I’m going to share a little secret. Steem dollars are going to help me check off one of my lifetime bucket-list goals, visiting the English village where my family immigrated from in the 1600's!

For years it’s been my goal to retrace my family’s ancestors steps and travel from America back to the very English village where they immigrated from in the 1600s. Previously, whenever I start saving money for the trip some other emergency or extra expense pops up that I have to spend the money on but NOT THIS TIME! For me life is about experiences, not things. This is one of the experiences I want to have the most.

I decided when I started this wonderful journey on Steemit a few weeks ago that I was saving my Steem dollars until I have enough for this epic voyage. My goal is to save enough to make the trip late April or early May 2017. I surmise I’ll need to save about $10k for my wife and I to take the 10-12 day trip. This is very attainable thanks to Steemit.

We all know who this guy is.

My brother and I researched our family tree a few years and got as far back as William Walton, born in Oxhill Parish, Warwickshire, England in the mid-1500s. William was alive during the lifetime of Shakespeare and lived most of his life only a few miles away from Stradford-on-Avon. I’m a writer so I thought this was amazing when I found out. William Walton had a two sons who immigrated to America in the early 1600’s and the rest is history. We discovered that our family was part of the first waves of English immigrants coming to America.

Amazingly, there are still Waltons in the Oxhill Parish area. I’d like to sit in a local pub with a pint and swap stories with the locals, walk the fields, and generally just soak up the sights and sounds of the countryside. I’ve contacted the local historian to see if we can have access to the village birth/death records so research back even further. I can’t even imagine how I’ll feel when I step foot in the town where my ancestors left all of those centuries ago. We will have come full circle through many centuries of triumphs and struggles.

I have nine months to accomplish this goal, thanks in advance for your support! It’s going to be a fun and life-changing journey.

An aerial view of Oxhill Parish

I'll be documenting my progress as well as the whole journey "back home" right here on Steemit through my words and pictures. I’d appreciate your upvotes to help make this dream a reality.