Advice to translate pages from a Polish book into English? (Genealogy)

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mwhary

Dec 24, 11, 10:28 #1

I am doing genealogy work and have located 3 books written about the actual towns of my family origins. The 3 books are written in Polish, so I can not read them. Does anyone know if there is a computer program where I can Scan a page from a Book into the computer and then get it translated from the program? I do not mind purchasing a program to do this, IF there is one available. I have not been successful in locating such a program.

I am happy to have these precious books in my possession, and need to figure out a way to get several of the pages translated. I do not expect to translate the whole books, just several pages from each book. I do not have access to a Polish speaking person, that could read & translate so much information. It would be too much to try to type in several pages to get Google to translate it. Also, Google has translated some of the town website pages that contain a great deal of Historical information-and the translation is quite poor in my opinion, and close to worthless!

I hope that someone else has dealt with this problem and found a good solution they are willing to share with me.

Thank you,
Mary

♂ [Moderator]

Dec 24, 11, 14:01 #2

mwhary:

I have not been successful in locating such a program.

have you checked the town websites to see if they have english language pages.

if you tell us the names of the towns we might be able to help you more.

i've found a lot of history of this sort on jewish genealogy sites and Pol/Am genealogy sites.

it might be possible to get the same info, but from a different book. name those towns

markskibniewskiThreads: 4 Posts: 357 Joined: May 31, 09 ♂	Dec 27, 11, 03:44 #3
I can give you the name of a Genealogist who may be able to help if you wish. Where are you located?

Polonius3Threads: 1,005 Posts: 4,833 Joined: Apr 11, 08 ♂	Dec 30, 11, 16:39 #4
Check out professional translator into English from Polish, Latin, Russian & German: andywbuffalo@yahoo.com

♂ [Suspended]

Dec 30, 11, 16:45 #5

mwhary:

Does anyone know if there is a computer program where I can Scan a page from a Book into the computer and then get it translated from the program? I do not mind purchasing a program to do this, IF there is one available. I have not been successful in locating such a program.

You could just use standard letter recognition software to make an editable .pdf (or Word .doc) and then feed the results into google translate.

Alternatively you could just scan the pages you want done and I can recommend you a couple of decent translators here in Warsaw to do the work.

sarahkThreads: - Posts: 37 Joined: Jan 2, 12 ♀	Jan 3, 12, 19:28 #6
Google translate is terrible with Polish (better with some other, more commonly used languages due to its type of machine translation). I translate Polish (and German) into English professionally. Let me know if you need my help at all.

RichfilthThreads: 8 Posts: 327 Joined: Mar 8, 09 ♂	Jan 3, 12, 19:49 #7
If such a piece of software did exist, it would be wonderful. Unfortunately, machine translation is still many years away from being able to provide that service. If you need a translation, and can scan a page of one of your books, I can offer a sample translation with a quote for further translations, if you need it.

mwhary

Jan 13, 12, 08:34 #8

To all who offered advice from Wroclaw through Richfilth,

Thank you for taking the time to offer your translation services as well as other advice. I have noted your offers to translate for me or refer someone that you know who can do the translations. As I reviewed my query, I said I had "Several Pages"-upon consideration that would be a very Conservative estimate of what I do need translated. Again, although I don't need 100% of each book translated--There is a very significant percentage of each book. I do think it would just be too costly, at this time. However, I will keep a note of the offers!

To Wroclaw--Books about the villages/towns of My interest are:

"Golcowa" by Benedykt Gajewski--I have been to the Golcowa website and they do have an extensive "history" listed on the site, I suspect some of it came from this book. This is the one that was translated by Google and is entirely of POOR Quality translation! I was able to purchase the same Golcowa Book that they show on the site and actually make available for viewing. That is one of the books I want an accurate translation from.
#131 Pages in book, plus several Photo captions.

Old Village "Stara Wies" by Stanislav Dydek #471 pages in the book

Sześć Wieków Brzozowa (South Eastern Pl) #313 pages in the Book--This is the actual town that my 'Duplaga" line came from. I have traced them back to the mid 1770's in the Parish "Church of the Transfiguration". So ofcourse I am interested in the full history of Brzozow and would like to know most of what this book says!

These 3 books are from the exact region where about 100 Duplaga's emigrated from in the early 19th Century. I have already been to wikipedia as well as the Jewish sites to see what I can learn about these villages/towns--but I feel that the content of these Books are most likely to give me detailed information about these locations.

I might add that I'm in the process of contacting the Regional Museum in Brzozow, to see if they can assist me in any way.
They have publised two of these books and I am suggesting that they consider a way to make their historical work available in the English language! They also have a few other books I plan to purchase!

To Markskibniewski--I am in the Los Angeles area of California- USA

Are there any Computer Software creators out there??? Here is an area that needs to be addressed!!!! I'll be the First Client!
I am grateful to all of you for your kind assistance,
Mary

♂

Jan 13, 12, 14:30 #9

mwhary:

To Markskibniewski--I am in the Los Angeles area of California- USA

OUR LADY OF THE BRIGHT MOUNT CHURCH
Los Angeles, CA 90018
3424 W. Adams Blvd
(323)734-5249
Polish Mass: Saturday 5:00 pm; Sunday 9:00; 12:00 am

This was a quick google search but I am sure there are many more sources of Polish speaking individuals in your area. When I spoke with the priest in my local area they were extremely helpful. My grandparents were married in a Polich Catholic church in Ny.

♂

Jan 13, 12, 14:55 #10

mwhary:

Are there any Computer Software creators out there??? Here is an area that needs to be addressed!!!! I'll be the First Client!

Bear in mind, Machine Translation was the whole purpose of inventing computers in the first place, 70 years ago. Computational Linguistics has grown into an enormous field since then, but as Google's efforts show, even the enormous power of the Cloud can't make sense of human-to-human language translation. So you'll have to keep your fingers crossed that an enormous leap in translation occurs sometime in the next decade.

My translators and I are more than happy to tackle a project like these books for a very reasonable price, in case you change your mind.

mwhary	Jan 17, 12, 11:38 #11
Richfilth, Markskibniewski, Sarahk & Harry, I do not have any idea how to send a "private message" on this forum, so that our emails are not posted. Please enlighten me-IF it is possible. If each of you would like to provide your email addreses so that I can contact you for estimates for translations, I would appreciate it! Thanks again for everyone's assistance, Mary

HarryThreads: 62 Posts: 8,508 Joined: May 2, 07 ♂ [Suspended]	Jan 17, 12, 12:11 #12
mwhary: I do not have any idea how to send a "private message" on this forum, so that our emails are not posted. Please enlighten me-IF it is possible. Yes it is possible but you need to first register and then make a certain number of posts (I think it might be five).

markskibniewskiThreads: 4 Posts: 357 Joined: May 31, 09 ♂	Jan 17, 12, 16:54 #13
mwhary: mwhary Well if you visit the church or call I am sure you will be able to have someone there help you. It would be free minus a bit of gas and your time. If you would like to contact a pro that I have used and highly recommend here is his link http://www.polishgenealogy.com.pl/ Good luck

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