Chinese Jiapu Online at Ancestry.com

When I learned that Ancestry.com had launched a Chinese site, Jiapu.cn, I was excited to try it out. That is until I visted and was faced with a page full of Chinese characters. I should have expected it; afterall, Ancestry.com's other international sites don't have English language versions. But the Chinese language, while beautiful, can just be so intimidating.

Wanting to give the site a try, however, I headed over to the trusty Google Translator. The graphics help a bit as well. The top section of the site, with the tree graphic, is where you enter your own family tree - not the search box as you might expect. For searching, scroll down to the second section with the magnifying glass and enter the last name (surname) in the first box. The third box is for location - the province in China. You can use the Google Web Page Translator for the Jiapu.cn home page to get a feel for the layout.

Although Web page translation can help you read the results, you will have to do your searching in Chinese. Again, you can use the Google Translator tool to locate the Chinese characters that represent your name. This isn't always an accurate method, however, so it is best if you can learn your last name in Chinese from a relative if you don't know it yourself. You can also try a Web site of common Chinese surnames, such as this list of Chinese surnames from Yutopian.com.

If you are interested in more serious translation, then you might want to try the Chinese learning software produced by Clavis Sinica, available for a free trial download. This Chinese text reader and dictionay program enables you to read digitized Chinese text. I've also found the Chinese dictionary Chinese Characters: A Genealogy and Dictionary by Rick Harbaugh to be helpful.