FAQS
Questions and Answers
- Transcription and translation of your German letters, diaries, church records, vital records, photographs, postcards, newspapers, and more
- Reading the Old German Handwriting Online Course: Learn to read the words of your ancestors! (Transcription)
- German for Genealogists Online Course: Learn to translate the words of your ancestors! (German language)
- The Magic of German Church Records Book: Learn to extract your ancestor’s information from church records without speaking German.
- Tips and Tricks of Deciphering German Handwriting Book: Learn a genealogy translator’s tricks of the trade for working with the old German handwriting.
- Premium Membership: Get help with your tricky handwritten words on your German records once a week in Katherine Schober’s live “office hours”.
- Research: As I do not do research, please check out my partner Legacy Tree Genealogists. Germanology community members receive $50 off select projects at the link here.
Translation time depends on the length of your project and my current work load. Time required for translation will be stated with your quote. Contact us here.
Rates are on a per hour basis. Please e-mail your document to me for an exact quote (see below for e-mailing instructions). I transcribe and translate approximately 275 handwritten words per hour. Rates are flexible and vary according to turnaround time and amount of specialization involved. Documents with fewer than 250 words are subject to a minimum fee.
Documents can be sent using Wetransfer.com to the e-mail address: to [email protected]. They can also be sent directly to the e-mail address, although WeTransfer is helpful for multiple or large documents.
A small deposit fee is required to hold your spot on my project list. The remaining payment is due upon completion of the project. Payment is accepted via PayPal (small PayPal fee), Venmo, or Zelle bank transfer (no fees).
- Venmo: Click Here
- PayPal : Click Here (client is asked to pay the ca. 3% fee PayPal charges)
- If you would prefer to pay by Zelle, please contact me for details.
- A clear copy of the text to be translated (please ensure that I am able to zoom in on the file – this means it must be scanned in high resolution – at least 375 DPI)
- The entire page that your record is on. By sending the entire page (and not just a cropped image of your ancestor’s record), this helps me to get a better idea of that particular person’s handwriting and provides more context for the document itself)
- If an entire page of records, an indication of the record you would like translated (either by marking it on the actual document or describing it in your e-mail, e.g. “the second to last record on the left page”).
- The purpose of the text and whether it is for publication
- When you need the translated text returned, if urgent (may be subject to a rush fee)
- Names of previously-researched people and/or towns related to your document (I will always double-check everything, but having any context beforehand can be very helpful with handwritten documents)
For more information, see 5 Tips for Getting the Most Out of Your Genealogy Translation. I look forward to working with you!
What Clients Are Saying:
My German in-laws would not say one word about the past, however when they both passed away, we found two huge boxes of letters, journals, and pictures that documented every day of WWII for them. We also found 100 years of old family documents to prove they were Aryan in accordance with the Nuremburg Laws. For the last ten years, we have figured there was one person in the family history who had converted from Judaism and that person had saved those who came after from certain death, but we coul…
Thank you for a great job! I am very impressed that you could read, never mind translate, her writing. Very professional and much appreciated! I will have it bound and send copies to my cousins. I should mention too that the footnotes you provided were very helpful and beyond what I expected.
So happy to finally receive a translation!! You don’t know how hard and long I tried to find someone capable. The places named in the letter will be so helpful in my genealogy search.
I enthusiastically recommend Katherine for your translation needs! She is professional, courteous, timely, and very pleasant to work with. She responds promptly to emails, and meets the deadlines she establishes for the translations. I had asked her to translate some 1800 era Austrian church records in handwritten script, the quality of which was not always the best. She came through with not only the English translations, but the German transcriptions as well. Her footnotes and additi…
Thank you so much for doing my translation, I am thrilled to pieces and this afternoon I am going to send it off to all the family here in England and in Germany. How you translated that writing I just don’t know, but I suppose if you study languages it perhaps becomes a little easier! Many thanks again, I am so delighted. And isn’t it interesting!
Katherine’s devotion to her craft shows throughout her website and in her work. She transcribed and translated some mid-1700’s handwritten documents about my ancestors, and deciphered a real puzzle of a word along the way. I feel a kind of fluidity and ease in reading her translations, and her footnotes are unusually informative with insights and explanations while still being concise. Katherine is also very professional in the ‘project management’ aspects of reaching agreement on the wo…
After my parents passed away, I discovered a letter written to my grandfather in 1930 from a nephew who lived in Germany. (My grandfather had immigrated in the 1890s). Because the letter was handwritten and in German, it was impossible for me to make out many of the letters/words; therefore, I looked for a way to get it translated. When I searched for someone reputable, I came across the website for SK Translations and after debating for a long time about the expenditure, as well as, dealing …
Katherine was instrumental in helping me give my wife—her words—“the best gift she has ever gotten.” For forty years, she has had copies of letters to and from her beloved grandmother and her siblings handwritten in German. Katherine translated the letters beautifully, providing us with both the German and English digital files. She was always responsive in our communications and met challenging time deadlines so that I could give my wife the letters as a Christmas present. Her fees were…
I highly recommend Katherine to anyone looking for accurate, expeditious, and highly professional translations. Katherine went the extra mile to ensure an accurate translation of my German university records. She even contacted my educational institution in Germany to ensure the proper interpretation of obscure abbreviations throughout the document. Stellar work.
I had that hardest of genealogical roadblocks- someone who changed their name illegally and died with their secret. Katherine provided very careful and scholarly transcriptions and translations of some key documents. Mystery solved. My advice: engage a professional like Katherine and don’t guess at the content of Kurrent manuscripts when the result matters to you.