Genealogy, Historical Records Research and Historical Document Translation Services

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Professional Genealogy, Historical Records & Archival Research Worldwide

All Language Alliance, Inc. provides professional genealogy, historical records and archival research services involving records held by the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and other federal repositories. Federal archival holdings can provide valuable evidence concerning immigrants, naturalized citizens, military personnel, diplomats, inventors, government employees and other individuals whose lives generated federal records.

Clients hire All Language Alliance, Inc. to locate, obtain, analyze, transcribe and translate historical records for probate and heirship matters, citizenship-by-descent applications, insurance investigations and life insurance disputes, litigation, intellectual-property and historical-ownership matters, art provenance and cultural-property investigations, historic-preservation matters, family-history research and other legal, academic and personal purposes.

Need professional genealogy, NARA or archival research? Send us the names, dates, locations, known records and purpose of your research. All Language Alliance, Inc. can review the project and assign genealogists, archival researchers, historical records experts and translators according to the records, jurisdictions, languages and research required.

What Historical and Genealogical Records Can We Research?

The records needed to reconstruct a family history, establish kinship or investigate a historical question depend on the person, country, time period and purpose of the research. All Language Alliance, Inc. can assist with research involving:

• Birth certificates, delayed birth certificates and baptismal records
• Marriage, divorce and marital-status records
• Death certificates, burial records and cemetery records
• Adoption, guardianship and parentage records
• Church, parish and sacramental records
• Census and population records
• Social Security applications and historical SSA records
• U.S. State Department passport applications and passport records
• Immigration, visa, alien-registration and naturalization files
• Passenger manifests, ship lists and border-crossing records
• Displaced-person, refugee and resettlement records
• Military, naval and veteran records
• Probate, estate, guardianship and conservatorship files
• Wills, testamentary records and inheritance records
• Land records, deeds, surveys, maps and cadastral records
• Government, diplomatic, embassy, legation and foreign-service records
• Consular records, consular registrations, Reports of Birth Abroad, Reports of Death Abroad,
  nationality and citizenship records, and historical consular correspondence
• FBI, intelligence and declassified government files
• Federal, state, local and foreign court records
• Patent files, file wrappers and assignment histories
• Historical corporate, employment and intellectual-property records
• School, orphanage and institutional records
• Historical correspondence, affidavits, diaries and journals
• Historical newspapers, periodicals and press archives
• Family registers, genealogy books and compiled family records
• Unclaimed property and dormant asset records

NARA Historical Records & Archival Research

All Language Alliance, Inc. provides research services involving historical records held by the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and other federal repositories. Federal archival holdings can provide valuable evidence concerning immigrants, naturalized citizens, military personnel, diplomats, inventors, government employees and other individuals whose lives generated federal records.

Historical government and archival records can provide important evidence in matters involving citizenship, nationality, diplomatic status and other historical legal status. Research may require reconstructing an individual’s or ancestor’s status at a particular point in time through contemporaneous diplomatic registers, State Department records, consular and embassy records, government correspondence, immigration and citizenship files, birth records and other archival evidence. Historical records can become particularly important when later government records conflict with contemporaneous documentation or when a person’s legal status depends on the official position or status of a parent or ancestor decades earlier. See how historical diplomatic and government records were used to establish citizenship and diplomatic status in a federal birthright-citizenship case.

Depending on the research question and availability of records, our NARA-experienced researchers can investigate immigration and naturalization records, military and naval records, federal court and government records, historical patent files and other archival holdings. Depending on the record group and repository, research may involve identifying relevant record series, locating archival files that are not fully digitized, obtaining copies of records, and reviewing related federal records for additional leads.

We can also obtain certified copies of historical patent file wrappers and patent assignment records, including research involving older patents for which reel-and-frame information may not be readily available online.

Historical Records Research for Intellectual Property Ownership

Historical and archival research can provide important evidence in disputes involving the historical ownership and transfer of intellectual property. Patent ownership and chain-of-title questions, for example, may require research beyond current electronic databases to determine who originally owned an invention, whether and when rights were assigned, and how ownership changed over time. All Language Alliance, Inc. provides historical records and archival research to locate documentary evidence relevant to intellectual-property ownership and chain-of-title matters.

Research may involve historical patent files and file wrappers, patent assignment records, employment and invention-assignment agreements, corporate records, correspondence, internal memoranda, meeting minutes, government records and other contemporaneous documents concerning the creation, ownership, assignment or transfer of intellectual-property rights. Historical records can be particularly important when the surviving contractual documentation is incomplete, ambiguous or inconsistent with the parties’ conduct at the time.

Historical patent research may also require examination of records that are not fully available through modern online databases. Research in federal archival collections can help locate original patent file wrappers, historical assignment records and related documentation needed to reconstruct an older patent’s ownership history. See how historical records research can help establish patent ownership and assignment history.

