If you’re interested in having it translated, feel free to send me an e-mail at language@sktranslations.com. Current members will receive a link for the webinar in their email. Each letter has an upper case version first followed by a lower case. Swiss Civil Registration Record (Vital Records) Birth and marriage documents can be very useful as they often provide maiden names and the names of other relatives or witnesses.. But I think this valuable guidance for people trying to do it themselves (God bless them!). If you don’t speak German, however, these records may seem a bit overwhelming. Since the writing in the 3rd column is completely dissimilar, we know that Stand can’t mean Standesamt in this context.Â. However, this section provided a good starting point for me to decipher many of the words found in the column headings without having to resort to the glossary in the back every time. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! At this point, I decided to move on again and maybe come back to this name. — possibly abbreviated because by now, the priest’s hand was no doubt cramped from the effort of writing such tiny letters with any degree of precision. How One Word Traveled Around the World (Guest Post by Narelle Kukowetz), That’s in the Archives: Using State Archive Websites For Your Genealogy Research (Guest Post by Melissa Barker), 7 Genealogy Hacks for Verifying Your Ancestor’s Hometown (PREMIUM), Essential German Genealogy Vocabulary: The Collection, Recognizing German Numbers: A Practice Game (PREMIUM), Privacy Policy, Cookie Policy and Data Usage. The final column, Getraut mit oder ohne Dispens in den Graden, mit oder ohne Denunziationen, seemed to translate as, “Married with or without dispensation in degrees, with or without denunciation,” and some Roman Catholic canonical context is needed to understand this. 7. Our customers are from all over the … The third line in this column appears to be “Math. If someone can help please ... Help reading/translating to English this 1670 German marriage record. Common German Script reading problems from Legacy webinars "Deciphering German Script" by Gail S. Blankenau, Genealogist This is the old German Scripth alphabet. So what are some general tips to keep in mind when learning to translate documents in a foreign language? I was actually just translating some forms this weekend where the parents’ names were written on the earlier versions of the records (1800s), but as we moved into the 1900s, they stopped being listed. Thanks! If you get stuck, you can always post the record and your translation attempt in the Genealogy Translations group on Facebook. A short handy reference guide with an alphabet, reading tips, and record samples is found here. But it’s still on my bucket list to become sufficiently comfortable with it that I can read vital records for my German ancestors independently. The German Emigration Database has been compiled from emigration notices printed in newspapers. I believe what you are trying to translate is Bescheigung der Ehschlieβung which means Certificate of the Wedding. Later records often include a column for the pastor’s name. For example, if you can only recognize “tum” at the end of the word, type in “tum” under “Wörter mit Endung”. As I looked at this for the first time, my first thought was that learning the cursive letter forms is going to be almost as bad as learning Cyrillic. ?h, Math. And if you would like to consult a professional translator, don’t hesitate to contact me here – I would be happy to be of service. But when you’re just starting out, using every scrap of information available to you is fair game. I do have some prior knowledge about the names of my ancestors, and I’m going to leverage that advantage as far as possible. 6. Marriage and possible banns (formal announcements), if they were read prior to the marriage. I’m sure that Shea and Hoffman’s book will be invaluable to you. The more you work with foreign-language records, the more things will start to make sense to you. In this case, Johann Maier was recorded as ledig, single. She is a contributing columnist to Der Kurier, the quarterly journal of the Mid-Atlantic Germanic Society, where she covers topics relating to the old German script. 1. This made it difficult to look up unfamiliar words in the dictionary. The next column heading was also discussed previously, as it’s the one that reads, Ledig oder Wittwer, dessen gestorbenes (geschieden) Weib. She works with the old German handwriting on a daily basis, translating letters, diaries, church records, military records, birth, marriage and death certificates and more. So after all this, my best (first) attempt at translation can be summarized as follows: I never did come to any resolution with bits of it, but I can always ask a German friend, or post the record in the Genealogy Translations Facebook group to get help with those little bits, and to have them correct my translation. These were often used in the 19th century to record births, deaths and marriages Or perhaps she will have a yellowing certificate of a birth, christening, marriage or death, or maybe a school, medical or military record. Before the 1940s, most records in German-speaking areas (as well as surname books, newspapers, journals and gazetteers) used a Gothic font called Fraktur. I have several hand written birth certificates from Bromberg, present day Bydgosz, Poland, that I would like translated from German to English. 