Last night as I was combing through #Jewish birth records from 19th century #Latvia, I felt very fortunate that these records happened to be in #Hebrew since I don't know #Russian and can't read Cyrillic (although I'm very fortunate to have people in my life who can and it's certainly on my list to jump into next). Genealogy can be difficult enough, but #language barriers can make it all the more overwhelming.
I'm not fluent in any languages besides English, but I have solid #reading comprehension in several. Besides Hebrew, which has allowed me to find records throughout Eastern #Europe and translate #gravestones from around the world, I've used #French, #Spanish, #Italian, #German, and even #Latin in my #research, which has helped me unlock information essential to growing a family tree and finding valuable records.
As a result of my #love for languages, I've amassed quite a collection of books over the years, not to mention cassette tapes, CDs, computer software, and apps. The more I dive into genealogy, the more I want to know, and the more I love helping people research their own family history.
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