I absolutely agree with Kurt about the danger of using translation sites. To find out how strange the results can be, go to a website that is in the German language and use a translator to convert it to English. Even if you do not know any German, you will probably be rolling on the floor with laughter before you read even half of the text. I went to a website for the church to which my ancestors belonged in Schönhagen and tried to translate the text from German to English via Balbelfish. The New Mothers' Group was translated as "Nut Mother's Circle", just as one example of many goofy translations. --Mary Ann [email protected] wrote: > <or use a translation site such as babelfish to write your own letter and > translate it into German.> > > Be careful here. Translations sites are only so-so for translating, but > using them to compose a letter could be disasterous. They are terrible > with syntax, sentence structure & are notorious for having serious problems > with words that have more than one meaning. Using them to compose a letter > could cause you to inadvertantly insult someone or make sentence structure > so obtuse as to be not understandable. For an example, take a long > sentence in English & ask the translator to convert it to German. Then > take the resulting German sentence & ask the translator to convert it to > French. Then French into English. You may end up with jibberish. > > It is highly recommended that you use form letters written by a native > speaker of the language to request records, etc. There are numerous sites > that have them, but the one I'm most familiar with is at the Hesse home > page > http://users.rootsweb.com/~deuhes/Hessen/resources.htm#available > and the LDS site has a guide at > http://www.familysearch.org/sg/LGGerman.html > > Regards, > Curt > > ==== GERMAN-KINGDOMS Mailing List ==== > Sister, > Can you spare $10 dollars to support Rootsweb? > Ask me why..... mailto:[email protected]