1 BZAR, Roman Catholic Church, St. Pancrus parish (Roding, Cham, Oberpfalz, Germany), marriage record for Johann Maier and Anna M. Urban, 27 October 1857, vol. Volunteers at the LDS Church are in the process of digitizing For more information about membership, please see https://pgsctne.org/membership/. This line is normally followed by the occupation of the father, the father’s name, his wife and his wife’s name. FamilySearch's German Historical Record Collections. There's an example of the type of thing I need help with. My best guess was that the first letter is a P, and the last two letters are “-it” or possibly “-is.” Poppit? Below are a few clues that may help you out when facing a document wi… Each letter has an upper case version first followed by a lower case. Now, with a few more years of experience in reading Russian records, I sometimes come across those early translations in my research notes and fill in the little bits that I couldn’t decipher the first time around. We use cookies to customize content and give you the best experience possible. My sense is that it relates to the need, or lack thereof, for a dispensation for the marriage due to consanguinity, since this need is determined by the degrees of separation in the relationship between the bride and groom. Pongratz,” and as this realization dawned on me, I realized that the first letter in that priest’s name really must be P, although I still can’t find a valid German surname that seems to fit that pattern. Sigh. 2. If the parents are deceased or if there is any other relevant information about them, it is also mentioned here. Old fashioned handwriting often gives older documents charm, but it also can be difficult to decipher. Thank you for your comment. Includes some German baptism, marriage, and death indexes, and other items. Printing the notice gave the newspaper readers plenty of time to put in a claim if they were owed money by the person leaving. The global genealogical community is a very generous one, and there are people who are willing to help you along the way. Can you send me an e-mail to language@sktranslations.com and we can go from there? Mike, on a Christmas Translation Present for his Wife, Chuck, on Translation of Grandmother's Diary. Marriages commonly provide the dates of marriage banns, marriage date, and names of the bride, groom and witnesses. The Meier Family of Obertrübenbach, Bavaria and Buffalo, New York – From Shepherds and Shoemakers, Where Were Your Ancestors in 1857? It is the last entry on the page. German church records can be a genealogist’s dream. Absolutely. However, it’s clear from the examples in the book that the first word in the third column is Stand. It has both my grandparents’ names listed on it. In the first instance (bekannt), the registrar personally knows the individual and does not need a form of identification. Required fields are marked *. My guess was that the word beginning with F was an occupation, and maybe what looks like “m.” was actually im (in), so this phrase might describe Georg, rather than indicating the name of a different person. For details and registration, please visit: https://www.msoginc.org/msogwp/category/chapters/worcester/, Webinar hosted by the Lincoln - Lancaster County Genealogical Society. Below, I’ve compiled the most important […] this has helped no end. 20 Tips for Deciphering Old German Handwriting - SK Translations, Marriage Certificate of Apollonia Elisabeth Latzke and Johann Cieslak – Onions and Wheat, Essential Death Record Vocabulary (PREMIUM), Genealogy Beat the Clock: Black Friday Extreme Deals. Highly recommended. Bei der Mutter auch der Geschlechts-Name. Here are seven pointers: Always look at the entire page, not just a single record. Birth registers: name, date and place of birth of child; names, residence and occupation of the parents.. You may need to translate your search terms first using Google Translate, which is an approach that is always fraught with peril when working with inflected languages, so keep your searches simple. Author’s Note: If you would like the entire translation reference guide for your marriage certificate, it can be found here. “Vorgelesen, genehmigt und unterschrieben”: “Read aloud, approved and signed”. Extreme unction or last rites, performed for the dying. In my last post, I wrote about my excitement over my brand-new copy of Hoffman and Shea’s recently published German genealogical translation guide, In Their Words: A Genealogist’s Translation Guide to Polish, German, Latin and Russian Documents: Volume IV: German. There’s also the fact that the capital “K” in “Kalsing” and