Genea-journey: Using Google’s Street View

As I grew up, I often heard about the places my family came from, the countries, cities, streets and houses in which they lived.

We recently wrote about Genea-journeys, which we described as “a journey to research your family history and discover new relatives and information about them, or it could be an actual physical trip to the places your ancestors lived.”

Without the chance to personally visit my ancestors’ homes, I wondered what they looked like. I wanted to get a sense of the physical surroundings in which they lived.

After reading an interesting article about how to use Google Images for family history research, I decided to take my own virtual genea-journey using Google’s Street View. This tool lets you tour – virtually – almost any road in the world.

My children and I visited their grandparents’ home, as well as my grandparents’ and great- grandparents’ homes. Although the images are modern, it’s still an exciting experience to jump between countries at a click and see those buildings that were home to my relatives.

My great-grandparents' home. (Credit: Google)

Have you tried Google Street View? What did you think of the experience? Share your comments below.