Travel Your Tree: Walking in Ancestors’ Footprints

Explore the world of family history travel beyond television shows like Finding Your Roots. Discover how you can personally trace your ancestors’ paths, whether visiting battlefields where your forebears fought, exploring ancestral villages, or connecting with distant relatives. Join us to uncover expert tips for planning your journey and forging meaningful connections along the way.

About the Speaker: Lisa Vogele is a professional genealogist, Certified Travel Associate, and Chief Tree Climber at Travel Your Tree: Where Ancestry Meets Adventure. Lisa helps clients discover their roots throughout Europe by blending her genealogy research with designing unforgettable heritage trips. She’s the author of Food & Folklore: A Year of Italian Festivals and holds a Certificate in Genealogical Research from Boston University. When she’s not happily caught up in researching Italian or Irish records, you’ll find her speaking around the country on heritage travel, genealogy, and Italian festivals. In March 2025, Lisa was named the first ever recipient of the Association of Professional Genealogists Fellowship for her project to create a Field Guide to Passport Records in Northern Italian Archives.

About the Event: The event will take place at the Society’s Sahyun Genealogy Research Library at 316 Castillo Street. Doors open at 9:30 a.m. for refreshments and informal discussions with the Society’s Special Interest Groups, covering a variety of topics from getting started in genealogy to writing family histories. A short business meeting begins at 10:30 a.m., followed by Lisa’s presentation at 11:00 a.m. The event is free and open to the public.

Advance registration is required at SBGen.org to attend the program in-person or via Zoom. Due to limited on-site parking, in-person attendance is limited to 60 people.

About the Society: The Santa Barbara County Genealogical Society is an all-volunteer organization helping people discover, document, share, and preserve their family histories. The Society operates a research library at 316 Castillo Street with over 16,000 books, a computer lab with access to a variety of subscription genealogy websites, research assistance, and classes for all levels. Annual memberships start at $40. Learn more and join today at SBGen.org.