heritage travel
Ten years ago, we started The Maritime Heritage Project, a web site dedicated to preserving the history of captains, ships and passengers who made their way across the seas to sail to America. More than 30,000 passengers arriving in San Francisco during the mid-1800s are on listed on that site, along with details of captains and their ships. It is an ongoing project.
The Maritime Heritage Project has brought us thousands of inquiries through the years from families, students, teachers, professors, researchers around the world seeking information on their families.
One of the best ways to find your ancestors is to travel to their points of origins.
We located in-depth articles and references in books about our own family in Maine, New York, Washington, D.C., Wales, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, and we are still searching. It has been a wonderful journey and it continues.
We are ten years into the project and we now have a substantial project built in honor of all who go to sea, beginning with our own Captain James H. Blethen.
The Maritime Heritage Project has received international acclaim for its contribution to preservation of California's shipping history. The site has passenger lists of more than 30,000 people arriving in San Francisco during the mid-1800s. Captain Blethen also opened the mail routes between Hawaii, Australia and New Zealand in the 1860s. He retired after decades at sea and refused, when asked, to run for governor of California.
Because of our non-profit Maritime Heritage Project and now the travel agent status, our trips are write-offs, which has helped reduce our tax base quite dramatically.
You, too, can make these journeys in search of family at the discounted rates that we have been using and which we will be posting more about on this site.
When we have time, we will also develop tours to specific locations with the goal of finding family.
Reading departure signs in some big airport