Coming Soon at Ancestry: German-language Message Boards

Germany.jpgAncestry will be launching german-language message boards soon and is looking for people who can speak and write German well to volunteer to be an administrator on one or more of the boards. These boards will be separate from those found in the community section of Ancestry and on RootsWeb.com. If you are interested in acting as administrator for a new German message board, send an email to [email protected] for more details.

8 thoughts on “Coming Soon at Ancestry: German-language Message Boards

  1. My Father`s Ancestors Were German.I cannot speak German.My thought is to have a ready German dictionary site attached to this site, and also to the family tree site or Gensmarts.

    Thanks
    Everett Baute

  2. Ditto on needing a convenient way to translate what comes over the message board in German.

  3. My great,great grandfather came from Brandenburg, Prussia in
    the 1800’s. It would be very helpful if it was possible to be
    able to contact record offices. I do not speak German. The addresses would be some help.

  4. I have to put my vote in for an English translation (most on-line translators don’t adequately translate–sometimes you can get the idea of what is being said, but much of the time it seems senseless. I’m always afraid I’m going to miss something that will lead me to my ancestors past…or find a long-lost relative. I would certainly appreciate a translation.Thanks,
    Judy Rosen

  5. Thank you for the addition. I agree that a tranlation attachment is necessary. I would also like to see a printed translation of source records when merged to family tree.

  6. Wars have been fought, & Kingdoms lost over misunderstood words! By all means TRANSLATE. So very many Americans carry GERMAN genes, it will be a much used source. Thank You. M.Camarda

  7. I have a very good knowledge of German and agree that an online dictionary or translator might be a good idea. There are drawbacks for each though. The online dictionary is useful to find individual words, however unless you know the ins and outs of the German language, you might find it quite difficult to find the meanings of some German words eg verbs and compound nouns. A translator has the advantage that it will give you a rough idea about the text, but often translates words incorrectly, which could lead to either ignoring a bit of vital information or to wrong assumptions. In addition, German hand-writing and printed text can be very difficult just to read and abreviations are frequently used. This adds to the challenge as sometimes you may have to guess a letter, or may not be able to translate or look up the word online. In my opinion human translation works best (especially when looking at detailed information and scripts), however the above options are more suitable for those who care less about accuracy. Perhaps if an online human translation service were provided, people could be certain that they have a full understanding of the facts.

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