Historical Brand Research & Brand History Research

Historical and archival research can help reconstruct the origins, ownership, use and evolution of a brand name, product name, trade name or corporate identity. All Language Alliance, Inc. provides historical brand research and brand history research involving companies, products and names in the United States and foreign countries.

Depending on the research question, historical brand research may involve old corporate records, historical newspapers and advertisements, trade publications, government files, patent and trademark records, assignment histories, business directories, product catalogs, archival correspondence, photographs and other contemporaneous sources. Research can also investigate predecessor companies, mergers, dissolved entities, historical ownership and the people, places or events associated with a brand or company name.

International brand-history research may require locating and analyzing records in several countries and languages. Our historical researchers and professional translators can assist when relevant evidence is contained in foreign archives or foreign-language historical records.

Researching Immigrant, Foreign-Born & American Ancestors

Genealogical research involving an immigrant or foreign-born ancestor may require searching records in multiple countries and government repositories. Conventional genealogy databases may reveal only part of an ancestor’s history; additional evidence can sometimes be found in archival, immigration, diplomatic, military, intelligence, court or other government records.

If an ancestor was a public figure, diplomat, displaced person, stateless person, enemy alien, suspected or documented intelligence operative or White Russian émigré, government agencies in the United States or abroad may have created records concerning that person. Depending on availability and access restrictions, we can research declassified FBI records, OSS records, CIA records, U.S. State Department records, and relevant foreign archival collections, including records associated with the French fonds de Moscou and the Sûreté nationale.

If your ancestor was an inventor, NARA-experienced researchers at All Language Alliance, Inc. can secure certified copies of your ancestor’s original patent file wrappers and assignment histories, especially for pre-1980 patents whose reel and frame numbers are not easily available, in order to trace your family’s innovation history.

Historical Marriage, Divorce & Marital Status Research

Historical and genealogical research can help document marriages, divorces and marital status when the relevant events occurred in foreign countries, under earlier legal systems or through religious or customary practices. Research may involve locating marriage and divorce records, civil-registration records, religious records, court files, family records, government documents and other historical evidence needed to reconstruct whether, when and where a marriage was formed or dissolved.

Questions of historical marital status can become particularly important in probate, heirship, succession and other legal matters because the existence or dissolution of an earlier marriage may affect the identity of a surviving spouse or other persons claiming an interest in an estate. Relevant evidence may include foreign marriage certificates and divorce decrees as well as older or less conventional records documenting customary or religious marriages and divorces. Historical documents may require authentication, paleographic transcription or certified translation before they can be evaluated in a U.S. proceeding.

International marital-status research can involve very different documentary traditions. U.S. courts have considered evidence involving a Pakistani talaq and divorce certificate, a decades-old Urdu document offered as evidence of a customary divorce in India, traditional Hindu marriage ceremonies and Jewish ketubahs. All Language Alliance, Inc. can assist with locating and obtaining relevant historical and genealogical records and with professional or certified translation of foreign-language evidence concerning marriage, divorce and family relationships.

International Heir Search, Probate Genealogy & Missing Beneficiary Research

All Language Alliance, Inc. provides international heir search, probate genealogy and forensic genealogy research services to help attorneys, fiduciaries, estate representatives and other interested parties identify and locate missing or unknown heirs, heirs at law and beneficiaries in the United States and abroad. Our genealogical and historical records researchers can investigate family relationships and documentary evidence relevant to testate and intestate estates, trusts, guardianships, conservatorships and other matters involving proof of kinship or succession.

Establishing heirship may require reconstructing multiple generations of a family tree and locating records across different jurisdictions. Our researchers can search for and obtain birth and baptismal records, marriage records, death records, census records, immigration and naturalization files, passenger lists, probate records, wills, church and civil-registration records, cemetery records, military records and other historical evidence that may help document relationships between a decedent and potential heirs.

Heirship and genealogical research can also intersect with historical land ownership and chain-of-title questions when property has passed through several generations of a family. Research may require historical deeds, land grants, leases, surveys, maps, probate files, archival testimony, family records and other evidence identifying earlier owners and their descendants. When older land records are written in another language, historical translation may become part of reconstructing both family relationships and property ownership. In a Hawaiian land-title dispute, for example, nineteenth-century Hawaiian-language records, archival evidence and competing genealogies became important to determining inheritance and historical ownership.

Probate and heirship research may also involve foreign adoptions when an adopted person’s relationship to a decedent must be documented through records created in another country. Research may require locating foreign adoption decrees, birth certificates, termination-of-parental-rights records, guardianship records, government approvals, immigration and visa files, citizenship records and other documents concerning the creation and recognition of the parent-child relationship. Foreign adoption records may also require authentication, Apostille certification and certified translation for use in U.S. probate, inheritance or other legal proceedings. See how foreign adoption records, document authentication and certified translation can become important when addressing potential inheritance complications involving an adoption completed abroad.

