The German-English Genealogical Dictionary, by Ernest Thode, has been around for years. I’ve gone through more than one since I got my first in the 1990s. The book is designed for the family researcher who has little or no knowledge of German, but who nevertheless needs to make a translation of German-language documents. The dictionary covers thousands of German terms and defines them in single words or brief phrases. All words, symbols, and abbreviations in the dictionary were chosen on the basis of their association with genealogy, having been noted in church records, civil registration records, family correspondence, genealogical journals, ships’ passenger lists, and emigration records.
Among the many categories of entries included in the dictionary are family relationships, days of the week, map terms, legal terms, cardinal and ordinary numbers, roman numerals, signs of the zodiac, coins, liquid and dry measures, measures of length, place names, historical territories, geographical terms, occupations, titles, military ranks, types of taxes, illnesses, calendar days, male and female given names, heraldry, abbreviations, books of the Bible, and common genealogical words from Danish, Dutch, French, Latin, and Polish.
The following is from the Table of Contents:
- Introduction
- Abbreviations
- German Alphabet with Script Variations
- German Genealogical Terms
- Genealogical Symbols
- Male Given Names – Female Given Names
- Surnames and Occupations
- Months / Signs of the Zodiac
- Planets / Metals/Days of the Week
- Ordinal Numbers
- Cardinal Numbers
- Suffixes
- Reverse Suffix Index
- Key to German Dialect Pronunciations
- Map of Germany 1871-1918
- Dictionary A-Z – 286 pages
Purchase the book at the FRPC website – or at 5% off as part of an online German-language Newspapers bundle. Click on the links to purchase.