in Klessing (3rd entry from the top in the first column on the second page) is formed quite differently from the first letter in the priest’s name. Learning to translation foreign-language records is an investment in yourself, but you don’t have to go it alone. I recently got a copy of their marriage record and the parents names are missing, is this common for the time period or do I just have the short form version? The Final Clue: Tracing the Wagners Back to Germany. And if I can do that, you can, too! Here are seven pointers: I think this one ought to be obvious, but it’s really critical to familiarize oneself with all the examples of handwriting on the page. Hi Gregory, Again, I was without a safety net. Are there other forms that they had to fill out before getting married that I could possible get that would have their parents names listed? This collection contains family tables from numerous communities that are today part of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. Hi Paul – Please send me an e-mail via the contact form on the website. Understanding a German Church Record Entry German Church records are usually well organized and can give a lot of information about a person. 4. Poppis? Unfortunately, it was not. The changes were made especially in the marriage records. Denunciation in this context seems to refer to the reporting of known impediments to the marriage to the priest beforehand, in response to the announcement of the marriage banns (see “Denunciation of impediments,” here.) Can you help me figure this out? 3. I am not looking for translations but someone who can read/transcribe the old handwriting. (geboren, i.e. née) Meinzinger. The second column is Bräutigame Tauf- und Zuname, Bridegroom, given- and surname. Deciphering genealogical records can be quite an enjoyable puzzle, and you’ll gain a useful skill that will help you in your research. Or does he use them all interchangeably? Now that I have my first German translation behind me, I know that it can only get easier from here! Hi Melissa, Since there are multiple forms of the letter “s” that are possible in Kurrent, for example, does the writer consistently use the same form? "If only the typewriter had been invented a few centuries earlier!" Further examination of the entries in this third column reveals that only one word was recorded in most cases (sometimes hyphenated), and the word katholisch does not appear to be written in any of the columns. Weil Schoenbuch, Wuerttemberg Lutheran Marriage Records 1591-1700 - More than 1700 marriage records have been extracted from the Evangelical (Lutheran) church in Weil im Schönbuch, Württemberg, Germany, from 1591 to 1705. Hoffman and Shea’s German Genealogical Translation Guide is Here At Last! 7 views. in this document, so I briefly entertained the idea that perhaps this was intended to be an abbreviation for Standesamt, which is the civil registry office. Thank you! I think this one ought to be obvious, but it’s really critical to familiarize oneself with ... Use the familiar to decode the unfamiliar. More recent records may indicate baptismal place and date. A Family’s Quest for Truth: Is Their Treasured Heirloom the Famous X-Rayed Ring? Now, as it turns out, Hoffman and Shea spell it out on page 232 that, “What we see under Stand will usually be occupation.” However, since I was skipping around in the book, I managed to miss that part initially, so I had to prove this for myself. asked Oct 13, 2018 in Genealogy Help by Rick Peterson G2G6 Pilot (129k points) translation; German Death (Toten/Gestorben) Record - The key words you're looking for are: tag alt - for babies, "days old". The year was usually … With the mother, also the Family Name.” So what we should see in this column are the names of the groom’s parents, with his mother’s maiden name specified. Perhaps a great aunt can fish an old family Bible out of an attic trunk. But never fear! “Sohn/Tochter des_____”: “son/daughter of the______”. The oldest entries date from the 16th century. Easy enough so far. I need help transcribing this marriage record. ), can usually provide insight into archaic terms and offer historical context to help you understand the record, in addition to merely offering a translation. You’re welcome! 3. For details and registration, please visit https://llcgs.info/eventListings.php?nm=96, Framingham Public Library, 49 Lexington St, Framingham, MA 01702, USA, Co-sponsored by the Polish Genealogical Society of Massachusetts and the Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Boston. In my experience, usually the parents’ names are listed, but it depended on the parish. This is the old German Scripth alphabet. So that could have been the norm in some areas. There are even some styles of handwriting that were not taught in schools, but by notaries or others to their helpers. I considered trying to decipher the script pertaining to the dispensations, but I felt that I’d banged my head on a wall long enough for one day. The first witness was easy, Georg Maier, but