A chance encounter with an 1801 document from Greene County, Pennsylvania got me thinking about early German records in western Pennsylvania

Why does German Capitalize everything? If you look at much German, you start to notice- they use a Lot of Capitalization. Not just for nam

Whether the printed German Gothic (aka Fraktur) or the old German handwriting (Kurrent or Sütterlin), here are a couple free resources to h

Senior and Junior. Two Latin words meaning ‘the elder’ and ‘the younger’. Normally it’s straightforward, but here's a cautionary tale.

Deciphering German church records can be tough. A German translation cheat sheet and a few tips should help you along your way.

By 1700, one-fifth of Berlin was French-speaking, and they remained French-speaking until siding with the rest of Germany against Napoleon.

What challenges of reading an older document, such as a 15th century manuscript, and what can its language tell us? Who, when, where & more!

When you look at old books into the 1600’s, it looks like they mixed u and v up with abandon. Originally, there had only been one letter.

A 1497 German manuscript stashed in a Boston desk opens a window into German enfeoffments - relationships between feudal lords and vassals.

Why do we dot our i's? Minims! Old English and old German writing and printing added the dot to decipher which letter was which. Read on!

Part 1 of 3 It's not every day you find a medieval German knight's letter in an old desk. What on earth? Well, Laurence Posner of...

Translating names can be tricky. Look at the name George, Jurgen, Georgios, Jorge and Yuri - all the same. Here's some history.

A comma, semi-colon or period - different quotation marks in different languages - Agh! What an interesting history to punctuation marks.

Tax Time: Plucked Chicken - In English we say the tax office fleeces tax payers, Germans say plucked! Translation is fun, isn't it?

Unlocking the umlaut. History of the two dots.

Medieval Irish and Scottish influences still felt in Germany and beyond.

Unlock Your History launched in 2017! Check out some favorite posts about language history & translating old German, Danish, Swedish.

What language belongs to those accents? From German to Norwegian Hungarian or French, see different accents that some languages use.

Brahms' Lullaby: Genealogy is family, and family is parent and child, and what binds parent and child like a Wiegenlied?

You’re tracing your family back, and the spellings sometimes just go crazy.