New Poll Created!

I've just added a new poll to this blog. The question for this poll is, "Where in Scandinavia are your ancestors from?" Your choices are:

• Norway
• Sweden
• Finland
• Denmark
• Iceland

You can choose more than one answer for this poll. The poll will close in about two weeks. Enjoy!

Reminder and Other Things ...

I just want to remind everyone that articles for the Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy will be due on November 30. The topic for this carnival is a carousel. I have already received articles for the carnival, but I just want to let everyone know when articles are due for the upcoming carnival. You can read more about the carnival here.

On another note, I will not be posting very many articles this week primarily because I am busy with school work.

Poll Results

The poll is now closed, and the results are in. The question for this poll was, "Where in Eastern Europe are your ancestors from?" Four people voted, and the results are:

• Poland - 2 votes
• Russia - 3 votes
• Lithuania - 0 votes
• Estonia - 0 votes
• Latvia - 0 votes
• Ukraine -1 vote

To those who voted, thank you for voting. At least two or three more polls will be posted in the future, so keep an eye out for them. Enjoy!

An Advent Meme: My Family's Christmas Tree

Within the past couple of weeks, Jasia and Thomas have come up with a Christmas meme, and I have decided to participate. There are supposed to be about 24 entries, and the first entry for December 1 is on Christmas trees memories and traditions.

For as long as I can remember, my parents have always had an artificial Christmas tree. My grandparents, on the other hand, have always had a real Christmas tree. Either way, the trees that my family had have been around six or seven feet tall - probably the average height for a Christmas tree. Of course, the trees couldn't be any taller than that because the height of the ceilings in the houses my parents and grandparents used to live in were probably no higher than eight feet. In short, the ceilings were pretty low. (I have to estimate the heights here because I do not remember what the height of the ceilings were of the house I used to live in. I'm just recalling this from my memory, so the height could be incorrect.)

When I was a young child, my parents mainly decorated the tree. If my brother or I did any decorating, it was in helping hang ornaments on the tree. As my brother and I got older, we participated more in helping put the tree together and decorating the tree. By the time I was a teenager, my brother and I probably did most of the decorating of the tree, and putting the tree together. (Our dad would still help in putting the tree together, as my brother and I were still not tall enough to put the top on.) One year, I believe, if I remember correctly, I put up the tree all by myself, and I also strung all of the lights on the Christmas tree. Everyone else ended up putting ornaments on the tree the next day. Since I have gone to college, I haven't helped as much in putting up the tree because I have been busy with school work. I didn't put help with the tree this year primarily because I had school work that I had to do.

Some Interesting Thanksgiving Posts ...

Even though I haven't posted very many articles on Thanksgiving and it is now after Thanksgiving, I still want to mention some articles on Thanksgiving that I thought were interesting. The articles are:

• Miriam's "A Thanksgiving Hymn"
• Randy Seaver's "The Pilgrim's Thanksgiving in 1621"
• Terry Thornton's "Eatin' Outa the Bully Bucket and Other Reasons to be Thankful"

I realize that is not a large list of articles. I have been very busy lately with school work, and these were the articles that I noticed the most. If I have missed any other articles, please feel free to let me know. Thanks. Enjoy!

The Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture Has Been Posted!

The first carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture was posted yesterday at Lisa's Small-leaved Shamrock. The topic for the next carnival is recommendations of books, resources and databases that have been useful to you in doing Irish genealogy. Article entries are due by December 28. Enjoy!

All I Want For Christmas Is ...

Okay, I realize that it is still too early to write about Christmas, but I'm doing this ahead of time primarily because I probably won't have any other time to post this between now and December 1st.

So, what would I like for Christmas, genealogically speaking? Well ...

1. More time to do genealogy. (Obviously, this is probably what every genealogists wants. I'm hoping I'll have some time to do research over the Christmas break.)
2. Break down a few "brick walls"/ difficult areas on a couple of branches.
3. Find Marriage records for a couple of my ancestors and their siblings that I have not yet been able to find.
4. Order a couple of microfilms of German records.

Well, that is all that I can think of. I realize that this a pretty generic wish list, but then, I don't really have the time to sit down and think about what I want exactly.

New Carnival Created!

I have created a new carnival. This carnival is the Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy. This carnival will cover a diverse and large area; an area that stretches from Germany to Russia to the Balkan Peninsula. Topics can be on genealogy, history or culture of these regions.

