The real way to discover yourself and step into your past is through your DNA matches. They are the pieces of a puzzle that prove that branches in your family tree actually exist. I've found myself digging down this rabbit hole and I've done a lot of things which have allowed me to create a family tree of over 200 people on my mum's side without paying a penny!

Find out how I made the best of my DNA, and how you can too! 

6. Use Ancestry resources - Ancestry.com has a range of resources such as birth certificates, marriage certificates and even immigration documents. Unfortunately, we have to pay a price for much of this information. However there are odd bits of information you can get for absolutely free!

7. Provide as much useful information on your profile as possible - A door of knowledge grants plenty of opportunities. Make sure to provide as much information as possible to allow your matches to help you solve this puzzle. I'm not saying you have to give people your home address but things like where your ancestors lived can do wonders.

Happy Searching!

Making the most of the time you have in your bucket list destinations 

Here are some of my top tips that I use almost every time I travel to try and get the most out of my trips. 

I hope that this guide will help you make the most of your time to travel whether you're travelling from home or living somewhere new as an expat. Please feel free to share this post on Pinterest if you found it helpful. 

Japan is beautiful. It has some of the most breathtaking and awe-inspiring geographical landscapes and scenery that I’ve ever seen. The food is delicious and the people are some of the kindest that I have ever met. Over the last 8 months of living in Japan, I have truly fallen in love with this wonderfully weird place. But then, a travel-loving virus called COVID-19 rose to the horizon and shook things up a bit (well A LOT!). 

I started 2020 on a high. I was in Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand and had spent my day with the most amazing animals - elephants. A clear roadway of how my 25th year and 4th decade I’ve experienced was going to go was carved out in my mind. I had planned a trip with my boyfriend to Vietnam (which has been a dream of mine to visit) at the end of April and I had a jam packed list of other places I wanted to tick off my list before the end of my contract. Nobody could have predicted this doom and gloom that now haunts us all on the daily. It is with great privilege that I say that this absolutely sucks!. Being a double Sagittarius moon and rising is something I relate strongly to because of my constant yearning to learn new things and the fact that I find it difficult to stay in one place for too long. All that being said, I realise that I have my health, a roof over my head and I am in a far better position than a lot of people (despite being so far from home). 

For the past month or two, I have been in a constant tug-of-war with myself about how I am feeling about the way Japan has been managing the current pandemic. Initially, Japan had quite low numbers and the government was optimistic that the Olympics would still occur this August. As a foreigner in Japan, this was a bit of a security blanket that I latched onto. On the surface, it appeared that I was in safe hands in this country. Digging beyond that surface, I discovered the strict requirements that were put in place to get a COVID-19 test in the first place and how few tests Japan had administered (to date Japan (with a population of 130 million) have tested 64,000 whereas Ireland (with a population of 4 million) have tested 53,000). I thought that there was no way that large governing bodies like the WHO would allow any dodgy behaviour to go on in Japan simply because of the major attention that was set to shine light here in August. Then, on March 25th it was announced that the Olympics were going to be postponed for another year. This is when cases of COVID-19 “suddenly” started to spike and my eyes were open to the greed and capitalistic behaviour of the Japanese government. I was no longer willing to scoop up the spoonfuls of lies being fed to us anymore and I no longer felt safe. 

Since the rescheduling of the Olympics, many of Japan’s prominent prefectures have seen a rise in cases of the virus; and so seven of these prefectures (Tokyo, Kanagawa, Chiba, Saitama, Osaka, Hyogo and my neighbouring prefecture Fukuoka) have gone into a state of emergency (which is different to the isolation efforts I’ve seen in Ireland and across the UK). Legally speaking, a European-style lock down is never going to be the case here. In these prefectures people have been advised to only leave the house if it's essential (for example for groceries or medication). There have also been cancellations of events and restrictions of facilities (like schools and cinemas) put in place. Some businesses have closed or changed their hours, but most people are still commuting to work on the busy subways in bustling Tokyo. 

In my prefecture (Kumamoto), luckily I have had the privilege of working from home since the start of March when all schools in Japan first shut (which has now since been extended until May 6th in my area). I am happy that my Japanese employer had the decency to put the safety of us ALTs first; but in all honesty the whole working from home situation seemed to lack severity up until the postponement of the Olympics had been announced. I was still content to travel up until that point. Japan has historically removed itself from global issues which is an attitude that still stands today (which I have realised from being here).  Now that the closure of schools has been extended until May 6th and community spread has become apparent in Kumamoto, we have been urged to only leave the house if necessary. For the most part, I have stayed put and made some banging meals (like creamy mashed potatoes and spaghetti with meatballs) at the same time. I know I am doing my bit to #flattenthecurve. I have two brothers with Cystic Fibrosis at home who would possibly not survive the virus if they contracted it. I have to constantly remind myself that it’s people like them with invisible diseases and compromised immune systems that I’m doing this for. 

I’ll be honest. I have had some rather selfish thoughts recently. I’ve thought about maybe taking a little trip to the likes of Kagoshima where very few cases exist; thinking that I’ll probably be fine because I’m healthy and I’ll go about travelling in a cautious way (besides I can’t be fined for leaving the house unnecessarily). The problem with that is that if everyone thought like that, the spread couldn’t possibly be contained. So even though Kumamoto is not on official lock down, my neighbours seem to aimlessly wander in a ‘business-as-usual’ fashion, some peers of mine have met up and had mini hanami/cherry blossom parties and I have a case of raging cabin fever; I am trying to stay put for the next few weeks. Besides, it’ll be a gas “I lived through history in Japan” story to tell the grand-kids.