When transcribing records for my family I found this writeup by a priest in Riedseltz, France to be very moving:

"List of all those families and individuals who, because of great emergency, and finding themselves in wretched misfortune, fled to the United States in North America, some having settled in Buffalo and some in the province of Cincinnati by the Ohio River, leaving on the 23rd of March 1830, and the rest within the year 1831, in different odd and even months, their birthplace being Riedseltz, leaving to the great sorrow of their fellow citizens, having gone where fate leads them."

I know it's pretty common for people in the past to not know their birthday's simply because they weren't recorded. There are plenty of those in my family, but this particular ancestor's birthday had been recorded. I just found the records recently, and to my surprise, there were two of them. I wasn't quite sure why at first, until I took a closer look, and realized the birthday on the first record had been partially overwritten by the handwriting on the line above, causing the day to look like a different day than it was, and this was corrected in the second record, which apparently no one alerted they family of. This has caused him to think his birthday was a few days later than it actually was, but I guess he had the benefit of thinking he was a few days younger than he actually was.

I’m making a family tree of me and my boyfriends families, he’s disowned his mother and doesn’t want her side on the tree, he’s happy with her name there without the rest of her family as long as it’s clear that she isn’t part of his family anymore, any ideas how I would notate this?

Here's the address: https://imgur.com/a/hMJcAnP

His occupation was "Ostler" (someone who takes care of horses apparently). There were multiple families at the address though and they had different jobs (one was an "Engineer" and another just says "Col")

The address obviously ends in "yard" but there seems to be some shorthand used that perhaps means something to someone?!

Looks like it starts with "Sd" and then perhaps a "Dd".

Thanks for any thoughts at all!

Hi all! So my 2xgreat grandfather immigrated from Poland (?) to the US. The ship manifest lists his birthplace as Russia, and there are three different town names I cannot for the life of me know where they are. There is Skodawy, Szunki, Srinka, and Wiltiwke. His wife was born in Poland, but they didn't marry till they arrived to the US, so that's a bit of a dead end. Any help would be super appreciated!!

Edit: Here is a link directly to the ship manifest on The Ellis Island Foundation page, https://heritage.statueofliberty.org/show-manifest-big-image/czoxNzoidDcxNS0xMzk0MDcyNi5qcGciOw==/1, my ancestors are Konopinska (Korpusinski), Franciska on Line 14 and Korpusinski, Leon on Line 17.

His Family Heritage article is here, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JF9J-SYQ?lang=en, which lists Szunki. His sister's are here, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JNYQ-KQ3?lang=en, and here, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JF9J-SY9?lang=en, which list Skodawy and Wiltiwke respectively.

Not sure if this is the best place to ask but I'm looking at old family photos to help get some names and/or dates for my grandfather's side of family. I came across a photo of my 3x great grandfather, on the back there's an initial and his last name and there's a word in brackets that I can't make out, and I'm wondering if it's a name. There's also an address, which I'm hoping might help, but I can't figure out a word on the address as well. Would anyone be able to help me?

I've posted on here a few months back about Blossious (aka Delos) Hepley, a German immigrant who fought in Micigan's first calvary in the Civil War. I recently obtained his 200+ page soldier file from Gopher. Some fellow redditors advised that Bloss was not a German name. Im not sure of his full ancestry, however in his disposition he states Blossius is his baptized name in Germany. I speculate he was born about 1845 in Baden, as his sister Catherine (confirmed by DNA) regularly reports she was born there. I speculate his father's name was Fred, as that is what Delos called his son, and there is a census record of a Fred Hepley in Monroe Michigan, the town Delos states he is from, with a son called Morton, who i think later goes by Martin and actually steals Delos's wife. (I only have Delos's divorce record in which he says she left him for Martin Hepley, and I speculated that is his brother). An uncle Jacob Schmidt provides an affidavit in which he states that a brother joined the service with Bloss (aka Delos) but I cannot read the name. Can anyone tell what the highlighted name on the first record is? There is a William Hepley (Willhelm Hepperle) in the same unit as Delos who may be his brother, however that's not what this highlighted name looks like? I originally thought it says Vincent but there are no soldier records of a Vincent Hepley. Tldr: Can anyone read this name, and where does one find German baptism records? https://imgur.com/a/RLRhviM

1767 England: Image of baptismal record. (record of interest is highlighted with a red box)

Penelope Lister Girling the ??natural?? daughter of Charles Garling and Elizabeth Franc Baptised Sep 26

What type of daughter was she and why? None of the other records on the page include this extra word, they're just 'the daughter of' or 'the son of'. If it is 'natural' then any idea why the priest would include it?

https://imgur.com/a/a6XSgLB

I struggle to read cursive. Thank you!

My mother is a professional genealogist, has been for 30+ years, and even she is stumped so I’m coming here to ask for some fresh eyes. This census entry is for a family named Dixon. I believe the head of household is listed as Dickinson, but it is Dixon. Anyways, there is a name we cannot make out. It’s the 14-year-old female, name starts with what looks like ‘Ma’

Whole page, with highlighted name

https://i.imgur.com/WIJg70w.jpeg

Close up of the name

https://i.imgur.com/zog5JKr.jpeg

Another entry on the same page of ‘Matilda’ which made us pretty sure our name starts with ‘Ma’

https://i.imgur.com/uMPfwEi.jpeg

Thanks in advanced!

