Defining what is your heritage means understanding your inherited sense of family identity. Explore these questions and activities to strengthen and better express your own sense of heritage.
Defining Your Heritage
The word “heritage” brings to mind different ideas for different people—and it should. Heritage is a person’s unique, inherited sense of family identity: the values, traditions, culture, and artifacts handed down by previous generations. We absorb a sense of our heritage throughout our lives as we observe and experience the things that make our family unique. Although not every inherited trait, tendency, or tradition is positive, we generally consider heritage to be the positive and meaningful elements of our family’s identity that we incorporate into our own lives and pass along to succeeding generations.
Heritage can express itself in many ways. Some families define their heritage primarily as their ethnic, cultural, or national identity. Other families can point to values that have been passed on, such as a love for education, participation in community life, a strong work ethic, or religious devotion. People may feel that an inherited aptitude—such as for music or mechanics, athletics or art—is part of their heritage.
How to Discover Your Heritage
Some people have a strong sense of their heritage. They can point to a flag hanging proudly nearby or repeat stories and traditions shared by their parents or grandparents. Some have a confident sense of the unique interests,occupations, or values found in their family.
Others may have to look a little more closely to identify traces of heritage in their lives. Asking the following questions may help people discover elements of their family’s unique legacy in their lives:
- How would I define my ethnic, cultural, or national identity? How does this identity shape my sense of who I am?
- What traditions or rituals do I observe, either in everyday life or on special occasions? Where do those traditions come from?
- What are my most prized values, hobbies, or interests? Did my parents, siblings, grandparents, or other relatives share these?
- What positive traits, tendencies, or aptitudes would I use to describe my family in general? How do these traits manifest in my life?
- What values, traits, interests, or hobbies do I have that I see in my own children or grandchildren or that I would wish to see manifested in younger generations in my family?
Another approach to discovering heritage is to search your family tree and family stories. What nations of origin or ethnic backgrounds are most prominent? If you participate in the FamilySearch Family Tree, it is easy to create a fan-chart view that highlights your ancestral birthplaces, such as the one shown below:
Find Your Ancestors' Homeland
If you already know what countries your family came from, or you just discovered it from looking at your Family Tree, you can dive into learning more about your ancestors' homelands from the list below.
Your Armenian Heritage
By Amie Tennant
September 25, 2020
Nestled in the Caucasus region, an area between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, the sunny country of Armenia is home to nearly 3 million …
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Learning about Your Australian Ancestry
By Kathryn Grant
October 26, 2023
Are you interested in learning more about your Australian ancestry? Understanding the family history roots of today’s Australians can help y…
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Connect with Your Brazilian Roots
By Michele Coronetti
November 1, 2019
Do you have a family brigadeiro recipe or love Brazilian cheese bread? Or maybe some of your ancestors came from Brazil but you don’t know m…
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Discover Your Canadian Ancestry
By Amie Tennant
October 7, 2023
What’s unique about your Canadian ancestry? Do Canadians have their own distinctive ethnicity and heritage? Read along to learn more about y…
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Take a Moment to Learn About Your Danish Heritage
By Leslie Albrecht Huber
May 8, 2019
Denmark is a country that may sometimes be overlooked, but recently it has started attracting more of the limelight. Lonely Planet picked Co…
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Discovering Your English Heritage
By Kathryn Grant
March 7, 2020
William Shakespeare called it “this other Eden.” Its history, tradition, and culture are vital and diverse. It is graced by beautiful and va…
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Fiji Culture: Traditional Food, Art, and More
By Annelie Hansen
June 26, 2020
Bula! This oft-used greeting in Fiji translates to “life,” with its longer use ni sa bula vinakatranslating to “wishing you happiness and go…
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Find Your Finnish Ancestors on FamilySearch
By Leslie Albrecht Huber
April 15, 2019
Located at the very top of Europe, Finland sometimes flies under the radar. But with its vast natural beauty, excellent education system, an…
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Discover Your French Heritage
By Alison Ensign
October 18, 2020