the next line was not so easy: F???? I was excited when I learned about the option of taking the Old German Handwriting Course. The typical spelling mistakes on German records and how to identify them ; How to read the standard German marriage certificate format ; The best online resources for transcribing the old German handwriting and more! The database has a few records from as early as 1823, but most of records are from 1832 to 1873. A good exercise for me will be to go through the list of places of residence mentioned in this document and see if I can translate them based on the names of villages close to Roding. Thanks. Also, I studied German for three years in college and have traveled to Germany several times. Reading Old German Church Records Early German church records (Kirchenbuch) contain a wealth of family information for those who have ancestors from that country. thanks. meant Standesamt, I checked the Meyers gazetteer for Obertrübenbach, which reported that the Standesamt was in Obertrübenbach itself.  I knew I should be able to locate this word in this document, since I knew that Wenzel Meier’s family came from Obertrübenbach. Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. German language surname distribution database. ?il or Pa? After that, the column heading is Geboren wann? Many churches in this area followed the same or a similar format. While most of the documents he obtained were in Latin, there were a few that were in German, and I’ve been saving the German-language ones for this moment. m. That's often the cry of people trying to read older records. in Obertr?? It could be a passport, birth certificate, baptismal certificate, military ID, etc. “Vor dem unterzeichneten Standesbeamten”: “Before the undersigned registrar”. Find something you recognize on the page — any words that you can recognize or predict based on your prior knowledge, or about what you’ve been told the document says (for example, from an indexed entry) — and use these words as your Rosetta Stone to understand the nuances of the handwriting of this particular writer. If you’re still looking for an answer, it’s “Bescheinigung der Eheschliessung” (= certification of the marriage). Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. Since I didn’t do that, I struggled for a bit with the fact that the Fraktur 𝕭 (B) is almost identical to the Fraktur 𝖁 (V), especially when viewed at a small size. Good luck with your research! Ederer.  The next column, which reports whether she was single or a widow, states, led. German Scriptwriting training on line including script examples. I have what seems to be the same word on a document I am trying to translate and cannot decipher the handwriting. Otherwise, perhaps searching for birth certificates would be best! Since marital status was covered in Column 6, I finally arrived at the conclusion that “Stand” in column 3 must refer to the bridegroom’s occupation. Given their shared surname, they were probably relatives by blood or marriage, whose marriage would necessitate a dispensation. I too am researching my great grandparents wedding certificate. The alphabet is the same an american english except for the 'beta' letter after 's' which stands for a double 's' typically. “geboren den_____ des Jahres_____”: “Born on the (day, month) of the year____”. monaten alt - for babies, "months old". This is often the beginning sentence of the marriage certificate, underneath the city and date it was issued. “wohnhaft zu”: “residing in/resident of”. Use maps and gazetteers to help understand the places mentioned. German (in Additions) English Eheschliessende married person (1 or 2) (Namens)Führung the use (of a name) gestattet worden been permitted geschieden divorced anerkennen acknowledge erzeugt begotten Civil Marriage Records: Layout Tips If there are two numbered people on a civil registration record, it is a marriage record—the first Where?” Apparently the priest saw no need to record any of the wheres, but he did record Johann’s birthdate for us, 27 July 1827. It says Befcheiigung der (and then what look s like ” Chefchliefzung” which is not a word I can find anywhere. But what if it didn’t have to be so challenging? However, if you don’t speak German, deciphering these clue-filled pages can be a bit of a challenge (not to mention the difficulty of deciphering the handwriting!) Moreover, there’s a period after Stand. That being said, I’ve translated a good number from Berlin, and I usually do see the parents there. These documents pertain to my Meier family from the village of Obertrübenbach, presently located in Cham County, Oberpfalz, Bayern (Bavaria),. I know the document I have is my great grandparents marriage certificate but I cannot read what the last name of my great grandmother is. Handwritten documents were composed in cursive using a type of script known as blackletter. Thank you for this, I’ve just discovered that I’m looking at records I have no idea what I’m reading. Download your comprehensive list here – plus monthly German genealogy tips