Probate genealogy and heir-search research can also be important when estate assets, unclaimed property or dormant accounts may eventually escheat to the state because lawful heirs or beneficiaries have not been identified or located. Genealogical research can help identify potential heirs, reconstruct lines of descent and locate birth, marriage, death, probate, immigration, census and other records needed to document kinship. A diligent search for heirs may require research across multiple jurisdictions and generations, particularly when family members migrated internationally or relevant records are held in foreign archives. See how genealogical research and the search for lawful heirs can become important in probate matters involving escheat and unclaimed property.

International heirship research can become particularly complex when family members migrated across borders, jurisdictions changed over time, surnames were altered or transliterated differently, or relevant records are available only from local archives and repositories. All Language Alliance, Inc. works with in-country genealogists, probate researchers, historians and archival researchers worldwide to locate records that may not be readily available through online genealogy databases.

Genealogical and historical records research can also provide important evidence in dormant or reopened estates involving previously unidentified intangible property interests, including claims concerning a deceased person’s name, likeness, identity or public legacy. Research may involve identifying and documenting heirs, reconstructing the decedent’s life and family relationships, and locating historical newspapers, photographs, correspondence, probate files, public records and other contemporaneous sources relevant to the person’s identity, reputation and historical public recognition. These issues can arise in estate litigation involving rights of publicity, intellectual property and other historically grounded claims.

What Is a Probate Genealogist?

A probate genealogist researches family relationships and documentary evidence to help identify heirs, heirs at law, beneficiaries and other relatives in estate and succession matters. The work may involve reconstructing several generations of a family, locating living descendants and obtaining records that document relationships between individuals.

Art Provenance, Cultural Property & Historical Ownership Research Services

Art provenance and historical ownership research investigates the ownership, custody, transfer and movement of artworks, antiquities, manuscripts, collectibles and other culturally or historically significant property. Historical research can help establish who owned, created, inherited, sold, transferred or possessed an object during different periods of its history. All Language Alliance, Inc. provides historical and archival research, genealogical research and multilingual document translation to help establish provenance and document historical ownership for art restitution claims, cultural-property disputes, probate and estate matters, litigation and other proceedings in which an object’s ownership history is relevant.

Establishing provenance and historical ownership may require examining archival records, estate and probate files, wills, inventories, bills of sale, auction and exhibition records, correspondence, gallery and dealer records, museum documentation, photographs, government records and other historical sources. These records may help reconstruct chains of ownership and custody, identify former owners and their heirs, document sales, transfers, inheritance or dispossession, and address gaps in an object’s provenance across different jurisdictions and historical periods.

Art provenance, historical ownership and genealogical research can provide important documentary evidence in art restitution matters involving works that were confiscated, looted, subjected to forced or coerced sale, transferred during wartime or political persecution, or subsequently dispersed across national borders. Research may be needed to document ownership before and after dispossession, trace subsequent transfers, identify heirs or successors of former owners, and locate archival, museum, government and private records relevant to Nazi-era looted art and other art restitution claims.

Provenance and historical ownership research can also provide evidence in legal matters involving antiquities, archaeological objects, ancient coins and other cultural property. Depending on the matter, research may concern an object’s origin, ownership and collection history, archaeological context, export or import history, prior sales and transfers, or documented presence in a collection during a particular historical period. Relevant evidence may be found in archival collections, museum and dealer records, auction catalogs, historical publications, correspondence, government records and other primary sources concerning cultural property and antiquities.

International provenance research frequently crosses both national and linguistic boundaries. An object’s history may involve owners, heirs, dealers, collectors or institutions in several countries, while the documentary trail may contain records written in multiple languages or older forms of handwriting. Our combination of international historical research, genealogy and professional translation allows relevant foreign-language evidence to be located, transcribed and translated as part of a coordinated research project.

Historic Preservation, Archaeological & Cultural Heritage Research

Historical and archival research can support litigation, investigations and other matters involving historic preservation, archaeological sites, cultural resources and Indigenous or colonial history. Relevant evidence may be found in historical maps, land and property records, government files, archaeological records, correspondence, manuscripts, historical publications and archival collections in the United States and abroad.

These matters can require research across languages and historical periods. Foreign-language primary sources may contain evidence concerning the historical location, ownership, occupation or significance of a site that is not reflected in modern English-language records. All Language Alliance, Inc. can coordinate archival research, paleographic transcription and professional translation of historical documents so that relevant primary-source evidence can be identified and evaluated.

