HelPeR - BYU Idaho Special Collections and Family History

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Net Famil History
Country Ended Language male female Son Daughter
Denmark 1860 Danish sen datter Anders Hansen Anna Hansdatter
Finland 1880-1921 Finish npoika ntytar Anders Hansnpoika Anna Hansntytar
lived, the fact that a few of the boundaries with neighboring
countries have changed over the years, that
their languages are not very familiar, and that the
Patronymic naming system was used extensively.
Location
You need to find your ancestor’s town of origin. Work
from Known to Unknown. Check every U.S. record to
see if there are clues to their place of birth. You really
need to know the name of the county, village, parish,
or even farm. Check the U.S. Census records for the
year of arrival and see if they were naturalized. Later
passenger lists, immigration, and naturalization records
often contain the village name. The U.S. Federal
naturalization records of a spouse may contain the
arrival year and village of birth of their spouse. A
foreign census index or an emigration record may
also provide their birthplace.
If your ancestors arrived before their birthplace
was required, then check the records of any younger
siblings or later family arrivals to see if they may
have provided a clue.
Swedish sson dotter Anders Hansson Anna Hansdotter
Norway 1875-1900 Norwegian sen datter Anders Hansen Anna Hansdatter
Sweden 1875-1901 Swedish sson dotter Anders Hansson Anna Hansdotter
Iceland Still in use Icelandic son/sson sdottir Anders Hanson Anna Hansdottir
Table 1
machine language translation later in this article. You
may want to consider having two browser panels running
at the same time, one with the actual website and
one with the translator. Text can be cut and pasted or
images transcribed into the translate window.
Patronymics
Rather than using a family surname, a child’s surname
shows that they are the son or daughter of their
father. In Table 1 above the father is Hans and his
children are Anders and Anna.
Boundaries
Historical maps help to determine the geo-political
boundaries at a particular point in time. Regional
maps are good because they show the position of a
Language
Some of the websites have English versions, look for a
British flag. Even then, all of the pages are not translated
and the images of any records or newspapers
will be in the native language.
As the boundaries changed, the language of the
official records may also have changed.
Two websites that can help to translate Scandinavian
words or even an entire webpage are:
• Google Language Tools: www.google.com/language
tools
• Majstro Multi-language translator: www.majstro.
com/Web/Majstro/sdict.php
These translations will not be perfect, but they
can give you an idea of the content. If you are trying
to communicate with someone using machine
translated text, I strongly recommend that you copy
the suggested translated version and then translate it
back to the original language to see if the meaning is
anything close to the original. Out of necessity, and
for a little humor, I have included a few examples of
1523 Map
88 © Ev e r t o n’s Ge n e a l o g i c a l He l p e r Ja n ua ry/Fe b r u a r y 2009