My plan is to complete 6 pages per day. I am now 20% through the translation. It is a tedious process of first correcting the obvious errors in the text, by comparing the machine-converted content with the original, then running the text, one paragraph at a time, through the translation engine, then reading the translated text to confirm it makes sense. My limited German skills are helpful.
Errors in the conversion from the scanned page to textual content come from a few sources: lack of contrast in the original text; lack of clarity of the original material (i.e., blurred characters); spelling mistakes. The translation is by no means perfect, however, it is understandable and that’s what counts.
It is interesting to observe what has been included in the manuscript. It starts with the death of Aunt Fanny after the Second War. She was the favourite aunt of my grandmother. There are suggestions that she was quite an accomplished women. May be there will be more. Following that there is a brief section on the establishment of the Portschellerhaus, which is a hut in the Bavarian Alps founded by my great great grandfather for the Sonneberg Hiking Club. The section I am currently translating starts with the 30 years war, and traces the history of the development of the toy industry in Sonneberg.
If I can keep up this pace, I should be finished in 8 more days.
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