Where is your 'ancestral home'

[*sparkle*]

And has it changed or your thoughts changed since you started your research?

I'm curious.... as I always thought I would always think of where I was brought up as my 'home', and I thought researching my family history may lead to somewhere exotic as I have an unusual surname.

However I have gone back to about 1630 in an area only about 8 miles from where I was brought up and very close (half a mile) to a place where I spent a lot of time as a child and a teenager (long story but its a forest...)

Anyway I now think of this place as my ancestral home rather than the few miles away where I was born and lived until I could 'escape' aged 18......

Has anyone had similar thoughts? Is your 'home' where you live? Or do you see your real 'home' as somewhere where your ancestors lived?

Tracey

[Nick29]

Well, I hadn't got much of a clue when I started - I knew that my grandfather on my mother's side came from Somerset, and my grandmother's family came from Suffolk.  I didn't have a clue about my dad's side, although I had a vague suspicion that he was born in North London.   Now, after just over a year of research, I now know that my family had a theme song...... "I've been everywhere, man" 

I think I have ancestors and tree branches in just about every part of England, and branches trailing over to America, Australia and France.

Where's my ancestral home ?  Well, I've always had an affinity for East Anglia, and I think that's where it is.

[wotty]

I always loved Northumberland, even as a child. I'm glad to have found out that my great-great grandfather was from Rothbury. I spent a week there 2 years ago. It felt like home.

Wotty

[Lydart]

I have always loved Cornwall and the coast there with a passion  ... ever since I first went there aged about 20.

Then I discovered my illegit. fathers family via his mother originated in Cornwall ... and have traced them there from the 1860's back to 1550 ... and possibly further back than that ...

So its Cornwall for me, even though I have never lived there ...

[Ebor337]

Similar to Wotty, I thought I was 'Yorkshire born and bred' but it turns out my name is entrenched i Suffolk. I spent 5 days down there and loved every minute of it.

Strange how the compass inside us all changes so quickly!

[Roobarb]

I can hardly believe I've come across this thread after I've just posted something about my recent visit to Exeter on another thread.
As soon as I arrived in Exeter I had a good feeling about the place and when I visited Topsham where my ancestors actually lived, I felt so much at home. It's a long way from where I was born and still live, I don't know how they could bear to leave such a beautiful place.

[Rossdal3]

Hi there,

My friends and family are alway bemused by my preference for spending my holidays each year in the cold and damp Yorkshire Dales when I have lived in sunny Australia since I was 16.  My first trip back to England was some 30 odd years after emigrating and I have been addicted to the Dales ever since and can't wait to get back each year.  It's the place I carry around in my head. Regent Street in London is another place I have an affinity for, not sure why, but I am sure one day I will find I had an ancestor from that neck of the woods as well.

Cheers,
Jill

[cuthie]

This is maybe a wee bit off topic, but many years ago when we were about 13 years old my friend and I both acquired cycles and one night decided to try cycling along a road which was new to us.

We rounded this corner and both of us spoke at the same time, saying "I feel I've been here before."  We both knew we hadn't, and what a strange feeling.

Regards
Cuthie 

[kizmiaz]

I have just managed to trace one of my lines back to 1507, and it moves my earliest ancestral home about 1000 yards from my current home in Brighton!

A couple of yards a year isn't bad going really, is it?

Maybe by the 26th century, we'll by out of County! 

Glen