[I posted this old family letter here on my genealogy blog, and then I asked for help with translating it on the FamilySearch Czechoslovakia Genealogy Research Facebook page, but since it is in German they told me to go to the FamilySearch German Genealogy Research Facebook page to see if anyone there might be able to help with this. With a lot of hard work, and help from google translate, old German handwriting samples, and German & Latin word lists, I am able to slowly pick through the records in the Catholic birth, marriage, and death record books and do a pretty decent job of translating the records of our ancestors who were from Bohemia (now in the Czech Republic), but when it comes to attempting to translate paragraphs and pages of text, I get overwhelmed with my lack of knowledge of the German language, and can often only pick out names and dates. So I thought I'd see if I can get some help. Cross your fingers for me.
I can see the name Anna at the bottom of page 1, I can make out a few dates/numbers one pages 1 & 2, and I think the 3rd page says something like "Many greetings from ___ ___ Wenzl Breinl speedy response." And I do know that a letter with a black border means that it is telling the news of someone's death. And I'm not sure yet exactly how Wenzl Breinl is related to us, but our other Breinl ancestors were from a town called Graslitz in Bohemia, (now Kraslice, Czech Republic). But that's as far as I have gotten with this letter on my own.]
Dear A, I now take the pen with crying eyes to write you the sad news that my wife provided with the holy sacraments by the priest after a 7 month suffering was called by her god the 15th December. May God give her the eternal life and the eternal light in paradise. Amen. You cant imagine, what the brother-in-law, his wife and daughter had to manage during the 7 month illness. The 17th December she was buried and my brother-in-law invided 6 old settlers as pallbearers. I will close my letter and hope that it will reach you in good health. I wish you happy holidays and a happy new year. Many greetings by your uncle Wenzel Breinl - answer soon -
ReplyDelete