Dreaming about traveling to the homeland of your German ancestors?
But when it comes to planning your ancestral trip, you feel overwhelmed and don’t know where to start?
Don’t worry, we’ve got your covered!
My name is Sonja Irani. I am the founder and main tour guide at
My Ancestor’s Journey – an emigration-themed tour operator business based in Bremen, northern Germany.
I have been working as a professional tour guide for walking tours in the city of Bremen since 2018.
In 2019-2020, I studied “Tourism Destination Development” at Dalarna University, Sweden. Here, I wrote my Master thesis about “Ancestral tourism of North American travelers to Germany”.
Ever since then, I specialize in emigration-themed guided tours for Americans and Canadians in search of their German roots.
How My Ancestor’s Journey can help you make that dream come true!
My “hometown of choice”, Bremen, is the perfect starting place to learn more about your German ancestors. After all, more than 7 million people emigrated to the “New World” (mostly to America) from either Bremen or the nearby harbor town of Bremerhaven between 1830 and 1974.
That’s why we have created three guided group tours, during which we discover the emigration history in and around the beautiful medieval city of Bremen.
If you have ancestors from Germany and are planning to visit, this trip along the north German emigration port cities may be the perfect introduction tour for your family heritage trip to Germany.
You will learn both how your German ancestors lived here and what their emigration experience was like by literally walking in your ancestors’ footsteps.
Why I specialize in emigration-themed tours
I am originally from Ankum, a small town in Lower Saxony (northwest Germany) near the city of Osnabrück.
But I have always been fascinated by other cultures and countries. Perhaps this is due to my “multicultural background”. While my mom is German, my dad is originally from India and has Persian ancestors (hence the surname “Irani”).
My mom, Elisabeth Irani, is a hobby genealogist and contributing member in the “Heimatverein” (local heritage society) of Ankum.
We first got interested in ancestry research by a chance encounter in 2005: Back then, two brothers from Baltimore in America knocked on the door of my parents’ house in Ankum.
They shared the same surname as my mom’s maiden name “Fleddermann” and were curious to find out whether we were related. After some digging in the local church archives of Ankum, we found out that we were indeed related and that their ancestor and our ancestor were first cousins.
What’s next for you
The two American brothers from Baltimore were lucky with their “knocking on doors” approach. However, this method isn’t always successful for finding out more about your German ancestors and connecting with living relatives. Usually, it pays off to plan your ancestry trip to Germany more thoroughly.
That’s why I have created a brand new ancestry trip planning online course due to launch in the fall of 2023.
If you like to stay updated for the launch and secure a special bonus once course registration opens, you can sign up to our waiting list. This waiting list is completely non-binding with no commitment to purchase the course later on.
Meanwhile, you can also check out our travel blog. Here, we provide tips and inspirations for your family heritage trip to Germany.
And who knows? Maybe you will soon get to stand in your ancestor’s home just like I stand in a typical north German farmer’s house in the open-air museum of Cloppenburg in this photo.