For this first carnival it will be a carousel, so any article that focuses on Central or Eastern Europe is welcome. The first submission is due by November 30, and I will post within a couple of days. I will probably have carnivals every second and last Friday of the month. You can submit your articles here.

Please feel free to spread the word about this new genealogy carnival.

An Ancestor Meme!

John of Transylvanian Dutch blog came up with a new meme a couple of days ago in his Can you top this? article. I don't believe that I can come up with an ancestor who has fathered more than 22 children because I have only been able to go back only 150 to 200 years so far. But I do have a couple of female ancestors who had at least 11 children. I have to wonder, though, how common was it for women in the late 1800s to early 1900s, to bear eleven children? Most of my female ancestors that I have researched so far have had between six and eight children. I could be wrong, but having eleven children, to me, would still seem to be an accomplishment, especially if the majority of the children survived to adulthood. Since we live in an age of antibiotics, I don't believe we can fully comprehend what life was like when antibiotics and vaccines were pretty much non-existent. (When I say non-existent, I mean when they were uncommon or not readily available. Edward Jenner came up with the first vaccine back in the 1700s.) Of course, I can't comprehend because I was born way after antibiotics became readily available. So what do think? As always, you can leave a comment.

Carnival of Genealogy Posted!

The carnival of genealogy has been posted at Jasia's blog. The topice for the next carnival is on genealogy wish lists. Enjoy!

Oh I Just Can't Wait ...

In a couple more days I'll be going home for Thanksgiving, and I'll get to see my family. I've been dying for a break for a while, and it will be nice to get a break. Of course, I still have school work that I'll be working on, but at least, I'll be able to relax a little. Have a Happy Thanksgiving! Enjoy!

New Poll Created!

I have just added a new poll. The question for this poll is, "Where in Eastern Europe Are Your Ancestors From?" The choices are:

• Poland
• Russia
• Lithuania
• Estonia
• Latvia
• Ukraine

You can choose more than one location in voting. The poll will be opened for eight days. Enjoy!

Poll Results

The poll is now closed and the results are in. The question for this poll was, "Where in Central Europe did your ancestors come from?" There were eight choices, and ten people voted. Here are the results:

• Germany - 6 votes
• Austria - 2 votes
• Switzerland - 4 votes
• Hungary - 1 vote
• Czech Republic - 1 vote
• Luxembourg - 2 votes
• Slovakia - 0 votes
• Liechtenstein - 0 votes

To those who voted, thank you for participating.

The 161 Meme

I'd like to say that I was tagged for this meme, even though I haven't been put on a list. I read Terry Thornton's blog earlier, and he tagged everyone who read his blog to do this meme. Therefore, I'm going to post for this meme.

For this meme, I am supposed to go to the 161st page in a book I am reading, and then post the sixth sentence of this book. I am always reading, and at the moment, I am reading several books. I won't list sentences from every book that I am reading because I am reading way too many at the moment. So, I'll just choose one book.

One of the books I am reading is Carol McD. Wallace's All Dressed in White: The Irresistible Rise of the American Wedding. Here is the sixth sentence:

"Sometimes a movie had a broader effect on fashion - Sabrina from 1954 popularized a shallow scooped neckline called the 'Sabrina neck' that was popular on wedding gowns throughout the mid-1950s."

Obviously, this sentence is part of a paragraph on how movies influenced the design of wedding dresses.

Now I have to tag five other people. So here are the five people that I am tagging:

• Craig Manson of GeneaBlogie
• Lisa of Small-leaved Shamrock
• Miriam of AnceStories
• Pat of A Journey into the Past
• Renee of Renee's Genealogy Blog

So, now I encourage those I just tagged to do the same. Enjoy!

Thanksgiving Memories - Part One

In light of the fact that Thanksgiving is only about a week away, I've decided to write about some of my memories of Thanksgivings that my family have celebrated. So, what do I associate the most with Thanksgiving?

Well, besides being with family, the turkey dinner has always been prominent. I think almost every Thanksgiving dinner has included turkey, cranberries and stuffing. Most of the turkeys that my family had were baked for about four hours in an oven. (Well, at least it seemed to be about four hours.) So, when we had turkey, it would most likely be baked, that is, until a few years ago. A few years ago, my parents learned about frying turkeys and my dad decided to try cooking a turkey that way. He went out and bought a fryer and bought the oil needed to fry the turkey. So, now my family has a new tradition: frying the turkey. Why do we do that? Well, frying the turkey, depending upon the size, doesn't usually take more than two hours. So it is much quicker. (Of course, if I had to choose between a fried turkey and a baked one, I would rather have a baked one. That is not to say that fried turkeys don't taste good. I'm just old-fashioned.)

