they go?” Some record sources that you may have in your possession that can tell you this are:
- Photographs: As part of our genealogical records there may be photographs that help to document the various travels our ancestors undertook. These travel photographs could lead us to the places they traveled and to more records.
- Family Letters: Many of our ancestors wrote letters talking about their travels and sent them to family members. These letters could have great clues about the places and dates they traveled.
- Postcards: As our ancestors traveled, they might have picked up postcards to jot down a quick note and send it back to family members. Many of these kinds of postcards could be in the genealogical records that we hold. Many of these postcards were picture postcards of the places where they were visiting.
- Scrapbooks: Many of our ancestors compiled scrapbooks during their lifetimes. They could have included documents and photographs about their travels in their scrapbooks. Looking through the scrapbooks in our possession could result in some great information. Some of our ancestors also produced scrapbooks solely dedicated to their travels that could include picture postcards, photographs, and memorabilia from those travels.
- Diaries and Journals: Many of our ancestors wrote diaries and journals during their lives. These records can be a true gold mine of genealogical information including information about their travels. Travel information in diaries and journals could include some very specific information about where they traveled and what they experienced.
- Newspapers: The local newspapers liked to print stories about local people who traveled to other places. Looking for articles about these travels could name your ancestor. Also, read the community columns in the newspaper for small snippets mentioning where your ancestor traveled and what they did when they were there.
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Passenger lists
See also: Passenger lists
If your ancestor had to travel from one country to another by boat or ship, they could be documented on a passenger list. Several major online databases have passenger lists index or even digitized and available to genealogists. What information could be found on a passenger list?
- Name: The name of your ancestor on a passenger list as it was known at the time they traveled. This could be a huge help to any genealogist trying to find the original spelling of their family name.
- Age: Many passenger lists record the age of the person traveling. The age of a person can be of help to genealogists when there are no birth records available.
- Place Traveling From: Passenger lists almost always indicate where the person is traveling. The place listed could be the name of the country they are coming from or even the city.
- Place Traveling To: When someone is traveling to a new place, the passenger list will sometimes record what the person’s destination is going to be once they arrive. This is a great piece of information to track our ancestors once they have left the ship.
- Ship Name: The name of the ship or boat the passenger list is from will include the name of the ship. Researching the ship could result in a photograph of the ship to add to your genealogy research.
Passports
It may be that your ancestors traveled out of their native country. In order to travel from one country to the other, they may need to have a passport or travel papers. Genealogists should check their genealogical records for passports or any type of travel papers their ancestors left behind.
MyHeritage has a few passport databases genealogists can explore. To see what MyHeritage has on passports, go to the Collection Catalog and search for the term “passport”. For the United States, they have a database entitled United States Passport Applications, 1795-1925 that contains over a million images. Other passport databases on MyHeritage include Lithuanian Internal Passports, 1919-1940, Portugal, Madeira Passport Applications and Latvia, Riga Internal Passport Holders Index, 1918-1940.
All aspects of our ancestor’s lives should be researched. Travel records are a great way to get to know your ancestors and tell more of your ancestor’s life story.
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Explore more about travel records
- Immigration and travel records on MyHeritage
- Following Your Ancestor's Immigration Trail, webinar by Mike Mansfield on the MyHeritage Knowledge Base
- Tracing Immigrant Ancestors, webinar by Lisa A. Alzo, M.F.A. on Legacy Family Tree Webinars