translation tools

The below presented collection of links to the translation tools has been created to assist you in translating the vital records for your ancestors (German, Latin, Polish, Russian).

Additional help with BMD documents including guidance on formats/structures and translations is available here -
Vital Record Structures and Formats

genealogical dictionaries

Polish-Latin-English

• • Polish-Latin-English genealogy dictionary

  • https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Latin_Genealogical_Word_List

  • (Latin-Polish) https://pl.glosbe.com/la/pl?fbclid=IwAR0SQOSX5rAMECwMBjWxUoLMFXrlRmUQ4jC9S4jBPRdwGuxCaay0k4BAraA

  • Polish-Latin Church terms dictionary http://www.ultramontes.pl/jougan_slownik_koscielny_lac_pol.htm

(for the following links please use chrome to translate Polish to English):

• • numerals

  • weekdays

  • words used in the death records

  • illness/cause of death source 1 and source 2

  • International Classification of Diseases

  • words used in the baptism records

  • words used in the marriage records

  • professions

  • Everyday Latin (in Polish only)

Polish - English

• Polish alphabet

• Guide to reading letters from archive in Polish

• useful word list for using Polish websites

• Polish-English medical dictionary

• Polish-English professions and occupations

• Polish-English occupations

• Terms of family relationship

• Death Notice Translation Guide for The Dziennik dla Wszystkich

• https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Polish_Genealogical_Word_List

• BMD Napoleonic Records - FS Reading Aid (Polish and Russian)

• Polish terms in records

• Guide to pronunciation

Latin - English

• Ecclesiastical abbreviations http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01022a.htm

• Terms http://genealogy-quest.com/glossary-terms/latin/

• Genealogical words

  • https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Latin_Genealogical_Word_List

  • https://petrydetlef.beepworld.de/latein.htm

• Dictionary

  • http://www.genealogy.ro/dictionary/

  • http://www.worldlingo.com/en/resources/latin_dictionaries.html

  • http://www.genproxy.co.uk/Latin.htm

• Dictionary and Grammar Aid http://archives.nd.edu/latgramm.htm

Polish-German-English

• • professions

  • professions

  • Genealogical Words

  • German script

  • German handwriting:

    • Read Suetterlin / read blackletter

    • German Handwriting

    • Table with Old German letters

    • Germanic alpha-chart

    • Kurrent writing

    • Font generator for German handwriting and Fraktur

    • Kurrent typewriter

  • German Illness Translations

  • German numerals handwriting

Polish historical dictionaries

• • dictionary of expressions used in old Polish djvu file for download

  • dictionary of expressions used in old Polish website version

Russian-English

• Genealogical Words

  • https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Russian_Genealogical_Word_List

  • http://files.lib.byu.edu/family-history-library/research-outlines/Europe/Russia.pdf

• Names handwritten (from web archived website lostshoebox) and pdf version

• Russian Alphabet

  • http://www.learn-russia.com/lessons/alphabet.php

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_alphabet

  • http://allbell.tripod.com/cursive/russalph.html

  • http://masterrussian.com/blalphabet.shtml

  • http://www.pitt.edu/~armata/cyrillic.jpg

  • https://www.sggee.org/research/rus_translate/Cyrillic_Handouts.pdf

• A Cyrillic orthography for the Polish language

  • http://steen.free.fr/cyrpol/

  • https://lingojam.com/PolishCyrillic

• Professions

• Vital records http://zofiafederowicz.com/akta-metrykalne/?setlang=en

• https://www.sggee.org/research/rus_translate/nap_documents.html

• Transliterating from Russian to English

Multi-lingual translation aids

Hard copy and online publications

"In Their Words" by William F. Hoffman and Jonathan D. Shea (four volumes: Polish, Russian, Latin, German )

• • http://www.langline.com/Publications.htm

  • https://pgsa.org/product-category/books/

  • PDF format https://langline.com/order-ebooks/

Translation aids from German, Polish and Russian to English

• https://sggee.org/research/translation_aids.html

Common Genealogical Terms in Eight Languages

• genealogy words

Tutorials

Vital records structure

• Austrian partition records

• Prussian partition records

• Polish and Latin records

• Russian partition records

Learning Latin

• http://apps.nationalarchives.gov.uk/latin/beginners/default.htm

Guide to Polish Pronunciation

• http://www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/erc-gtp-poland.htm