Using Google’s Tools for Your Genealogy Research - Part 4, Translated Search
Family history researchers often find themselves in need of translation resources. The Google Translate service offers a collection of free translation tools that can prove useful to genealogy and family history researchers.
For years, the Google search engine has had a Language Tools section that allowed search engine users to perform some translation tasks, such as translating a chunk of text, or translating a Web page by submitting the Web page URL. The Google Translate service retains those capabilities on the Text and Web tab at the top of the Google Translate page, and also adds some more useful features.
The chief new aspect available with Google Translate is the “translate as you search” feature. You can give it a try at the Google Translate site. First choose your language (the choices are English, French, German, Spanish, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portugese, Russian, Dutch, Arabic, Chinese (Simplified), and Chinese (Traditional).
Next, choose the language of Web pages that you’d like to search (the choices are French, German, Spanish, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portugese, Russian, Dutch, Arabic, Chinese (Simplified), and Chinese (Traditional).
The final step is to fill in a search term in the search box, and then click on the “Translate and Search” button. The translated search results will appear side by side with the search results in the original language.
Check the other tabs at the top of the Google Translate page, too. There is a Dictionary feature, that offers word-by-word translation to and from English and other languages (English to French, French to English, and so on.) The Tools tab at Google Translate lists a series of translation tools that are available for users of the Google Toolbar.
For more information on using Google for genealogy research, check our previous articles, here, here, and here.
More Maps and Search Tools - Ireland, Massachusetts, Alberta
Custom search engines are now available here at GenealogyExplore.com for three more locations — Massachusetts, Ireland, and the province of Alberta in Canada.
These custom search tools search across the Web, focusing in on genealogy and family history resources that pertain to a particular country, state or province. Give these search tools a try; we think you’ll be pleased with the relevance of the search results.
In addition, maps annotated with links to research resources are also now available for Alberta, Ireland, and Massachusetts.
Check our Search Tools and Maps sections for lists of the currently available resources.
Maps Added to GenealogyExplore.com
With a compass as this site’s icon, it seemed logical for us here at GenealogyExplore.com to launch some map resources to aid family history researchers. So, that’s precisely what we’ve done.
The growing collection of maps here at GenealogyExplore.com offers family history researchers a resource for finding the towns where their ancestors lived, looking for landmarks that are significant in their families’ history, and for doing many other location-oriented research tasks. The maps are also annotated with links to research tools and resources.
New Genealogy Search Tools - Illinois, Germany, British Columbia
Three new custom genealogy search engines have been added to our collection of custom search tools here are GenealogyExplore.com. The custom search engines — for Illinois, Germany, and British Columbia — are focused on searching genealogy and family history research resources across the Web. These custom search tools are designed to improve the relevance of the search results.
Try our new custom genealogy search tools:
Using Google’s Tools for Your Genealogy Research - Part 3, Annotated Maps
Google’s Maps feature has been a part of the Google search repertoire for awhile now. The availability of this maps feature is surely helpful to family history researchers, as they identify the locations that have relevance to current and past generations of their families.
A more recent addition to the services available through Google is My Maps., a feature with great utility for family history researchers. As explained in the My Maps user guide, this feature enables Google account holders to create maps that are annotated with custom placemarks, text, links, images and videos. The creator of the map can designate the map as a “public” map which can be accessed by others via Google search, or as an “unlisted” map which is available to those to whom the map’s creator provides the map URL.