sent straight to your inbox. Apparently I was systematically misreading 𝖇 and 𝖉 in this document, too. Let’s start with looking at the column headings on the left page: The first thing I did was to check Hoffman and Shea’s section entitled, “Marriage Entries and Certificates: Columnar-Form Original Entries in Registers” to see if this exact form was reproduced. “geboren den_____ des Jahres_____”: “Born on the (day, month) of the year____”. Next comes Eltern. “der Persönlichkeit nach bekannt/der Persönlichkeit nach _______ anerkannt”: “His (or her) identity known”/”His (or her) identity verified by_________”. Possession is indicated as follows: 1) die Tochter des Johann Bachs means “the daughter of Johann Bach”, or 2) Johanna, Heinrich Messerschmidts means “Johanna, daughter of Heinrich Messerschmidt”. I’m really excited to continue my practice with German records, now that Hoffman and Shea’s German genealogical translation guide is here. Volunteers in that group, or in one of the groups targeted to your ethnic group of interest (German Genealogy, Polish Genealogy, etc. Look for the couple’s name, parents’ names, witnesses and officiant’s name. If you just need help with a few words here and there, you may want to check out the Premium membership – I help people decipher words they are having trouble with once a week! Secular Marriage License:  LR (whatever that means), Marriage dispensation with or without denunciation:  Not applicable. ?it (?). When you think you’ve deciphered a surname found in a record, test your theory by plugging it into a German language surname distribution database. If the surname exists in Germany today, you may be on the right track, and you score bonus points if the surname is also found in your county of interest. Figure 1b: Right page of marriage record for Johann Maier and Anna M. Urban, 27 October 1857.1 The entry pertaining to them is the second one from the bottom. Can you please tell me what religion is noted in the example you posted? Let’s start by looking at the entire document (Figure 1a and b). Of course, did you expect me not to love a blog saying nice things about the book? The marriage record in question is for Johann Meier/Maier and his bride, Anna Maria Urban, who were my great-great-great-grandparents, and it comes from the Catholic Church in Roding, Bavaria. The first column on the right page is Landgericht Aufenthalts-Ort, although this time the word bisheriger, meaning “previous” or “up until now” is inserted after Landgericht. Especially with different letter forms like Cyrillic and Kurrent, it seems like a certain amount of time has to be spent in the beginning in staring at alphabet charts, committing the letter forms to memory and learning the sounds that each letter makes.  Be patient with yourself. The one exception to this is the 8th marriage record down from the top (immediately above the record for Johann Maier and Anna Maria Urban), for Wolfgang Niklas and Elisabeth Niklas. Your email address will not be published. Paricularly high quality site with both English and German support along with other languages. To rule out the possibility that maybe Stand. Check first if you can do the translation by yourself.It may turn out to that it is not that difficult! I am having a hard time reading the old German script on what I believe to be my grandparents marriage certificate. I have no prior experience with reading, speaking, or writing German, and I’ve never made any serious attempt to decipher records in that language until now. German Kurrentschrift continues to be my nemesis because I just haven’t had the time to put in the practice with reading it. If you know what you are looking for, or are … The secretary hand, the court hand, the italic hand -- each had distinct letter forms and abbreviations. Note: The first round of edits is in! Sure enough, in the entry for the marriage of Johann Maier and Anna Maria Urban (second from the bottom), “Obertrübenbach” appears in the 4th column on the left page. If you work with German records, you understand how the handwriting has changed over time. The next columns pertain to the bride, starting with the column that reads, Der Braut Vor – und Geschlechts-Name, which is, “The Bride, given and family-name.” In the relevant entry, the bride’s name is recorded as Anna M. Urban, but her Stand doesn’t make sense to me. The first part of the word looks exactly like Häusler as it’s written in the groom’s column, but it looks like it ends in “𝖘𝖙,” i.e., “Häuslerst.” This isn’t possible. Häuslerin would be a female Häusler, but those final two letters clearly aren’t “𝖎𝖓.” I left this alone for a while and moved on, but after further consideration, I’m wondering if perhaps those final letters really are “𝖘𝖙,” and this was intended to be an abbreviation for Häuslerstochter, “daughter of a Häusler.”. