Traveling To Visit Long Lost Relatives

Sometimes, the discovery of long lost relatives provides the perfect reason to plan a vacation. It can be exciting to travel to parts of the world that you have never been to before, and have the opportunity to get to know new family members at the same time. Alex Bellos, a writer for The Guardian, was able to visit his long lost relatives in Argentina.

It started with a letter from a man who lived in Argentina. The letter asked a simple question: “Are we related?” I think it was very fortunate that Mr. Bellos already had a good grasp of his family tree when this letter arrived. He knew that his family had an Argentine side and a British side. He knew that his family descended from Ukrainian immigrants, the name of the relative who moved to London, and the name of the relative that moved to Rosario. He even knew that his surname was actually a Spanish abbreviation of the original surname of one of his Ukrainian ancestors. Why did the name change? It was because his relative liked the sound of the Spanish better than the sound of his actual last name, and decided to adopt it. Based on all of this information, the answer to the question in the letter was a resounding “Yes, we are related!”

Alex Bellos set out on a trip to go and visit his long lost relative that contacted him by letter. He wrote about his trip in an article for The Guardian. He tells about the events of his trip, provides an excellent description of the landscape he traveled through, and even tells about what that first meeting with his long lost relative was like. His talent as a writer really shines through as he relates his story, and gives the reader the feeling of being right there with him as he travels.

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