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I’ve seen the question being asked over and over on social media: “how do I translate genealogical records into English?” There is one simple answer to that question . . . GOOGLE TRANSLATE. While this free service will not instantly translate every nuance of a passage, it will help you in translating like a pro; that is, to help you translate words and phrases on the fly, enough to get you a rough translation of simple documents.

The thing you MUST remember (that will have you translating like a pro) is that most of what you want translated can be very formulaic. That is, based on a form or a set of rules. Think about it, ship manifests, censuses, birth, marriage, death records, and even wills are all based on some standard form or format.

Armed with this information, it’s your time to play sleuth!

With a little help from GOOGLE TRANSLATE and a lot of logic, you can certainly tackle any genealogical record you wish. Even with a degree in Linguistics, I still turn to Google Translate! It’s such an amazing research tool.

Google Translate is easy enough to figure out, but follow my lead and I’ll show you how to make the best use of it. Once your on Google, just type in “Google Translate” (with or without caps) and this box will show up . . . just like magic! Once you enter the word or phrase you would like to translate those complex algorithms get to work comparing databases, busily scurrying around literally at the speed of light – yes data actually travels at about 97% of the speed of light nowadays!

Google Translate Boxes — source: google translate

For example, say you are looking at this document that has your ancestor’s name on it and you want to figure out just what the heck you are looking at? Well, an obvious clue would be the phrase “Atti Di Nascita” in bold on the top, a logical place to start. You might quickly guess that the word “numero” on the left means ‘number.’

Atti Di Nascita Forms — source: antenati

All you have to do is enter that word, retype it, into Google Translate and voila, you now know that refers to birth records. This must be a collection of birth records for a particular area in Italy. You can see the language detected is Italian. Smooth sailing! Just ‘rinse and repeat’ for any other word on there like certo, atti, or avanti.

google-translate-tips-for-translating-like-a-pro-italian-birth — source: google translate

Another nifty trick that Google Translate offers is an expanded list of related words or usages of a word in the language. Words exist in different forms in different parts of speech, and depending on the language, may look a bit wonky when used as a noun or an adjective or even a locative (referring to a place). I always use this option when looking at search results. As you can see, you can even copy the text or listen to how the word is pronounced – not available for all languages.

Soundex and options — source: google translate

Translate Records — source: google translate

Be aware however that even the mighty Google Translate has its limitations. It will not instantly and flawlessly translate a Shakespearean play or a classic haiku, that’s just beyond expectation and ridiculous. Although one day in the future it might be able to – assuming, of course, that something hasn’t already been translated. Even now Google Translate has trouble with hyper-complex languages like Lithuanian which is one of the hardest languages to learn. At the word level, it’s excellent; at the phrase level, it gets the job done as far as genealogical research is concerned!

With translation it’s all about starting with small blocks and building from there. Start with words and keep a log of those words as you encounter them. Once you’ve become accustomed to certain repeating strings of words you can understand them as common phrases. Google Translate will let you enter phrases which is awesome for more complex languages like Lithuanian. Being that genealogical documents were meant to capture large amounts of information with perfect regularity, they are inherently formulaic.

Knowing the structure of wills and other records will serve you immensely in trying to translate them yourself. It is one of the ultimate achievements in doing family history research, being able to connect to your ancestors across time, space, and even language. For further reference, read my “Ultimate Beginners Guide to Mastermind Genealogy Research Online.”