Is this really happening?

For those of you who know me, I am a big genealogy and history nerd. I am prone to going on deep dives hunting for small details surrounding my family history. Sometimes I take a breath and let my Ancestry family history rest for awhile, but I always return, wanting to add more branches to my tree. This spring I've been given the opportunity to travel to my ancestral home in Yorskshire, England with my older cousin who has been there several times and is as genealogy obsessed as I am. It's a trip that I always thought would happen "someday," and someday is now. Is this really happening?

I've always been interested in genealogy, but my genealogy obsession really started after my children were born around 10 years ago. Maybe from a desire to pass this information on to them. Although, they swear that they do not like "old timey stuff." I hope that someday they will care about it.

My introduction to "old timey stuff" happened when I visited my grandparents' homes as a child. I would always gravitate towards the black, leather-bound 1920s photo album at Grandmother's house or the "big red book" at Granny's house. I would always ask, who are these people, how are they related to us, tell me a story about them. Soon, I began tagging along with my Grandmother when she was a docent in historic Madison, Indiana. She would dress up in costume and give tours of old homes and a doctor's office there. Besides being creeped out by an actual skeleton in the closet at the doctor's office, I really enjoyed being her history sidekick.

So, this trip is kind of a dream for me. I hope to visit the old homesteads, churches, towns, cemeteries where my family originated. I also plan to do a little genealogy research, although most of that has been done online already. It may sound extremely boring to some, but for me and my cousin it's exciting. Our family came from Yorkshire to southeastern Indiana in the early 1800s around the time of statehood in Indiana. Now I journey back to Yorkshire 200 years later, and I can't wait to see what I discover.