A month or so ago, I found my ancestor Wijbren Jelles DOUMA's death certificate on
AlleFriezen. In translating it, I saw that it listed his birthplace as Wommels, Friesland, the Netherlands (later I found his birth record that stated it was actually Bolsward). Wommels was a location unfamiliar to me in my research, so I looked it up on Wikipedia. Here is a screenshot of what I found:
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There wasn't a lot of information, obviously; so I decided to do a Google search on Wommels to find out more about that village. What was interesting to me is that in my results, it appeared in the Dutch version of Wikipedia, and there was a lot more information available there:
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As I looked at the Dutch Wikipedia page, Google Translate started translating it. Google Translate is available automatically on your Chrome Browser. If you don't use Chrome, you can go to the
Google Translate page and enter the URL of the page you wish to translate, and it will do so.
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So, if you are looking up a foreign location or word (I found it effective for unfamiliar occupational terms as well) in your genealogical research, I suggest using Wikipedia in the native language that you are researching, in conjunction with Google Translate. On
Wikipedia's home page, you can find links to some of its more popular language pages circling the icon. You can also use the drop-down menu to find all the languages it is available in as well. Finally, you can search for a language under the drop-down menu:
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Happy Hunting!
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