It was the last day of summer vacation and I was putting off packing. John Farnham Boynton’s The Boynton Family lay in the pile of papers ignored for the last 3 weeks. I picked it up with the scant enthusiasm of a procrastinator looking for any excuse to avoid packing, but I was quickly engrossed by the tidbits which give personality to history: the names, dates, and villages of my ancestors.

"Hey, we didn’t even visit the right places!” I exclaimed to my father.

Boyntons at Burton Agnes in 1978

When I was 13 years old, our family made a pilgrimage to the village of Boynton, which we assumed was the "jumping off point” for our family’s departure for The New World. Wrong, according to J.F. Boynton. The Boyntons who left for the new world had not lived in Boynton for hundreds of years before departing England.

Curiosity peaked, I returned to Washington and managed a few days of research at the Library of Congress. I had no idea that my small effort would spark hundreds of hours of research and two (and counting) family history trips to England.

My contributions to the research on the web site are small these days, though I like to think I got the ball rolling. My recent contributions are"Stories for Young Boyntons." Our local library system was sadly lacking in stories about famous Boyntons in history so I was forced to fill in the void! My goal was to give Anna a sense of the individuals connected to the many places we would visit on our trips. I love to see her eyes light up on seeing (yet another) ruin and hear her say, "So this is where Elizabeth lived!"

When not traveling to England, I am a creature of two worlds. My home world is dominated by learning. I am the primary teacher (and companion in learning) of my daughter Anna. I feel incredibly fortunate to be able to spend the mornings learning with Anna (and much of my evenings preparing to learn).

My work world is dominated by the phone. I spend my afternoons assisting non-profits with the development of affordable housing. It is a good feeling that my income producing work makes the world a better place.

And always, in the back of my mind, I am traveling. I began my journey as an armchair traveler in the 4th grade. I wandered into the adult section of the library one day in an effort to escape the unwanted scrutiny of the children’s librarian. Searching for books with pictures, I stumbled into the travel section. I have yet to stumble out!

Anne and Anna With 16th Century Map of London

For years, my wanderlust was held firmly in check by limited vacation time. When Anna entered kindergarten, however, I planned to take the year off work. Suddenly, my ability to travel was limited only by my courage to face the unknown world with a 5 year old. I spent much of the year plotting our trip to Wales. It was a smashing success and now Anna and I are both hooked. We are world travelers!