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. There are 6400 names and more than 450 different German, Swiss, Austrian and French towns in this database. If you find a corrections or an addition to the descriptions you wish to add, please note the file name associated, revision level and the book name with the comment and e-mail to ropulse@aol.com. I love the way you take the reader through your thinking as you work the process. The name, age and occupation of the witnesses, as well as how they were identified, are listed underneath the witness section (usually the second page of the marriage certificate). and then a word that looked like it might be “Obertrübenbach,” but with half the letters randomly omitted from the middle. Learn how your comment data is processed. Thanks for this great post. Records Translations Guidelines. FamilySearch has an online German Genealogical Word List … 27, pg. The next column heading is Landgericht, Aufenthalts-Ort, meaning, “District Court, place of residence.” This is where the word Obertrübenbach was recorded, which helped me determine the context for Stand in the previous column heading. Many of these records are preserved on microfilm, particularly in the LDS archives at Salt Lake City. The year was usually written out in letters rather than numbers. Anna Maria Urban was noted to have been born on 11 October 1832 in Kalsing. I was able to make out Johann’s father’s name, Christoph, and his mother’s name, Walburga gb. So in the case of most of the marriages recorded on these pages, there were no impediments to the marriage that were reported, and therefore there was no need for any dispensations. Did it help that I already knew what these names should be? If you continue to use our site, we will assume that you agree to our terms. 2. This is translated to mean, “Parents. Germany Service offers a large number of different and dependable services from Germany and Austria. Witnesses:  Georg Maier, ?? https://sktranslations.com/premium, My grandparents got married in 1944 in berlin. (?) Required fields are marked *. I am looking for people who are able to read old German handwritten Birth/Marriage/Death records/entries. The next column is for the witnesses, with given name, surname, occupation, and place of residence. Even if you don't speak or read German, however, you can still make sense of most genealogical documents found in Germany with the understanding of a few key German words.Common English genealogy terms, including record types, events, dates, and relationships are listed here, along with German words with similar meanings, such as words commonly used in Germany to indicate "marriage… Her parents, described in the next column (identical column headings to corresponding column on groom’s side), were Johann and A. Maria gb. Webinar hosted by the Worcester Chapter of the Massachusetts Society of Genealogists. It does not include, however, records from historic Baden. Note that Google.de will provide different (and more appropriate) results than English-language Google, and for Polish records, Google.pl is the preferred search engine. German SütterlinScriptwriting exercises with examples that will also help you to read the script. This is then followed by the name of a city or town. Thank you, Mente. 3, MF 573. Old German gothic handwriting and print are very different from the Roman script most English- speaking genealogists use. She works with the old German script in letters, diaries, certificates, church records, and more, helping people like you decipher the clues to their ancestors' lives. In the third column, you’ll notice that the Fraktur 𝕾 looks rather different from our S, and the final 𝖉 in the first word looks almost like a 𝖇, and I found myself referring frequently to Hoffman and Shea’s handy German alphabet chart on page 1, where they show Fraktur, Cursive, and Roman letters all side by side for comparison. Additions and corrections are always welcome. The letter “s” often looks like an “f” in old documents. The next column, Weltliche Heiraths-Lizenz, refers to a secular marriage license. and then Religion is easy to read. Prussian State Archive samples- in German only. Additional information such as former residence in Germany (or elsewhere), rank in family and occupation may also be given depending on the year and record. Similarly, if you think you’ve deciphered the priest’s name, try Googling the history of the parish to see if this particular priest was mentioned. Names, occupations, places of residence and other interesting tidbits of information often fill the short documents to the brim. The names of the newly-married couple, as well of the names of the witnesses, are signed underneath this phrase. The Arbeitshelfe also contains some good historical maps. Members-Only webinar sponsored by the Polish Genealogical Society of Connecticut and the Northeast. 7 Tips for Reading German Marriage Certificates. The next one up has the heading, Pfarrer Stellvertreter, “Parish Representative,” implying that this column should name the priest who performed the marriage (who might not be the pastor himself). 🙂. Remember that I’m starting from the same place as many of you. We’re in the home stretch, with just four columns to go.