So, what memories do you have of Thanksgiving? Does your family have a turkey for dinner? If so, how does your family cook it?

Poll Results

The poll that I started yesterday has now closed. The question was: For the next few days, which holiday would you want to read about in articles? Five people voted, and the results are:

• Thanksgiving -4 votes
• Christmas - 1 vote

From this poll, it appears that most people want to read about Thanksgiving, so I'll write about Thanksgiving in articles in the days following up to Thanksgiving. Thank you to all of those who voted.

Genealogy and History Thoughts - Column Eight: Or Why I Prefer to Not Use Online Translators

I know there are genealogists that use online and computer translators to translate old documents, and my intention is not to attack those who use these translators. I realize that not everyone knows another language and that translators can be helpful in saving time. And money. My problem with online translators is that they translate terribly, and if a document is poorly translated, one can miss some important information. Also, not every word of a language is included in an online translator, especially if it is an old word. Or the actual meaning of the sentence can be skewered by an online translator, since that online translator probably does not take in context of the endings on nouns and adjectives or of the case. For example:

• Latin - depending up the ending of the noun, one call tell the gender of that noun, if the noun is singular or plural, and what case that word is in. (When I speak of case, I mean such as: possession -in the case of Latin, called Genitive, indirect object - Accusative, direct object - dative, subject - nominative, and two more cases that I can't recall off the top of my head. It's been awhile since I've dealt with Latin.)


• German - Again, it is the same with Latin, except German only has four cases: nominative, accusative, dative and genitive.

So, as you can see, if an online translator ignores the case of the noun, one could potentially miss some important information, especially if the information on a document (like a vital record) is in a sentence instead of a form. One could potentially miss out information such as how someone is related to someone else if the document mentions more than one person. So, the case of a noun is quite important when it comes to translating a document.

And then there is the issue of translating something in English into another language. Online translators could very easily use the wrong word in translating a sentence. If someone was trying to write a letter in another language for information, that person could easily use an online translator and get something back that might mean something else to a native speaker reading that letter. (Obviously, they would be able to tell right away that the letter was written by someone who isn't fluent in the language.) A human translator does a much better job than an online translator, but I realize that can cost quite a bit of money, unless you can find someone who is willing to do it for free. The other option is to try to learn that language, but then again that costs money and time.

Even though I am taking German language classes, I am not fluent in German yet. I still make quite a few mistakes, but unlike a computer, I can probably come up with a better translation (with a dictionary) than a computer's literal translation. I know that these online translators can be awful because I decided to test a couple for fun. (Yes, I wanted to see how bad they were.) I have a document in German and know roughly what the document says. I decided to try Microsoft Word 2003's translator (okay, this one isn't on the internet, but I think it falls into the computer category.), and well, it did a poor job. One of the reasons was that it restricted the number of words that could be added at a time. The problem is that sentences in historical documents can be quite long and the sentence meaning will be skewered if words are cut out. In German, there are times when the verb can be at the end of a sentence, and if one does not have that last verb, the sentence meaning will be wrongly translated (if it makes any sense at all). So, for me, the Microsoft translation was quite funny because of all of the mistakes it made. (Again, I did this just to make myself laugh.)

Here is an excerpt of my document in German:

"Worüber wir gegenwärtige Urkunde in Gegenwart der nachgenannten vier Zeugen: 1. Philipp Jantzer/Jentzer, Kaufmann, drei und dreißig Jahre alt wohnhaft in Waldfischbach;2. Ludwig Schäffer, Bäcker und Wirth, fünfzig Jahre alt, wohnhaft in Trippstadt;3. Johannes Drescher, Schullehrer, sechs und dreißig Jahre alt, wohnhaft in Trippstadt;4. Jakob Jung, Kaufmann, ein und dreißig Jahre alt, wohnhaft in Kaiserslautern,alle vier mit den Brautleuten nicht verwandt und nicht verschwägert,gefertigt und mit denselben und den kontrahirenden Theilen, benebst den anwesenden Eltern, nach geschehener Vorlesung unterzeichnet haben.So geschehen zu Trippstadt im Jahre und am Tage wie Eingangs erwähnt."

