Language barriers are always present when researching one’s ancestors prior to their arrival in America. Both language barriers and unique handwriting forming these barriers can be difficult to surmount. One great tool available to help researchers with their German is an actual early German school book.
Every now and then a book will find new life. Sometimes a movie or newsworthy incident will bring a book back into the forefront and it will experience a revitalization. Sometimes a book will find new life for a purpose other than its original intent. So it is with Witter’s German-English Primer and New First German Reader for Public Schools, Revised Edition. This book was originally produced in 1881 as a German primer for American students. Over a century later, the book has found a new purpose, not for children, but for genealogists.
This German reader is a perfect guide by example to helping English researchers decipher old German Script. The book was produced as a mixed line by line reader of German with English translations. A line in German is followed by a line in English. In the first part of the book, the German line is written in both a “Gothic” like typeset, followed by typed English, and the following line by a script font representing the handwritten form of the letters and words. Other parts of the book use paragraph style mixed line German then English translation with “handwritten” German at the bottom.
The model used in the this book was one of many renditions of German script used in the 19th century. To assist the researcher, two other alphabet models are included in the appendix. Using these script models, researchers can improver their chances at deciphering older German records; thus, taking an old book and putting it to positive use in a new way, for genealogical research.
Order your copy of Witter’s German-English Primer and New First German Reader for Public Schools, Revised Edition from Family Roots Publishing; Item #: IGH02, Price: $6.88.