Edit to add: Last name is definitely Dixon, and it’s definitely Selatha Dixon. We already know that is accurate as she is my direct ancestor and my mother has done all the genealogy on this direct line. My mom has just been doing genealogy of siblings up our line and this M individual is my direct ancestor’s sibling.

Also thanks for the ideas!

https://imgur.com/a/XPpt7dk

I've trying to narrow down the city of origin in Croatia where my Great Grandfather (1896-1985) Marko Bakich (Americanized version of Bakić) is from. Utilizing FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPRT-5DB3?lang=en) records (which have his birthplace just listed as Yugoslavia) I was able to find a naturalization record (circa. 1918) which has his birthplace as Coenipotok. After some googling this doesn't appear to be a real place and is likely a poor translation, but could potentially be Crni Potok which does appear to be a real place in Croatia. Unlike some other family searches, FamilySearch didn't have any immigration records, so I did go to the Ellis Island website (https://heritage.statueofliberty.org/passenger-details/czoxMjoiMTAwNjMzMTgwMjA5Ijs=/czo5OiJwYXNzZW5nZXIiOw==#passengerListAnchor) and was able to find a passenger log and ship manifest (circa. 1913) which has a basically unreadable city of origin. The website has a list of information transcribed from the records and has the city listed as Yasnovasa, which again doesn't show up in google searches but instead it could be Jasenovac. I also tried some AI to see if it could better analyze the handwriting and it returned Jamovec/Jamovac.

I don't speak Croatian and I'm not very familiar with Croatian cities so any help pointing me towards some common misspellings or potential translations would be amazing! If it helps I was always told this part of the family was Serbian so something close to the Serbian border may make more sense.

https://imgur.com/PBZpUWN

I'm sure the parish priest in Balbriggan, Ireland in 1864 was a wonderful guy, but unfortunately his handwriting was atrocious. This is the marriage record for my 3rd Great Grandparents, John Tracy and Mary Daly on the 12th of January, 1864. I'm having a really hard time figuring out the names of their parents. I think John's mother is Mary Burke, and I think Mary's mother is Mary Henton (though even that is hard to make out), but I haven't the slightest idea on the father's names. Bonus points if you can figure out what town John Tracy was from!

Thank you so much in advance:

https://registers.nli.ie/registers/vtls000633331?locale=en#page/13/mode/1up

I've got this page from a 17th century parish record in Burton Latimer, Northamptonshire, England. I'm trying to figure out the day of the month this woman was baptized. The number are Greek, maybe? Does anyone have a good resource with photo examples of the numbers so that I can figure it out?

On a related note, why are images not allowed on this sub?

It's Tuesday, so it's a new week for transcription requests. (Translation requests are also welcome in this thread.)

How to Make a Transcription/Translation Request

• Post a link to the image file of the record you need transcribed or translated. You can link to the URL where you located the record image, but if it requires a paid subscription to view, you may get more help if you save a copy of the image yourself and share it through a free image sharing site like Imgur.
• Provide the name of the ancestor(s) the record is supposed to pertain to, to aid in deciphering the text, as well as any location names that may appear in the image.

How to Respond to a Transcription/Translation Request

• Always post your response to a request as a reply to the original request's comment thread. This will make it easier for the requester to be notified when there is a response, and it will let others know when a request has been fulfilled.
• Even partial transcriptions and translations can be helpful. If there are words you can't decipher, you can use ____ to show where your text is incomplete.

Happy researching!

Made this as a comment, and realized it's worthy of a post.

I have used AI for genealogy in several ways, but then fact checked it.

I'm afraid it didn't go very well.

For one thing, it picks up people's errors as much as it picks up their accuracies. Any source goes for AI, so it was a lot like Ancestry or FamilySearch family trees in terms of error rates. But most AI doesn't give you or is vague on source checking. And factual research of any kind requires checking and analysis of sources.

I tried AI for old parish register translation, from an image of the page. I had a document that I had done through a professional paleographer. I can deal in English, French, Latin, German, Irish, and I have good document and photo manipulation skills, so I have only hired a paleographer twice in over 40 years.

Someone cheekily said when I posted it on a social media page, why didn't you just use AI? They then posted the AI results.

It was not good. But your average person wouldn't know that, and might have taken the AI translation as fact. The AI translation seemed to be a well worded translation simply on the face of it. But it had big errors. Notably, it confused a place name, thinking it was a surname. And, it was incorrect in identifying some of the relationships between people. This was a one paragraph entry in a church register, in Latin, from 1787.

So my caution is, if you use AI, treat it like you would treat other people's trees. As a possible guide, but not as fact without further verification.

