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Post by camnmaksmom on Nov 8, 2009 18:42:54 GMT -5
My mother just came back from visiting her family in Taiwan. She brought back a red bounded notebook that is full of history about her family that goes back to the Ming Dynasty. She speaks Chinese well, but doesn't have the time to translate this whole book (she works full time). We feel that it's extremely important for our family to have this translated so that we can pass it down through generations to come. I need to learn more about her family's history as well but I don't speak Chinese. Is there anyone that I can take this book to in the Sacramento/Bay Area that can respectfully translate this important, historical information?
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Post by Ah Gin on Nov 8, 2009 20:25:27 GMT -5
camnmaksmom,
As Henry who is on tour in Asia would say, "Welcome to the Forum".
Around the Sacramento/Bay Area, as the Chinese population is large, there is a strong likelihood for you to find a professional translator. Valuable document such as the one in the possession of your mother is worthy of preservation and translation. Your family is very fortunate to have this.
My recommendation is to start off with a conversation with the Chinese Culture Foundation of San Francisco, at 750 Kearny Street, 3rd Floor, San Francisco CA 94108 (The same organisation which host the Village Database). In particular, with Albert Cheng, Founder of "In Search of Roots". If you drop me a private message, I will share with you his email address and telephone number. Albert should be able to facilitate this project. I expect it will come with a cost, but what value can one put on family historical documents that went back to the Ming Dynasty?
Regards, Ah Gin of 747 Clay Street, SF
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Post by Henry on Nov 24, 2009 5:02:08 GMT -5
camnmaksmom,
As my friend Ah Gin indicated - "Welcome to the Forum". Yes, your family is most fortunate to have this treasure - you should have it translated.
In my experience, the usual rate for Chinese translations is about $50 USD per page, approximately 350 characters to a page). If you find someone in China, most of the younger genration will translate "simplified" Chinese characters. They will charge you extra to translate "traditional" Chinese characters because the "traditional" Chinese characters are complex and do not have as much punctuation. The older generation can translate the "traditional" Chinese characters.
My suggestion is to try to find an overseas Chinese person in the US - they can usually translate "traditional" Chinese characters. I recommend that you have all Chinese names and names of places presented in Chinese characters ( simplified and traditional Chinese characters, as well as in the Pinyin romanization - then there will not be an issue in reading the text. I also recommend that you have all the Chinese dynastic reign years translated into the Gregorian calendar.
Al Cheng is a very knowledgeable guy and a great resource.
I have just returned from a week of shopping in Hong Kong, Lowu, and Shenzhen and a cruise out of Hong kong to several SE Asian countries. My main reason to go on the cruise was to spend time with my mother who is 89 years old and all of my sisters and brother-in-laws, including me, had to try and keep up with mom.
Regards,
Henry
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Post by raymond on Nov 24, 2009 18:46:17 GMT -5
camnmaksmom,
We all now know that good Chinese translators are badly needed and are generally quite expensive. Thus, I believe people in search of genealogical translations must develop a more prudent approach to translations. First, one must realize that there can be several, or even many, genealogy books or manuscripts (zupus) for a particular family clan surname. Determine which one(s) you really want translated. In fact, find out which one(s) you have at hand.....is it the one for your particular village? another village? a regional one? The strategy is to prioritize your translation quest in a more reasonable and cost-effective manner. What I believe most people desire foremost is a translated version of the zupu from his/her family's very own ancestral village because it is likely the one with an ancestral link to his/her present family. If one has no idea about the genesis of a specific zupu at hand, a more practical approach is to have a brief meeting with a Chinese-literate person and have the person skim through the zupu and verbally tell you what is in the zupu, or even better to tell you if the name(s) of your immediate ancestor(s) are mentioned in the zupu. If so, then it will be worth the investment to have the entire zupu translated. As for translating other related zupus of your family surname, you can consider these as an optional outlay of expenses depending on how far you wish to take your genealogical search. Finally, if there are other family members who would benefit from a zupu translation, perhaps they'd be willing to share expenses and lessen the financial burden of a translation job.
Hope this helps........
Raymond
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Post by philiptancl on Dec 3, 2009 2:00:38 GMT -5
camnmaksmom,
I was given a set of the ancestral village family records (zupu) for my branch of surname when I visited my ancestral village in Fujian for the first time in August 2007. The set of two volumes has a total of more than 900 pages. Since joining this Forum in June 2008, I have collected quite some family records (Zupu, Jiapu and Zhongpu).
If you are game enough, I would suggest that you try certain course of actions yourself before you get any parts of your family records translated. This is on the basis that you are interested in tracing your family line all the way back (i.e. to the Ming Dynasty in your case) and leave whatever commentaries (for translation) to a latter date. Like you I am not able to read and write Chinese but that does not prevent me from drawing up extensive charts of family lines from whatever zupus that I now have. To do this without being able to read Chinese may be challenging no doubt but believe me, it is even more interesting and satisfying. However there are some basic Chinese characters that you need to recognize in order to guide you through. If the book you have is published from Taiwan, the characters would most likely to be in traditional Chinese characters.
Family records are provided in a number of formats. If yours is already provided in chart form, it will be quite easy for you to start with once you could place where your immediate ancestor(s) are located. However the family records may most likely be recorded in other formats. Then you need to know how to interpret them. At the minimum, you will only need to recognize a few basic common Chinese characters connected to recordings use in Chinese family tree and then knowing how the system works; it will be not that difficult to proceed.
Even translating Chinese dynastic reign years into the Gregorian calendar is not difficult if you additionally know how the 60 years cycle works based on the “Ten Heavenly Stems” and the “Twelve Earthly Branches”. Free tool for translating lunar month, day and year to Gregorian calendar date is available.
Website for writing Chinese characters using your computer mouse and free Chinese recognition software is given elsewhere in this Forum. The most difficult (and tedious) is when the records you have are handwritten; more so when you are not able to comprehend how the strokes should be.
If are you interested to understand in greater details and how to proceed further, may I suggest you pass a personal message to me through this Forum providing me your Skype contact (and email). It would be easier for me to explain the intricacies to you over Skype.
Give it a try. You may save some expenses in translating. So far my main expenses are in acquiring more and more zupus etc. I have yet to spend anything in translation.
Philip
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