52 Ancestors Week 10: Translation

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 10

The theme for Week 10 is "Translation." Would any of your ancestors have needed someone to translate for them? Have you had to work with records in a language other than your own? No matter the language, it's a good time to write!

Temba, his arms wide.....

    Science fiction offers many ways in which an alien language could be translated for the viewing audience. In "Doctor Who", the Tardis could translate languages within its radius. In "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", people had to stick a babelfish into their ear in order to understand those around them. In the universe of "Star Trek", we had the universal translator translating alien languages for our heroes. Though, sometimes even that was not enough. See the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" episode "Darmok" for details. The closest thing we have to a universal translator from "Star Trek" in the real world is of course "Google Translate" and for all its faults, it has helped me translate Italian to English and has allowed me to communicate with family across the pond. In this case science fiction has become science fact.

    That isn't to say that I haven't learned any Italian while using Google Translate. I have. I've learned what certain words mean and it has allowed me to translate an Italian birth record without asking for help. I'm not going to say that I've gotten it all down to a science. I'm not completely fluent in Italian. I just know enough to get by when it comes to translating a document. But, I'm not ashamed to admit that I get stuck from time to time. It happens to the best of us and thankfully I know some friends of mine who are always willing to lend a hand.

    Our prompt this week is actually well timed because I got an email from the commune office the morning I started writing the blog and in it were the juicy details regarding the marriage of my second great-grandmother Maria Domenica Gullo's parents, Pietro Francesco Gullo and Caterina Butruce.

Here's what the pdf file attached to the email said:

"il giorno 05 del mese di novembre dell' anno 1874 hanno contratto matrimonio in San Pietro a Maida, Catanzaro.

Gullo Pietro Francesco nato in San Pietro A Maida di anni 29.

di Butruce Caterina natao in San Pietro A Maida di anni 20."

    When I put that that into Google Translate, it meant that Maria Domenica's parents were married on November 5th, 1874 in San Pietro when her parents were 29 and 20 years old, respectively. Great. So, what's the next step after this amazing discovery? I have the marriage document and ages for the parents. Why not go hunt for some 4th great-grandparents?

  

Pietro Francesco Gullo, b. 21 Oct 1845

    On the marriage document, it stated that Pietro Francesco was twenty-nine years old at the time of his marriage to Caterina in 1874. If we do the math and subtract twenty-nine from 1874, we get 1845. We can assume that Pietro was thus born in that year and it seems like a reasonable place to start looking.

    Though, you may want to keep this in mind when you dive into that specific year. You may not find the droid you're looking for. You may find an older sibling who died before your ancestor was born. So, you might want to actually start a year before and a year after the target year.

    In my case, I had actually already FOUND a Pietro Francesco Gullo through my documenting of all the births in San Pietro a Maida. I checked and then I went to the source material to make sure he was the right guy. He was the only Pietro Francesco Gullo I found in my research! The document says that he was born on "ventuno ottobre 1845". Translated, that meant that he was born on October 21st, 1845 to Domenico Gullo, aged 30 and Domenica Marinaro, aged 28.

    And that's how I got from a third great-grandfather to a set of  fourth great-grandparents in just a few hours of research. I know I'm patting myself on the back here but it was honestly a long time coming because you readers all KNOW how much of a brick wall the Gullo family has been for me. My next mission is figuring out the Coppola family.

    The quality of the scan is decent enough and I can now read most Italian birth documents with ease. Compared to how I was a few years ago, this is a huge accomplishment! Basically, I've learned what the months and days are like I was in first grade. I've also begun to understand what certain professions are on these documents. For example a "levatrice" is a seamstress.  A "bracciole" is a laborer like Pietro Francesco's father, Domenico. The list goes on. I've even seen "civico" a few times and I'm not really sure what that term means. I'm still learning! I'm guessing it has something to do with the town government.

Domenico Gullo, b. 5 May 1816.

    After finding Pietro, I sought out to find Domenico using the strategy I talked about before. I calculated his birth yeat to about 1816. The game was afoot and I dove into the records in 1816 because I hadn't gone that far back. Give me a break, guys. I'm documenting births in San Pietro all by myself!! I made it as far back as 1830. That's got to count for something!

   I looked in 1816 and it didn't take long to find the person I presume to be Pietro's father. I did the math and the timing checks out. Could I be wrong? Possibly. I'm not going to lie. Still, everything checked out and I went through my list of people I documented and found many of Domenico's children including Pietro Francesco.

    One child, Angela Gullo, had a Francesco Gullo listed as her grandfather on her birth document. Chances were pretty good that I found the right man. I added his parents, Francesco Gullo and Caterina Butruce to the tree and ended up with two 5th great-grandparents. Not a bad day's work, right?

    I know I might be a bit hasty in adding the people so quickly. However, I've been researching San Pietro for a while. I honestly haven't found any other Domenico Gullo who would fit the needed criteria such as the birth age and everything. Chances are good that I found the right man. If I'm wrong, I could always go back and edit. It's all learning and sometimes you have to trust your instincts.

    I'm a visual learner and after all this time reading the documents and translating them using Google Translate and other programs, I've begun to really understand what the documents mean. Does this mean I can carry on a conversation with someone in Italian? No. No, it doesn't. However, I did learn how to understand what I'm looking for in the documents by studying them closely.

     It takes time to study languages and I should probably download "Duolingo" so I could get more proficient in it. It couldn't hurt! I have been working with Italian documents a while and I've learned a great deal from friends and translating the documents myself. The next logical step would be to try and learn French, non? Nous verrons si je peux en apprendre, mes amis ! À la prochaine!

Au revoir!