VIEW QUESTION: “Would I be wrong to assume a record is about my ancestor if a source I find has about You can determine if the source is indeed your ancestors for some records because those documents have The trick is there needs to be more than a hunch that the records relate to your ancestor. reasonably determine a record with the same name, birth date, and place (or other details) that match your ancestor Accuracy Avoid These Mistakes When Analyzing a Family Legend How to Evaluate a Death Record For an Ancestor

Climbing your family tree can be difficult if you don't speak the language of their home country. However, you don't have to hire a professional genealogist who can yet surmount the language barrier. Instead, try these tips first. Look for Language Guides for Specific Genealogy Translations Tips As genealogists, we love quick reference guides. They give us targeted tips and information without forcing us to dig through unrelated details to find what we’re looking for. Thankfully, FamilySearch has a wealth of guides to help us decipher foreign languages. There are two things to look for: Word Lists FamilySearch has a Wiki page where genealogists can access records and training tips for nearly every country. One great feature on almost every country-level Wiki Page is word lists. For Mexico , you can click on this Spanish Word List and find categorized lists for dates and keywords. You can also view alphabetical lists of words you’ll typically encounter in your research, including those under the letter C - read, peasant, field, and chapel. Extraction Guides - In 1981, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints produced some manuals to help with the program that preceded our modern-day indexing program. Many of these manuals are free and accessible on the FamilySearch Wiki. Guides, such as this Spanish Record’s guide , provide tips, examples, and practice exercises to understand some of the core records you will find in genealogy research. Thanks to these documents' specific examples and typical keywords, I have become very proficient at reading Spanish Catholic Church baptismal records . Create Document Templates When I work with land records, particularly deeds, I have templates that detail the typical jargon used to transfer property from one entity to another. That way, I don’t have to necessarily keep transcribing “in consideration of the sum of ___ dollars, the party of the first part conveys….” You can do the same for various record types for your research language. Whether you have a resource, as I mentioned before, or not, you’ll make yourself a template in your favorite text-writing program. (Mine is Google Docs). Then, you can open the template and modify it whenever you stumble upon a record you need to transcribe from a foreign language. Fast Transcription As with any transcription project, you should quickly read and type what you see in a document. Do not worry about translating the information yet. Leverage handwriting helps, also found on many FamilySearch country Wiki Pages. Type what you see. Use brackets [] for words for which you're uncertain. Pay attention to stamps or pre-printed text. For more tips on this process, read How to Transcribe Online Genealogy Records. ↪️ Are you looking for more genealogy resources? Grab your copy of these FREE Genealogy Research Guides . Go Back to the Troublesome Words Once you’ve finished the fast transcriptions, return to the words in brackets. Use letters in words you do know to try to resolve the words in brackets. You can use a website called WordMine.info . First, choose the language that you're researching. I'll choose Spanish. Then, type in the word or a part of a word you are trying to resolve. (In this case, "cho"). Select the way you want WordMine to search. (In this case, "Words ending in"). Click search. You'll see a list of words in Spanish that end in "Cho." If that doesn’t help you find the word, you can try the following. You can add more letters to simplify the word and search again. Use * for the spot where you're uncertain. Change which letters you're using, such as words beginning with "Tech." Use Google Translate Next, you can use Google Translate to attempt to convert your transcriptions into your native language. Now, be careful. Google Translate is not perfect, but you can get close to the meaning of the words. Other Google tools can help you with translating your transcription. I will let my colleague Katherine Schober teach you what you need in the video I Don't Speak the Language! Translation Tips and Tricks . While many of her tips benefit those attempting to read German, you can extrapolate many of her tools and techniques for the languages you’re trying to read. Get Help Whenever you get stuck after you’ve made a valiant effort to read a document, ask for help. Many native speakers in your community or Facebook groups know the language you’re researching and will step up to help. One thing I have learned is that you get the best results from volunteers when you do the following: Provide a large enough image (or a link to the original image) that you’re trying to translate. Share what you have transcribed (unsure marks and all). Share your attempt at translating the documents as well. I have never failed to receive help from someone in a genealogy community when I have shown what I have done and where I’m stuck. Most people will also give you additional tidbits, which are part of the learning process. If you just ask, “translate this 32-page document for me,” most volunteers likely won’t help you. Or, I would direct you to a professional genealogist for help. You can check out Legacy Tree Genealogists for such a vetted professional. If you have any helpful genealogy translation tips, please share them in the comments section. I welcome all ideas. Related Genealogy Articles While I don't offer additional blog posts about transcribing records, you might like the following research and writing tips. Why You Don't Need a Genealogy Research Log Genealogy Research Plans - An Essential Tool for Busting Brick Walls Using Spreadsheets for Genealogy Research How to Critically Read a Family History 5 Cool Sites For Spicing Up Your Family History

Have you ever wondered what daily life was like for your ancestors? Start With an Event Before you can write about a day in your ancestor's daily life, start with an event Ideally, you'll find a newspaper issue for the day the event in your ancestor's life happened. Headlines like these can anchor your ancestor’s experience to larger historical events, making their Was there a chance of rain on your ancestor’s wedding day?

Written Your Family History Book Storied StoryAssist: Writing Family History and Life Stories Made Easy Ancestry

’s names More specific places of origin Occupations When deciding if a record documents your ancestor Too often family historians fail to research the siblings of their ancestors. By so doing, you are limiting your view of your ancestor’s family unit. Otherwise, don’t make the genealogy mistake of having multiple versions of your family tree on MyHeritage , Ancestry My Ancestor Has Multiple Names. Which Name Do I Use?

Share your report on: In a public Ancestry Member Trees as a story Add your report to the Memories Section , under documents, for the ancestor on the FamilySearch family tree. Solve Genealogy Brick Walls Writing Conclusions After Busting a Genealogy Brick Wall  (YOU'RE HERE) Can Ancestry

Plus, my last living ancestor died ten years ago. Take time to record the memories and knowledge of living individuals and the ancestors they knew in Finally, don't tackle that brick wall ancestor until you've found sources for every person you call This action involves a public tree on Ancestry , MyHeritage Findmypast , and contributing to WikiTree Am I Related to Famous Ancestors?

Focused Life Stories Create a "This is Your Life" book for a specific ancestor. Involve your family in the process and transform forgotten faces into remembered ancestors. Ancestry StoryMaker Studio: Unleash Your Storytelling Potential

They learn so much; you can share family histories about their ancestors as they play. ↪️ Are you looking Research 3 Best Ways to Build Family Tree on MyHeritage 5 Easy Tips For Getting The Most Out of Your Ancestry

Research Your Ancestor This step may seem obvious, but the point is to research your ancestor beyond While there are timeline tools on FamilySearch, Ancestry, Twile, and History Lines to allow you to add Local History - If politics is local, so is our ancestor's world. Pop Culture - Here's another category that can help us experience our ancestor's world. your ancestor survived.

Sadly, if your English or Wales ancestor visited these excluded places on registration night, they won't Ancestry has a version of the Register, and MyHeritage has transcriptions without images. Warning: be open to the possibility that your ancestors were in a location where you would expect to

No, not the 'cheesy' polka dances portrayed in Hollywood films to make fun of European ancestry. surface, this blog post (and YouTube Short) may seem like a whimsical tangent unrelated to tracing our ancestral the birth certificates, marriage records, and faded photographs, it's important to remember that our ancestors These hidden dreams provide us with a glimpse into the inner lives of our ancestors, allowing us to connect