1497 German Medieval Letter
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...
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Stefan Israel
- May 11
- 1 min
What's in a name- George?
Translating names can be tricky. Look at the name George, Jurgen, Georgios, Jorge and Yuri - all the same. Here's some history.
36 views
Stefan Israel
- Apr 27
- 5 min
Punctuation and the Genealogist
A comma, semi-colon or period - different quotation marks in different languages - Agh! What an interesting history to punctuation marks.
51 views
Pamela Israel
- Apr 14
- 1 min
Taxes: English Fleeced to German Plucked
Tax Time: Plucked Chicken - In English we say the tax office fleeces tax payers, Germans say plucked! Translation is fun, isn't it?
47 views
Stefan Israel
- Mar 30
- 2 min
Two Dots and an Umlaut
Unlocking the umlaut. History of the two dots.
252 views
Stefan Israel
- Mar 16
- 5 min
Celtic Footsteps across Germany- the Undarkening Ages
Medieval Irish and Scottish influences still felt in Germany and beyond.
99 views
Pamela Israel
- Mar 6
- 1 min
Milestone Favorites: Language, History & Tips
Unlock Your History launched in 2017! Check out some favorite posts about language history & translating old German, Danish, Swedish.
71 views
Stefan Israel
- Jun 15, 2021
- 4 min
How to Spot the Dot
What language belongs to those accents? From German to Norwegian Hungarian or French, see different accents that some languages use.
730 views
Stefan Israel
- Apr 2, 2021
- 3 min
Brahms’ Lullaby, the Wiegenlied
Genealogy is family, and family is parent and child, and what binds parent and child like a Wiegenlied? A Wiege is a cradle, a lied is a...
1,373 views
Stefan Israel
- Mar 5, 2021
- 4 min
When France Came to Germany
Beethoven and Goethe, the German Shakespeare, were glad to see liberator Napoleon come, and glad to see occupier Napoleon go. Napoleonic la
686 views
Stefan Israel
- Jan 28, 2021
- 4 min
Why Couldn’t My Ancestor Spell Their Name the Same?
You’re tracing your family back, and the spellings sometimes just go crazy.
597 views
Pamela Israel
- Jan 14, 2021
- 6 min
A Plea to Save Letters!
Save letters! I have a treasure trove of memories downstairs.
So began the email from my mother earlier this week.
86 views
Dean Meservy
- Dec 24, 2020
- 3 min
Why do Americans say ‘Merry Christmas’?
We have kept the old word “merry” from a day when Christmas was anything but a Silent Night
1,208 views
Stefan Israel
- Dec 17, 2020
- 3 min
Baptizing Beethoven - 250th Year Anniversary
Ludwig van Beethoven was baptized the 17th of December, 1770, in Bonn, a small city on the Rhine River.
172 views
Stefan Israel
- Nov 21, 2020
- 3 min
20 YEARS OF FRENCH GERMANY
French Germany? France is French and Germany is German, as a general rule, so how could you have French Germany?
Well, borders can be flu
497 views
Pamela Israel
- Nov 9, 2020
- 2 min
"Somewhere in France" 1918
Arch returned to Europe as a Captain in World War I. He sent Robert at least one letter from "somewhere in France" in December of 1918.