Visiting places of ancestry/recognition of those places

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In the last few months I have visited the two major places of ancestry I have within Scotland (places where grandparents and great grandparents were born).

One is, then as now, a rural area of farmland. The other is a district of a city (which then was a separate town in its own right). And visiting both of them was quite an experience - I'd never been to either place previously, but both places were quite a revelation in the way that I instinctively, subconsciously recognised both of them and felt like I was really from there.

Have any other Aspies had this experience? Is this more an Aspie thing, given our often superior memory recall and sometimes photographic memory? Or would it be equally NT, perhaps for everyone something is in the DNA.

You raise some interesting questions, especially about DNA. I have often wondered why some places look so familiar to me, even places that I have never seen before. Could it be ancestral memory?

no i havent been back to sweden, the closet ive came to seeing my ansestory is when i met my dad when i was 18.

Yes, I have also, and I've wondered the same thing. Never figured out if the feeling is illusory, because I know of my heritage (I'm Scottish-Czech), or if there's more to it. I've read some interesting thoughts on the entire deja vu concept, and ancestral memory (i.e. DNA) is frequently mentioned as a possibility. Jung has never seemed credible to me, but then again you could say that about 99.9% of the psychologists throughout history, most of them are merely making up as they go along and ususally seem to have more problems than their patients.

This doesn't directly address the ancestry issue,but I've always felt drawn to one particular place that is far from here,and places that remind me of it.Qualities of that place make me feel "at home".When I reached adulthood I learned I was conceived there.

When I went to Scotland (my dad's Scottish) I immediately felt like at home and like I had a lot in common with the place (even though I was still young enough that I wasn't really into genealogy or even sentimental about that sort of thing, and the concept of "this is where I come from" didn't really "click" for me). Unfortunately I see a lot of lower class Scotland in me too (definitely genetic as I was raised 100% by my mother and my mother is pretty much the opposite of my father). My father's family is from Lanark (mining town outside Glasgow) more or less all miners and laborers, very hard-nosed, intolerant and low class about a lot of things. Some of these things that manifest in me I realize are AS but a lot of it I recognize as being from my father's family (I realized this during the month I spent living with him when I was a teenager). I also feel drawn to a lot of the same cultural aspects that I found out later (from my mother) that my father was drawn to as well. Funnily enough, neither I or my mother (who is half Swedish) feel any ties to Sweden.

Even stronger than my Scottish connection however are my ties to South Carolina...my mother's family are on the complete opposite side of my father (Huguenots with a VERY prestigious name, one of the founding families of Charleston). I feel differently towards my Charleston roots in that I don't relate at all to the class system (looking down on those born out of wedlock, general sense of entitlement, etc) however I do relate to the love of the place and despite my problems with its politics, I consider Charleston my home. I've been re-reading the same Pat Conroy books over and over again for years because all his books describe the same love and affinity I feel for Charleston.

So to answer the question, I do think homelands can be in your blood if it goes back far enough (same type of people breeding, to put it bluntly). That being said, if it's recent enough (a family's only been there the past several generations) then more likely it's an aquired love of that place more than anything else.

I would guess it just relates to having heard stories about it, or just knowing that your family came from there, way back when. I felt that way when I visited Sweden. I doubt it has to do with any sort of ancestral memory though, or something somehow transmitted through the DNA.

Oh gosh you raise a good question and well I have been into Genealogy myself, and I use to wonder if I did have Royal blood in me or not, for some odd reason, I kinda had a good feeling that I did, and I was like whoa when I found out I do.

Now this didn't really change anything of course cause im still me regardless of how much of my blood is Royal Blue and how much is Commoner blood.

Still though it was astonishing and feel like wow, I kinda had the feeling I had Royal blood in me, but didn't dare claim that I did, until I was absolutely certain.

To the OP, I would suggest that this is a wonderful human reaction to the knowledge of our history/ancestry and does not have anything to do with autism, with the possible exception of personal ancestry as a special area of interest.

I dunno about ancestry, but I felt an utter sense of solemnity when I visited the Australian War Memorial.

This is great to hear about your Scottish roots. I hope to experience the same if I visit England (especially southern England) one day. Also, I want to find out whether I have royal blood.

I've been back to Germany, where I was born, twice. The first time I really liked it. The second time, it wasn't so fun.

I have seriously thought of doing this -- going to all those places I came from. I've already done Israel, but to trace the steps of the rest of my ancestry, I'd have to plan trips to Ireland, Scotland, England, Wales, Holland, France, Latvia & Lithuania. I don't think I'll have enough money!