Spending time at a cemetery or library may not be what everyone thinks of as a summer pastime, but for those interested in finding their roots or gathering information about their ancestors, teeth “Family” travel. Sure, genealogy sites have made it much easier to research your ancestors' history with digitized document archives, genealogy software, and community forums. But all I'm online.
When you visit libraries, archives, and cemeteries in search of your roots, keep your smartphone or tablet close at hand. They offer a variety of features, including translation tools and document scanners. Here are some tips to make your research trip more efficient:
Deciphering the text
Old newspapers, religious registers, gravestones, and official government documents (either stored in analog archives or digitized online) can be valuable resources for finding information about your ancestors, but not all resources are written in a language you know.
Google Lens (available in the Android app or the Google app for iOS) can isolate words in an image and translate them on your screen, and you can also copy the isolated text into a note or document.
In iOS 15 and later, you can use Apple's Live Text feature to translate, copy, and share text that's displayed on your screen using your camera. When you're viewing a document or a gravestone, tap the square Live Text icon in the bottom-left corner. The software will highlight the words and select them from the pop-up menu.[翻訳]Options are provided.
If you still can't find the words, consider a free translation app on your phone: Google Translate (for Android and iOS and desktop web browsers) and the Apple Translate app for iOS devices are good options, as are third-party translation apps and AI chatbots.
If the software can't recognize your text, or produces a garbled translation of your handwritten notes, try retyping it into your phone's notes app or a word processor document. Then paste that text into a translation app to see the results. The translation produced by the software may not be perfect, but it should give you an idea.
Low-quality images, typing errors, or languages ​​that use certain alphabets or stylized fonts can confuse the software, so search the web to find ways to convert words into a form that a translation app can recognize. For example, some newspapers published for German immigrants use typefaces such as Fraktur that contain certain characters that don't exist in other alphabets, but you can find tables that identify them.
Scan a document
If you find a non-digitized document in a library or archive, use your phone to scan the pages you need (with the institution's approval, of course). If you don't have a dedicated scanner app, use the tools in Google Drive or Apple's Notes app.
In Apple's Notes app, create a new note and tap the camera icon. Using the menu options, you can choose to either scan the document itself or scan the document's text directly into your note.
Digitize your photos
Taking pictures of old yearbooks or other photo collections gives you a quick way to have your own digital copies. With the photo editing tools on your phone, you can quickly crop and enhance the files. You can also transfer the photos to your computer later and use the photo editing tools on a larger screen to organize them.
Alternatively, Google has a free PhotoScan app for Android and iOS that corrects reflections, distortions, perspective, warping, and faded colors when you photograph old prints. Open PhotoScan, point your phone at the photo you want to digitize, and the app walks you through taking images from different angles. The app then combines the individual shots to try to reconstruct a better version, automatically enhancing the color, contrast, and other elements of the image.
Find the grave
Visiting your ancestors' final resting places is a way to pay your respects and learn new information from the headstones. Online resources like Find a Grave and BillionGraves can guide you to the cemetery's location (virtually or in person) and often provide photos of the headstones as well. BillionGraves has a free basic level, with subscriptions starting at $5 per month that unlock additional features, like GPS coordinates for every recorded burial site.