Using AI to Translate German Church Records (and more) into English

Geoff Rasmussen
Jul 26, 2024
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Content

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Introduction
42s
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Transkribus
1m 12s
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Google Translate
1m 16s
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ChatGPT
1m 16s
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Comparisons
1m 52s
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Human Translation
2m 10s
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Andrea's thoughts
6m 34s
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The emigration File
7m 02s

About this webinar

Learn how to use Transkribus, ChatGPT and other AI tools to translate German church records, and other records, into English. Learn about cautions and practical uses.

About the speakers

About the speakers

Geoffrey D. Rasmussen is the father of four budding genealogists. He graduated with a degree in Genealogy and Family History from Brigham Young University and has served as director and vice-president of the Utah Genealogical Association. He is th
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Andrea Bentschneider, based in Hamburg, Germany, is renowned for her expertise and contributions to the field of genealogy. Since establishing “Beyond History” in 2004, she has emerged as Germany’s foremost expert in genealogical
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Comments (26)

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  1. BG
    Barry Gates
    4 months ago

    Transkribus will definitely help with my tougher records, those with less typical wordings. Thanks! In years past, I fed Tranlate output back as input in the other direction. Where it fails shows the areas where “nuance lossage” and “language aging” that Andrea mentioned, and also idioms, translational inexactitudes, and more are a problem. Feeding it backward allows you some freedom in carefully tweeking or massaging the inputs/outputs. Nice presentation.

    Reply
  2. BM
    Barbara May
    4 months ago

    I’ve used Transkribus and then DeepL. It is still amazing!

    Reply
  3. JM
    Jenny MacKay
    4 months ago

    I wonder how Claude.ai would handle the transcript? It’s a game changer for English documents, so it would be interesting to see for German.

    Reply
  4. CR
    Carole Riley
    4 months ago

    I have been using Transkribus to translate personal letters in German for a few weeks now, and I found very quickly that the results were much better if I paid to use the Super Model. I use Deepl to translate and the results are better if you edit the transcription so it doesn’t treat each line separately. It’s not perfect but the human alternative is not affordable and so it’s much better than never finding out what is in those letters.
    When I finish this project I will transcribe my grandmother’s letters to my mother, another of those tasks I thought I’d never have time for.

    Reply
  5. GR
    Geoff Riley
    4 months ago

    Fascinating Geoff. AI is developing so quickly that I am rarely surprised by what it can do now… but quite honestly, I did not expect this!
    I have a few Latin documents that I have attempted to translate but have not gotten very far. I think I’ll try your suggestion and see where it takes me. Thank you.

    Reply
  6. LF
    Lara Ferguson
    4 months ago

    Did you also obtain the emigration papers for Catharina Kienz, Archiv B731/1 Nr. 902
    http://www.landesarchiv-bw.de/plink/?f=5-2237644

    Reply
    1 Reply
    • Geoff Rasmussen
      4 months ago

      Not yet, but she’s on my list. 🙂

  7. DD
    David Doeltz
    4 months ago

    I found this webinar fascinating and halfway through the proverbial light went on! I have a trove of about 20 letters sent to my great-grandfather that I have been “meaning to translate” for over 40 years. They are written in German script which is getting harder and harder for me to decipher over the years. I grabbed a four-page sample written (I suspected) by his sister in 1898. It took a bit to get it through Transkribus but I succeeded on my fourth try. Then I sent the output to ChatGPT and, oula, there was the letter in English from a neighbor of Louis’s sister who was very ill. Thank you so much for this webinar.

    Reply
    1 Reply
    • Geoff Rasmussen
      4 months ago

      Wow, how wonderful!!

  8. CM
    Cecile Michael
    4 months ago

    Many people who translate on a regular basis believe that DeepL does a better job of translating that Google Translate, particularly if it’s a longer document.

    Reply

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