Can Google Translate Read Handwriting in Document

*This web log post originally appeared as a guest post  I wrote for Geneabloggers in 2016. Thanks to Thomas MacEntee for letting me repost information technology hither.*

In this 24-hour interval and age, nosotros accept everything at our fingertips. Desire to know the score of a baseball game? Google information technology. Curious nigh a new restaurant in town? Look information technology upwards online. Want to know a give-and-take in a foreign language? Google Translate.

While it's wonderful that everything is so easy nowadays, sometimes we need to be a fiddling more than careful. With the Google Interpret tool in item, you must ask yourself if it can really provide yous with the information y'all need. Although the site is relatively decent at translating private words, Google Translate is not recommended for anything more than that, especially in the field of genealogy. Why non? Check out these six reasons below:

#1: Many genealogical documents are handwritten.

This first indicate is rather obvious, only it should nevertheless exist discussed. While the technology behind Google Interpret is advanced, the site is simply unable to turn handwritten documents into translated text. "Well," you might say, "why can't I just type everything from the certificate into Google Translate?" My respond: In addition to the problematic translation results you may receive (run into below), the handwriting in onetime documents is often very difficult to read. In German, for example, the script used in documents pre-1950 is completely different from the handwriting used in Germany today (so different, in fact, that virtually German-speakers themselves are unable to read it!).

#2: Many genealogical documents contain outdated words that Google Interpret does not recognize.

Simply as English speakers don't walk effectually exclaiming, "K art lovely!", words in other languages take evolved likewise. Unfortunately, Google Translate is merely unequipped to deal with the old-fashioned foreign words so common in genealogical translations. This is besides true for occupations that no longer exist. I recently translated an 1882 wedlock record in which the father was listed as a "Wagner" (the High german word for 'railroad vehicle-maker'). Type "Wagner" into Google Translate, and it only remains "Wagner," leaving you merely guessing at your ancestor's profession.

#three: Google Translate often translates idioms and phrases literally, leaving yous wondering what in the world your ancestor could take meant.

Some Google-Translate Examples of Idioms:

German Idiom	English Significant	Google Translate
Ich verstehe nur Bahnhof.	I don't understand annihilation.	I understand only station.
Wo sich Fuchs und Hase gute Nacht sagen	In the eye of nowhere	Where fox and hare say goodnight
Mit der Kirche ums Dorf fahren	To make something more complicated	Take the church around the hamlet

You tin can imagine your bewilderment if you are trying to translate a letter and believe your ancestor was somehow trying to back-trail a church around an entire village while cavorting with polite woodland creatures. Makes no sense!

#iv: Many genealogical documents contain obscure abbreviations that Google Translate ignores.

I recently translated a 1940 list of documents a bride needed for her wedding. As this was a listing that she just wrote for herself, she used many abbreviations throughout the text. When I type 1 such case into Google Translate, it looks similar this:

German Document	English language Significant	Google Interpret
Abstammungsnachweis b. Großelt.	Certificate of Heritage from both grandparents (beider Großeltern)	Pedigree certificate b. Großelt. (does not translate the ii abbreviations)

Over again, if you did not speak German, Google Translate would leave you guessing at what your antecedent had written down.

#5: A word in your certificate can accept multiple meanings and Google can only option one of them.

Take the English language word "run." "Run" tin hateful jog speedily (She runs in the park), manage (She runs a business organisation), a tear (a run in your stockings) and so on (English With a Twist). How is Google supposed to selection the exact right meaning of the discussion for your document? Merely as English words accept multiple definitions, other languages do every bit well. One such word is the multi-meaning High german pronoun "sie", which, if Google chooses the wrong translation, tin can either change the meaning of your certificate or merely crusade you a great deal of defoliation. Such confusion is (correctly) illustrated by Marker Twain in his essay, "The Awful German Language":

"the same audio,sie, meansy'all, and it waysshe, and it meansher, and it waysinformation technology, and it meansthey, and information technology meansthem…think of the exasperation of never knowing which of these meanings the speaker is trying to convey. This explains why, whenever a person sayssie to me, I generally endeavor to kill him, if a stranger."

#six: Google Interpret tin can brand absolutely no sense whatsoever.

Here are real examples of what Google Interpret did with actual sentences I've translated from old messages:

German	English Meaning	Google Translate
Wenn ich Zeit zum schreiben hatte, then musste ich nach Frankfurt zu meiner Schwester, dice mir Vorwurfe macht dass ich sie and then wenig besuche.	When I did have time to write, I had to become to Frankfurt to see my sister, who accuses me of non visiting her enough.	If I had time to write, and so I had to Frankfurt to my sister to give me reproach visit from me following so piddling.
Noch musste ich bemerken das in Ostpreussen eine Hungersnot ist, wofür in allen Städten und Dörfen Geld und Nährungsmittel gesammelt werden.	I still need to mention that there is a famine in East Prussia, for which money and food are being collected in all cities and villages.	Yet I had to call back this is a famine in Eastward Prussia, are what is collected in all cities and villages of coin and Nährungsmittel

If you only look at the Google Translate column, these translated sentences frequently make no sense or provide the completely wrong idea. For example, "this is a famine in East Prussia" sounds similar the author is part of the dearth, when in fact she is merely explaining that in that location is one in another part of the state. Non to mention the "villages of coin."

In conclusion, I exercise believe that Google Interpret can help you with the meanings of individual words hither and in that location. Notwithstanding, if you lot are serious about your genealogical research, value accuracy and want to learn as much as you tin about your ancestors from the documents in your possession, hiring a translator is the way to go.

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Source: https://germanologyunlocked.com/six-reasons-human-better-google-translate-genealogy-documents/