While
conducting searches on different family members there is a variety of
information that comes up usually requiring a lot of sorting, deciphering of
handwriting, and frustration when the document that really piques my interest is
in another language. More often than not I am at least able to figure things
out not because I am fluent in multiple languages (I haven’t even mastered one)
but because I know the basic format of what I am looking at. This hasn’t always
been the case but after you have been doing the same kind of research for a
while you generally know what information goes where largely based on where you
find the name you are looking for in the document.
Early
on in my research, these were pure moments of frustration that usually had me
clicking on the ignore button before giving the document half of a chance to
reveal itself. Now I find myself revisiting the branches on my tree and sorting
through those forgotten hints so that I can again sort through them to see if
anything is relevant to my family tree. I guess you could say that this is the
curse of the world explorer membership on Ancestry.com.
However,
this is only on instance where the language barrier can prove difficult or just
flat out frustrating. While Google translate and similar programs are wonderful
tools they are generally only reliable when it is strait text on a website. Add
in the calligraphy element as well as the fact that most of these documents are
in PDF or some other unsearchable file format and there is little that Google
can do to assist. And I actually ran into this issue when researching my great
grandfathers World War One unit.
When
looking for information on the Motor Transportation Corps on the internet there
is actually a limited amount of information that can be found as it pertains to
the WWI incarnation of those units. When digging even further and specifying Unit
301, there is even less information available. After exhausting the limited
resources that populated the first few search pages, I came across a PDF document
of an account from one of the locals in France… you guessed it, the document is
in French. Unfortunately, I understand very little of this language anymore
having forgotten nearly all that I was taught in school and Google translate
refused to assist in this matter.
Thankfully
it is a typed account and a common language. Older documents found in dusty
books are proving to be much more difficult. However, many are in the formats
of which I am familiar and have provided me with a wealth of knowledge that has
been added to my ever expanding genealogical database. But, and I will leave
you with this thought, it would be nice to have the ability to instantly
translate the material and I encourage researchers to know at least one other
language and have a network of researchers who know a variety of other
languages as well. You never know when your knowledge or theirs will benefit
your research.
