Introduction

In the course of your research you will at some point encounter a language problem. In many cases your ancestors spoke or wrote in a language other than English. Most American genealogists and family historians will encounter documents in many different languages when researching their ancestry. In researching my own family, I have had to read original documents and navigate webpages in French and German. I have also helped my wife uncover her family history by helping her translate obituaries from Polish and grave markers from Czech. I have always enjoyed the challenge of tackling new challenges in unfamiliar languages. In this blog, I will use my background in linguistics and passion for genealogy to give tips and tools for helping readers to research in other languages.