My 4 Tips for Translating Scandinavian Records

Do you need some tips for translating your Scandinavian records? This is one area that most genealogists need help in because we usually don’t speak or read the language that we are researching. It is a common problem these days. What most genealogists want is an easy way to translate the record. We want one stop that will meet all of our translating needs. The answer to this desire is, not yet! There is no one stop shop online yet. Therefore, I will explain my 4 tips that have helped me in translating Scandinavian records in the past and that I continue to use. I have to gather all of these tools and use my brain in order to translate Scandinavian records. Just ask yourself this question every time you’re translating records. Does it make sense?

Translating Tip-Genealogical Word Lists

This is by far my most used tip for translating Scandinavian records. What are these lists? These lists are found on FamilySearchWiki. They are a list of the common genealogical words found in most records. They take the Scandinavian word and translate it into English. For example the list below will help you see what I mean. I usually have a separate tab open with the Scandinavian list ready when I’m reading original records. It helps with individual handwritten words.

You can find the Norwegian list here.

The Swedish list is here.

And the Danish list is here.

Translating Tip-Genealogy Page Headings

FamilySearch.org has an amazing Wiki page full of helpful tips in understanding Scandinavian anything. One of the things this website has done is translate the page headings of the church and census records. This helps immensely because once you know what that column heading is asking, then you can put their answer in the right context. If you know that the record is asking for “were they born at home or in a hospital,” you know the answer has to relate to that question. If I don’t know the Scandinavian word written for that question, then I hop over to my genealogical word lists. For example, if the column heading is asking about births, then I look for birth words in the genealogical lists until I find one that makes sense and looks right for the handwriting. The letters and the context have to make sense.

You can find the page headings for Norway here.

The Swedish ones are here.

And you can find the Danish page headings here.

Translating Tip-Family History Centers and local People

This is another one that I’ve used in the past. Your local Family History Center can have someone knowledgeable enough to help you translate Scandinavian records. I understand that not every place has a sufficient Family History Center. Therefore, you are going to have to be creative in finding people who can translate it for you. I lucked out in marrying into a Danish family. Therefore, I’ve got the Danish records covered if the handwriting is legible enough. However, I’ve had to use my Family History Center for Norwegian and Swedish records. In addition, I’ve had to ask people who had to ask other people to translate them. It’s not an easy or fast path, but what have you got to lose.

Translating Tip-Facebook Groups and Forums

This is another one that I’ve used, but sparingly. I find that Facebook Groups are helpful when you need a small amount translated. If you have more than one document to translate, then I would hire a professional to get a better result. Facebook has many professional translators that would love to help. In addition, FamilySearch.org has a forum for each Scandinavian country that does the same thing as Facebook. You can upload your document to the forum and ask for help. The workers in this department are exceptional! However, they do get overloaded with the amount of requests. Therefore, keep your questions to the most essential in my opinion. This is the FamilySearch group that I belong to for translating requests.

So that’s it! These are my 4 tips for translating Scandinavian records. This is just the tip of the iceberg, but it will get you started. Why don’t you go explore one of these sites and see where it leads you on your journey. You can also check out my other post here about translating records. You don’t need to be overwhelmed with doing all of these. I recommend just picking one or two and moving forward with that. The key to any of these articles is DOING the action suggested. Just do it! If you don’t understand something, then please contact me on my website contact page. In the meantime…

Good luck and happy hunting!

Tiffany

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