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Ask the ExpertExpert Question: I need to learn how to read and translate document from various European countries. Where's the best place to look for assistance? Expert Answer: Authors Jonathan D. Shea and William F.
Hoffman's book, Following
the Paper Trail: A Multilingual Translation Guide is an excellent source to
assist genealogists with deciphering foreign language documents.
It is divided into three parts by the type of language - Germanic,
Romance, Slavic and other languages. The
Germanic languages include German and Swedish, the Romance languages cover
French, Italian, Latin, Portuguese, Romanian and Spanish, the Slavic include
Czech, Polish and Russian, and the "other" languages covered are
Hungarian and Lithuanian. For each
language, the authors give a short description pertaining to the background and
evolution of the language, examples of the alphabets in print and cursive forms
and a short dictionary of useful words in translating records.
There are also examples of documents such as birth, marriage and death
certificates, ships records, and passports in the foreign language with
translations and instructions what to look for in order to decipher them.
Although it will require some practice to fluently read foreign
documents, this book is a must in learning how to read them.
It is published by Language
& Lineage Press, 60 Old Northville Road, New Milford, CT 06776 and costs
$25.00. Still have questions, Ask the Expert. |
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