Armenian Genealogy Forum

I recently received copies of my great-grandparents traveling papers from Keserig, Harpoot to Marseille, France from 1909 and 1912. I also have their papers from Marseille to New York, but I (was once) semi-fluent in French, so those were no problem to translate! These papers, however, are written in Ottoman Turkish script. Does anyone know of someone who is able to translate non-latin turkish script? A professor of mine is currently doing her phd in near eastern studies and is hopefully looking to see if anyone at the university can translate it. From what I've read only scholars can read it anymore.

Any ideas would be great!


Thanks,
Lindsay

I will be glad to help you. please post the letters so we can take a look.

Thanks John!

However, I do not know how to post the documents. I tried sending them to you by private message and it told me that I could not send pdfs. Should I make them jpegs and send them again?


Lindsay

Lindsay,

PDF is not allowed in this forum. You can either convert them to jpg and attach them to your post or you can send the PDF file to my E-Mail which is located under my signature in this post. I will convert and upload them to the forum.
To attach a file to your post, just start writing a post then click the Upload attachment tab located right after the Save Preview Submit Buttons. Then upload the files from your computer and submit.

Posted on behalf of Lindsay.

Lindsay

Here is my initial review of the first document. The typed script is no problem however the handwritten is the challenge. This is to the best of my ability. I will attempt to decipher the rest of the hand writing. I will also pass it around to friends and colleagues. Meanwhile let’s see if the forum members will add more info.

Important fact to consider. The dates are in Islamic calendar (Hijri).
The Hijri year is 11 days shorter than the Gregorian Year.
Their calendar started in July 16, 622 A.D
May 08, 2009 A.D (Gregorian) = Jummda al-awal 14, 1430 A.H. (Hijri)
And January 1, 1900 A.D (Gregorian)= Sh'baan 1317 A.H (Hijri)
You can google Gregorian - Hijri date converter to find the exact dates. Hope this will give a head start on your research.

I will post the rest shortly.

I have a document that looks very much like the one written in Ottoman Turkish or Armenian! I believe it is my grandfather's birth certificate or passport. My father brought it to Istanbul once and no one was able to read it.

I would also like to have translated; however, I'm not sure how to upload images on this site.

Could someone kindly let me know how to upload?

Thank you!
Sofia

Sophia,

The Turks changed their alphabet to the latin characters after WWI. It's possible I suppose then that no one that your father spoke with in Istanbul could read the old script.

From what John translated off of my papers, they were official Ottoman state papers --- basically like an ID card for Turkish citizens with name, birthdate, place of birth, parents names, etc.

Hope that helps!


Lindsay

Administrator wrote:I will be glad to help you. please post the letters so we can take a look.

Hi John, I have two documents that look a lot like the ones you translated and posted here. I did a little online research and my docs *look* like they might have been tapus; "deeds." (I don't know how to make plurals in Turkish.) But I could be completely wrong. I've also read that they would not have been "deeds" in the modern, Western sense, if they were tapus. If I post them, would you please be willing to translate? I've had a funny time with them. A Turkish friend of a friend *insisted* that they were not written in Turkish, but in Arabic. I knew better, but just in case brought copies to an associate from Jordan. At first he thought he could read them - he recognized the letters - but the words were nonsense to him. He *insisted* that the language must be Kurdish. Ah, well. Please let me know if you are willing - it must be at least 60 or 70 years or more since anyone has read them.

I would like help translating as much as possible I do.send here documents please.