Searching for "colleagues" in my specialty field of translation (Genealogy) Thread poster: Annett Hieber
|
|---|
Hello everybody! After 23 years of part-time freelance translation in the industrial field I needed a rest from it (also due to personal/familiar issues). In the time between 2018 and today, though, I deepened my knowledge of the old German scripts Kurrent and Sütterlin and volunteered for a non-profit organization in this field. Since the beginning of 2022 I have started doing some combined work in this field, however only for friends and acquaintances. Combined meaning first doing transcripti... See more Hello everybody! After 23 years of part-time freelance translation in the industrial field I needed a rest from it (also due to personal/familiar issues). In the time between 2018 and today, though, I deepened my knowledge of the old German scripts Kurrent and Sütterlin and volunteered for a non-profit organization in this field. Since the beginning of 2022 I have started doing some combined work in this field, however only for friends and acquaintances. Combined meaning first doing transcription of an old German text written in Kurrent (or Sütterlin), then translating it into English. From this month on now I will give it a go professionally as well.
Therefore, I am now on the lookout for colleagues here, who also work in this field, in order to exchange about experiences, possibilities and the like.
I would be happy to hear from you!
Annett ▲ Collapse
| | | | | That's a very small niche | Jun 27, 2022 |
I'd cast my net more widely - genealogy seems a very specialized area. I've been translating for decades, and I don't think I've done more than a handful of jobs on this subject.
Also, I think customers will want translations direct from the old script to English.
Good luck!
| | | | | Small niche, perhaps - but the scope is very wide | Jun 27, 2022 |
philgoddard wrote:
That's a very small niche
Genealogy per se may indeed be a very small niche for a professional translator.
However, anyone involved in genealogical research, be that as a hobby or as a profession, will confirm that as a branch of the natural sciences genealogy encompasses a vast and very diverse range of ‘niches’ – some of them very large ones – including law, history, geography, culture and traditions, languages, sociology to mention just a few.
I’ve had ‘genealogy’ listed as one of my specialist fields since I signed up here 16 years ago, and don’t recall having seen more than a tiny handful of Kudoz questions in this field (and at least one of those had been erroneously tagged 'genealogy' when it was a very detailed scientific question about genetics). If I do a search for all site users (paying and non-paying) offering some level of specialisation in genealogy, in all my main languages (en/es/fr), I can find no more than two (one of them myself…) who has ever won any K-points for an answer to a question tagged as ‘genealogy’. That said, many questions that could have been tagged as ‘genealogy’ were instead tagged as ‘legal’ (most-often concerned with BMD certificates and suchlike…), or ‘letters/correspondence’ – or simply ‘Other’.
| | | | | Genealogy of European settlers in 19th century Chile | Jun 27, 2022 |
Annett Hieber wrote:
Therefore, I am now on the lookout for colleagues here, who also work in this field, in order to exchange about experiences, possibilities and the like.
I would be happy to hear from you!
The difficulties associated with the transcription (decryption?) of historical manuscripts are by no means limited to the German language, nor to documents in the field of genealogy.
I am currently reviving a research project I began some years ago that brings together two of my personal interests: genealogy and cartography. Both are unrelated to my past professional life, and both require language and research skills falling some way beyond the bounds of normal translation work. I don’t “do” German (and less still in the Kurrent and Sütterlin scripts!), but I can nonetheless relate strongly to your interest in the transcription of manuscripts written those now-obsolete scripts.
The region of Chile where I live was the destination, in the late 19th century, of hundreds of European settlers and their families, mostly from Spain, France, Italy, Switzerland, Prussia (as was...), Great Britain (which at that time included what is now the Republic of Ireland), and even a few from Russia. They came at the invitation and expense of the Government to occupy and exploit land previously held by indigenous communities, hoping to make a ‘fresh start’ far away from the problems that faced them in Europe in the wake of the industrial revolution, famine, wars and widespread poverty.
When dealing with historical documents – be they handwritten, typed, printed or carved on tomb-stones – I have to consider not only how they would be written using today’s alphabet conventions, but also what language they are written in, what are the common alternative spellings (and miss-spellings) of many words, the use of obscure abbreviations (that may or may not be in the same language as the rest of the document) – not to mention the level of (il)literacy of the scribe. As a genealogist, I am confronted also by the fact that when the 19th century settlers arrived here they were given Chilean nationality and registered with Spanish-language forenames – often but not always local equivalents to their original names – whilst they retained their foreign-language surnames (but often miss-spelt because the registrar couldn’t make head nor tail of what the immigrants were telling them in the rudimentary Spanish acquired during the three-week passage on a steamship coming from Liverpool, Bordeaux or Genoa). An awareness of the constantly changing face of European geopolitics is also necessary – for example to realise that when Señor Patricio Murphy declared that he is British and was born in in 1858 in Dublin, that was probably true.
Many of those same difficulties are present in the other main branch of my research, which aims, amongst other things, to establish the precise location of the areas of land allocated to each settler, on the basis of contemporary sketch maps produced by the authorities and more-recent resources, as well as the location of the fortifications established by the military to protect the immigrant communities, and the cemeteries where the settlers were buried.
Looking forward to seeing who else turns up here to share their interest in genealogy...
| | |
|
|
|
Michele Fauble 
United States
Local time: 22:31
Member (2006)
Norwegian to English
+ ...
| Specializing in genealogy - it can be done | Jun 28, 2022 |
Here is a translation services provider that specializes in genealogy:
http://www.omegatranslationservices.com/index.php
The translator often posts history/genealogy questions in my language pairs.
[Edited at 2022-06-28 17:16 GMT]
| | | | To report site rules violations or get help, contact a site moderator: You can also contact site staff by submitting a support request » Searching for "colleagues" in my specialty field of translation (Genealogy) | Anycount & Translation Office 3000 | Translation Office 3000
Translation Office 3000 is an advanced accounting tool for freelance translators and small agencies. TO3000 easily and seamlessly integrates with the business life of professional freelance translators.
More info » |
| | Wordfast Pro | Translation Memory Software for Any Platform
Exclusive discount for ProZ.com users!
Save over 13% when purchasing Wordfast Pro through ProZ.com. Wordfast is the world's #1 provider of platform-independent Translation Memory software. Consistently ranked the most user-friendly and highest value
Buy now! » |
|
| | | | X Sign in to your ProZ.com account... | | | | | |
Login to reply/comment 
Translation news