What comes to mind when you think of France—the Eiffel tower, romance, and fashion? Or perhaps you conjure up images of the gorgeous French …
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Your Italian Heritage
By Laurie Bradshaw
August 23, 2018
From the Roman Empire to the Renaissance to the modern day, Italy has influenced cultures globally with its great achievements. With such a …
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Celebrating Japan and Its Heritage
From the sophisticated to the whimsical, Japanese culture captures it all. With centuries of iconic architecture, elegant kimonos, and sophi…
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Discover and Connect with Your Mexican Heritage
By Kathryn Grant
August 1, 2019
When you connect with your Mexican heritage, you discover that your ancestors are people you are related to and you can relate to. Your Mexi…
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Discovering Your Norwegian Heritage
By Kathryn Grant
June 10, 2019
Norway—it’s the land of midnight sun and skies lit with brilliant bands of color from the northern lights, of stunningly beautiful fjords an…
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Your Puerto Rican Heritage
By Amie Tennant
December 25, 2020
Puerto Rico is a beautiful Caribbean island off the coast of the Dominican Republic. Surrounded by blue seas and with a landscape of mountai…
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Samoan Culture and Traditions: The Spirit of Fa’a Samoa
By Annelie Hansen
April 29, 2020
Fa’a Samoa, in the beautiful Samoan language, literally means “The Samoan Way.” The phrase refers to the Samoan culture and traditions that …
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Learn More about Your Scottish Heritage
By Rachel J. Trotter
October 5, 2019
Do you have Scottish blood running through your veins? Scottish heritage and Scottish history is rich and expansive, and there are many ways…
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Connecting with Your Swedish Ancestry
By Laurie Bradshaw
November 12, 2018
What comes to your mind when you think of Sweden? Is it ABBA, the Swedish pop group that gained worldwide fame in the 70s? Or is it Sweden’s…
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Discover Your Welsh Heritage
By Rachel J. Trotter
November 27, 2019
Do you hail from Wales? Welsh heritage is rich and vibrant—one of its nation’s symbols is even a dragon! The dragon appears on the Welsh fla…
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Connect With Your Ancestors
As you explore your family tree, identify patterns by asking these kinds of questions:
- Do historical records show patterns in your family’s occupations, especially jobs relating to certain values, interests, or skills?
- Do you see traditions or traits echoed in the kinds of photos your family takes or what objects they have chosen to keep?
- What values or feelings do your most important family stories impart?
If you can attend a family reunion or meet with relatives, consider asking others what is meaningful to them about your shared heritage.
Some who seek a stronger sense of cultural or ethnic identity turn to DNA testing. Ethnicity percentages, while not always reliable or specific, may help you discover your ancestral places or cultures of origin. Connecting with DNA matches can reveal heritage that has been passed down through other branches of the family.
What You Can Do to Honor Your Heritage
For many people, the most meaningful way to honor their heritage is to include elements of it in their own lives. They live the positive values they were taught and pass them on to others. They may choose activities or traditions that help them feel connected to their loved ones. Heirlooms, family photos, and other tangible reminders of their heritage may be displayed in their homes. They may also create new traditions that communicate the values they hope will outlive them.
Many who want to honor their heritage spend time learning about and expanding their family tree. They may interview relatives, label old photos, gather family recipes, and write down the stories they discover so as to preserve a more lasting legacy. Some even travel to ancestral hometowns or homelands to learn more about their heritage and feel more connected to past generations.
Start or explore your family tree for free on FamilySearch.org.
Learn More about Discovering Your Cultural Identity
Heritage Travel: Discover the Land of Your Ancestors
By Jessica Grimaud
January 1, 2020
Heritage travel, also known as heritage tourism, is the act of traveling and immersing yourself in the culture and heritage of a specific re…
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Heritage Tourism: Create a Personalized Travel Experience
By Sunny Jane Morton
December 2, 2019
Heritage tourism is traveling to understand the cultures and places of the past—including those of your ancestors. Here’s how to make herita…
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Visiting an Ancestral Home: A Life-Changing Experience
By Sunny Jane Morton
January 24, 2020
An ancestral home is a house, village, or region where your family lived in the past. Visiting an ancestral home—walking where your ancestor…
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