Here is Microsoft Word's translation:

" ... 1. Philipp Jantzer/Jentzer, Buyer, three and thirty years old resident … all four related to the bride people not and does not verschwägert manufactured and with the same and the contracting Theilen, benebst that present parents, after happened lecture signed. As happened at Trippstadt in the year and by day as entrance mentions."

(Note: I have elipses in this excerpt of the Microsoft translation because Microsoft's program restricts the number of words to about twenty-five and by the time I got to the end of the document, I was tired of having to continually copy and past.)

As you can see, Microsoft's translation of this excerpt is not very good. It left several words in German, and the sentance clearly does not make sense.

The other translator that I have tried is Babelfish. Babelfish did only a slightly better job. Here is Babelfish's translation:

"About what we present document in presence of the following four witnesses: 1. Philipp Jantzer/Jentzer, buyer, three and thirty years old resident in forest fish brook; 2. Ludwig Schaeffer, baker and Wirth, fifty years old, resident in Trippstadt; 3. Johannes Dre, school teachers, six and thirty years old, resident in Trippstadt; 4. Jakob young, buyer, and thirty years old, resident in Kaiserslautern, all four related not verschwaegert to the bride people and not, not manufactured and to the same and the kontrahirenden Theilen, benebst present parents, after happened lecture signed. As happened at Trippstadt in the year and by day as entrance mentions."

And here is my translation of the excerpt:

"We, four witnesses were present at the aforementioned deed:
1. Philip Jantzer/Jentzer,* merchant, 33 years old, resides in Waldfischbach; 2. Ludwig Schaeffer, Baker and innkeeper (or land lord), 50 years old, resides in Trippstadt; 3. John Drescher, school teacher, 36 years old, resides in Trippstadt; 4. Jacob Jung, merchant, 31 years old, resides in Kaiserslautern; neither of these four are related to the bridal couple, and they happened to be present in the signing of the contract, instead of the parents' presence. And so came to pass in Trippstadt in the year and day mentioned."

(*I had someone transcribe my document for me because at the time I could not make sense of the German hadwriting, and the transcriber wasn't sure if the letter was an a or an e.) If anyone can come up with a better translation, please feel free to correct me.

Of course, when it comes to only translating one or two words, these online translators can do a fairly good job, but I wouldn't use it for phrases or sentences. Also, I noticed that these dictionaries do not have archiac words in their databases. So, if you're looking for the translation of an old occupation, the chances are greater that you might not find it. I did do some browsing a few minutes ago, and I found a website that has translations for old German occupations. Here is the link: http://worldroots.com/brigitte/occupat.htm. I can't vouch for its accuracy, but it appears as though it might be helpful when it comes to looking for older words.

Again, as I mentioned before, I am not attempting to attack those who use online translators. I just want to let others know that these online translators are not as accurate as they might appear. If anyone has a better translation of that excerpt, please feel free to leave a comment correcting me. So, what do you think? Feel free to leave me a comment.

Blog Changes

I have changed the blog again and this time, I have added a picture I took in one of the cemeteries where my ancestors are buried. Please let me know if the font color is unreadable. Enjoy!

Update, Nov. 15 - 10:55 P. M.: I have made the text more bold and changed the text color to orange. Please let me know if this is difficult to read, and I will make changes.

Silly Thanksgiving Quizes

I decided to take some silly Thanksgiving quizzes. Here are my results:

You Are Mashed Potatoes

Ordinary, comforting, and more than a little predictable You're the glue that holds everyone together.

What Part of Thanksgiving Are You?

Your Pilgrim Name Is

Faith Standish

What's Your Pilgrim Name?

You Are 77% Thankful

You are a very thankful person - for both the big and little things in life. Your optimism is powerful. Getting through hard times is fairly easy for you.

How Thankful Are You?

I realize that I did not post as many quizzes this time. There were very few quizzes for Thanksgiving. Anyhow, these are just silly quizzes.

New Poll Added!

I have just added a new poll to this blog. This poll will only last for the next 23 hours. The question is: For the Next Few Days, Which Holiday Would You Prefer Reading About? Your choices are:

• Thanksgiving
• Christmas

If you have a preference, please let me know. Thanks. Enjoy!