Boy cheating in class, 1937. Photo: Wiel van der Randen, collection Nationaal Archief
Many genealogists who don’t speak Dutch use Google Translate or Chrome to translate Dutch websites into English. But sometimes, these programs translate more than you want.
A person named Van der Molen might become From the Mill or a Dhr. Timmerman becomes Mr. Carpenter. The same could happen with geographical names: a village called De Rijp might become The Ripe and a street address Haven 5 might become Harbor 5.
Next time you see an English name in a translated text, check the original text to see what it says.
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The machine translation feature of this app is referred to as the Quick Translations on iOS or Free Translations on Android. To use it, select the language of origin and target language you want, and enter the word, phrase, or sentence you intend the language translation app to process in the upper box. The translation is then generated in the lower box.