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Ancestry travel helps us understand our past and future

How well do you know your family’s history? Have you ever explored where you came from, beyond your immediate relatives? This could be the perfect time to begin your journey. Getting to know your ancestors can help you understand where you came from and give context to your life. It also gives you more understanding of your culture, traditions, and beliefs, ultimately helping us feel connected.

For example, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, some 31.5 million Americans claimed Irish ancestry in 2021, accounting for 9.5 percent of the population. Over 42 million U.S. citizens claimed ancestral links to Germany, and 31.8 million Americans have historical familial ties with the United Kingdom.

In this webinar, we’ll learn how to explore your genealogy and uncover your family history, with advice on how to plan your travels at home and abroad.

Webinar details: Ancestry Travel, hosted by Kathy Buckworth

Date: Tuesday, March 25, 2025

When: 7 pm EST (check local time zones here)

Where: Zoom! Sign up below for the link. Capacity is 100 women. The session will be recorded and shared on our YouTube channel for those who can’t join us. As always, participants are welcome to share their experiences and ask questions.

These webinars are offered to all women at no charge, but we are asking for your support to pay our hosts and team who help produce these. Please consider supporting our efforts to help women travel safely and well here. 

Our expert panelists

For this event, our moderator is Kathy Buckworth, JourneyWoman’s Multi-generational Travel writer. alongside experts who can help you get started on the journey of discovering your roots and heritage, in North America and Europe.

Ann V. Quinlan, CEO, Spiral Journeys (Ireland)

Speaker Biographies

Kyle Betit, Ancestry.com: As an avid traveler and the manager of Ancestry’s travel program, Kyle Betit enjoys taking people on ancestral journeys, whether it is on a group heritage tour or to visit their exact ancestral homes. Kyle is an expert genealogist, lecturer, and author residing in Salt Lake City, Utah. He grew up in Juneau, Alaska, where he started researching his family history at the age of 9, under his grandmother’s tutelage. By age 16, he was working for a genealogy company in Salt Lake City. Kyle began traveling regularly to Europe for genealogy research in 1993. He is one of the co-founders of ProGenealogists. His research interests include Ireland, Eastern Europe, Catholic research, and genetic genealogy.

Kyle has appeared on the “Who Do You Think You Are?” television program with Bill Paxton, Trisha Yearwood, Megan Mullally, and Scott Foley, among others, and he has worked on many other episodes, such as those for Matthew Broderick, Rosie O’Donnell, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jason Sudeikis, Chelsea Handler, and Cindy Crawford. He was a co-editor of the popular genealogy journal The Irish At Home and Abroad, and he is co-author of A Genealogist’s Guide to Discovering Your Irish Ancestors.

Dr. Mary K. Clark was raised in Millington, Michigan, a rural community about 20 minutes north of Flint. She considers herself a fact teller rather than a storyteller. Her nonfiction stories are based on lived experiences and memories that have been collected in over 30+ years of journal writing, stories, letters and memorabilia shared with her by her elders. She is one of the contributing authors and a descendant of a Black Homesteader’s of the South, edited by Bernice Alexander Bennett, which chronicles 49 stories of landowning ancestors and their experiences acquiring their homesteads between 1880 and the early 1900s.

Dr. Clark retired as an Assistant Dean at Wayne State University in Detroit following a career of over 35 years as a higher education administrator in various leadership positions. She earned a B.A. in Fashion Merchandising from Bowling Green State University, an M.A. in Counseling from Wayne State University, and a Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration from the University of Toledo. Since 2014, Dr. Clark has served as a Michigan state-appointed AARP volunteer, and she also serves as a national AARP Volunteer Facilitation & Training Team (VFTT) member where she develops and presents specialized volunteer-led training throughout the U.S. She enjoys traveling, painting, writing, and doing family history research.

The pandemic provided an opportunity for her to expand her genealogy community through memberships with the Afro-American Historical & Genealogical Society – New Jersey (AAHGS-NJ), Indiana African American Genealogy Group (IAAGG), Genealogical Forum of Oregon African American Special Interest Group (GFO), Arkansas Chapter of the Afro-American Historical & Genealogical Society (AAHGS-AR) and the Midwestern African American Genealogy Institute (MAAGI).

Ann K. Quinlan, Founder, Spiral Journeys: Has been offering tours to her native Ireland for more than 30 years.

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