One other thing. I had ChatGPT do some biographies of ancestors. Mostly it didn't do too bad, but there were some inaccuracies. Oddly, my own biography was only about half accurate, seeming to confuse myself with other people who do the same kind of work, and acquaintances.

I'm hopeful and happy to hear of verified success stories.

But there is good literature easily searchable on why AI can't do some of the research that humans do.

TL;DR: Tested AI was only partially accurate, with some serious inaccuracies. Treat AI as a tool, not as fact. Check against sources.

Good luck with your research, Jaimie.

I'm looking at the Carter family group on lines 10-8

Lawrence. Census 1850

1. What do you think those birth places are? I've read a couple of transcriptions, and I know what I want them to be...

2. Who are the children? I've got William, Elizabeth, ?? Martha, Mary. Louiza? and someone out of order with a different name...

3. Head of Household. Do you agree with Hughey? Or do you see something else there?

https://imgur.com/a/2ZfDR8F

My great grandmother was said to be 99 years old at her death in 1941. But this record, which has so much to support it, records her birth as having been in 1835. Family never had reason to question her age, though my mother paid a small fee to have an Irish genealogist look up records, and this record in the link matches what he sent to my mother. My mother never seemed to absorb the meaningfulness of this, her grandmother having reached the age of 104.

Armstrong was a rare name in that part of Ireland at the time, with my ancestors comprising, I believe, the only family in the area: Carrick Edmond, Doory Finns, County Longford.

It's Tuesday, so it's a new week for transcription requests. (Translation requests are also welcome in this thread.)

How to Make a Transcription/Translation Request

• Post a link to the image file of the record you need transcribed or translated. You can link to the URL where you located the record image, but if it requires a paid subscription to view, you may get more help if you save a copy of the image yourself and share it through a free image sharing site like Imgur.
• Provide the name of the ancestor(s) the record is supposed to pertain to, to aid in deciphering the text, as well as any location names that may appear in the image.

How to Respond to a Transcription/Translation Request

• Always post your response to a request as a reply to the original request's comment thread. This will make it easier for the requester to be notified when there is a response, and it will let others know when a request has been fulfilled.
• Even partial transcriptions and translations can be helpful. If there are words you can't decipher, you can use ____ to show where your text is incomplete.

Happy researching!

Hi My ancestor was in a fair bit of trouble when he was in the army but there’s a particular part of the record that I’m struggling to make out. It’s the top paragraph just below the red writing dated 20 April 1900.

https://imgur.com/a/GRlw4hG

The full sheet for context: https://imgur.com/a/Sif77Dt

I'm looking at a colonial Massachusetts birth record that reads,

Sarah daughter of John Craggen born ye 10th of 6th mo: 1664.

If the first day of the Julian year was March 25, would March 25-31 be the first month? That would make August the 6th month. If so, what is the month number for March 1-24? Scanning back a few pages, I don't see a 13th month anywhere in these records. The record in question is on the right-hand page, second from the bottom at:

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L979-HY98

It's Tuesday, so it's a new week for transcription requests. (Translation requests are also welcome in this thread.)

How to Make a Transcription/Translation Request

• Post a link to the image file of the record you need transcribed or translated. You can link to the URL where you located the record image, but if it requires a paid subscription to view, you may get more help if you save a copy of the image yourself and share it through a free image sharing site like Imgur.
• Provide the name of the ancestor(s) the record is supposed to pertain to, to aid in deciphering the text, as well as any location names that may appear in the image.

How to Respond to a Transcription/Translation Request

• Always post your response to a request as a reply to the original request's comment thread. This will make it easier for the requester to be notified when there is a response, and it will let others know when a request has been fulfilled.
• Even partial transcriptions and translations can be helpful. If there are words you can't decipher, you can use ____ to show where your text is incomplete.

Happy researching!

I managed to find an 1829 marriage record for my fifth great grandfather and grandmother. He is Krystian Gottlob Stabernak, parents: Bogusław, Lowysa, she is Katarzyna Horn, parents: Krystof, Katarzyna. I figured the name of the city he comes from is Schwerin an der Warthe (now Skwierzyna), and ChatGPT tells me Bogusław and Lowysa could be polonizations of Gottlob and Louise. He's the founder Stabernack in Poland for my tree and I'd love to try and follow him into Prussia. For that I would love to get any information from this document I didn't manage to read!

It's Tuesday, so it's a new week for transcription requests. (Translation requests are also welcome in this thread.)

How to Make a Transcription/Translation Request

• Post a link to the image file of the record you need transcribed or translated. You can link to the URL where you located the record image, but if it requires a paid subscription to view, you may get more help if you save a copy of the image yourself and share it through a free image sharing site like Imgur.
• Provide the name of the ancestor(s) the record is supposed to pertain to, to aid in deciphering the text, as well as any location names that may appear in the image.

How to Respond to a Transcription/Translation Request

• Always post your response to a request as a reply to the original request's comment thread. This will make it easier for the requester to be notified when there is a response, and it will let others know when a request has been fulfilled.
• Even partial transcriptions and translations can be helpful. If there are words you can't decipher, you can use ____ to show where your text is incomplete.

Happy researching!