How often do you find a word in another language that you aren’t sure of? The obvious solution is to use Google Translate.
But there is another resource that will provide a more specific translation. FamilySearch has put together numerous lists of non-English words that we are likely to encounter when doing genealogical research.
While Google Translate can usually help us with a quick translation, the FamilySearch word lists are more specific. A simple comparison is the German word “Freibauer”.
Google Translate: “Yeoman”
FamilySearch: “Farmer who owns his own land”
The FamilySearch word lists also include language characteristics and information to put some of the words in context.
Finding the Word Lists
The FamilySearch word lists are available on the FamilySearch Wiki Word List.
This Word List category is for articles that were once Family History Library publications called Genealogical Word Lists which gave English meanings of about nine hundred key terms for different languages. Word lists also discuss spelling and alphabetical order, calendar terms, numbers, as well as the vocabulary from genealogical documents. This category is not for articles about abbreviations, dictionaries, glossaries, handwriting, language and languages, letter-writing guides, or personal names.
Even if most of your research is in English-speaking countries, you should also check out the Latin word list when viewing church, legal or other records written in Latin.