Historical Spanish Colonial records, for example, can provide evidence concerning land, settlements, Indigenous communities and historical events in what is now the United States. See how historical translation of Spanish Colonial records contributed evidence concerning a Mescalero Apache site in Texas.

Historical Records & Genealogy Research for Insurance Matters

Historical and genealogical research can support insurance matters when questions involving an insured’s identity, date of birth or age, ownership, beneficiaries, kinship, missing persons or death cannot be resolved from contemporary records alone. Life insurance disputes may require reconstruction of biographical facts across decades of conflicting evidence, particularly when policy benefits, maturity dates or misstatement-of-age provisions depend on an insured’s true date of birth. Depending on the matter, relevant evidence may include Social Security applications and records, State Department passport files, delayed birth certificates, baptismal and church records, immigration and naturalization files, orphanage and school records, marriage records and affidavits, death and burial records, probate files, government records, civil-registration records and other archival sources in the United States or abroad.

Insurance matters involving foreign countries can present additional challenges when records must be located in foreign archives, civil registries or government repositories, authenticated, transcribed from historical handwriting or translated from another language. These issues may arise in international life insurance matters involving a death abroad, disputed identity or age, missing-person and presumption-of-death proceedings, beneficiary and heirship questions, and disputes requiring reconstruction of historical biographical or ownership evidence. See how genealogy and archival research can support complex insurance matters involving disputed dates of birth, foreign deaths, beneficiaries and historical evidence.

Historical Document Translation & Paleography

All Language Alliance, Inc. provides professional transcription and translation of handwritten historical documents, archival records and manuscripts, including records written in obsolete scripts and historical forms of foreign languages.

Historical document translation may require more than ordinary language fluency. Older records can contain obsolete vocabulary, unfamiliar abbreviations, historical legal terminology and handwriting systems that are difficult for modern readers to decipher. Depending on the document and intended use, we can provide diplomatic or semi-diplomatic transcription, translation into Modern English and certified translation when appropriate.

Old German Kurrent & Sütterlin Translation

We transcribe and translate historical German documents written in Kurrent (Kurrentschrift) and Sütterlin (Sütterlinschrift), including family records, correspondence, legal documents, church records and other handwritten archival materials.

Latin Church & Ecclesiastical Records

Our historical translation work can include records written in Church Latin, Ecclesiastical Latin, Liturgical Latin and Medieval Latin, including parish registers, sacramental entries and ecclesiastical court records.

Historical Spanish & Colonial Records

We provide Spanish paleography, transcription and translation of historical Spanish-language documents, including handwritten legal and archival records from the Spanish Colonial Era.

Jewish Genealogical & Historical Records

Historical and genealogical records may include Yizkor books; ketubahs written in Hebrew or Classical Jewish Aramaic; tenaim (tna’im); and pinkes or pinkas community registers, ledgers and diaries.

Asian Family Registers & Genealogy Records

We also work with historical family and genealogical records such as Japanese koseki household registers, Korean jokbo or jokpo family registers containing Hangul and Traditional Chinese (Hanja), and Chinese zupu clan genealogy books.

Other Historical Languages & Scripts

Depending on the document, period and available specialist, our historical transcription and translation work can also involve Classical Armenian, Old Church Slavonic, Ottoman-language documents, secretary hand and other historical cursive scripts.

Genealogy Research for Citizenship by Descent

Citizenship-by-descent applications may require documentary evidence connecting an applicant to a parent, grandparent, great-grandparent or earlier ancestor. All Language Alliance, Inc. can assist with genealogical and archival research to locate birth, baptismal, marriage, death, immigration, naturalization and other historical records in the United States and abroad.

Historical records used to establish ancestry may contain discrepancies in names, dates, places of birth and other identifying information. Immigrant names may have been anglicized, transliterated differently, misspelled or recorded in different forms across foreign vital records, U.S. birth and marriage records, passenger lists, naturalization files and other documents created over several generations. Genealogical research can help identify and document these variations by correlating records concerning the same ancestor and reconstructing the documentary chain between generations. Name discrepancies can become particularly important in citizenship-by-descent applications, including matters involving requests for “one and the same person” determinations concerning inconsistent ancestral records.

When relevant records are written in another language, we can also provide professional or certified translation and assist with Apostille-related requirements when appropriate.

Our role is to assist with genealogical research, record procurement and translation. Eligibility for citizenship depends on the law and requirements of the applicable country.

International Genealogy & Archival Research

Clients can hire All Language Alliance, Inc. to coordinate international genealogical and archival research across multiple countries and languages. Depending on the assignment, we can assign in-country genealogists, historians and archival researchers to conduct research in local archives and repositories, obtain available records and coordinate transcription and translation of foreign-language documents.

In-country research can be especially important when historical records have not been digitized, are available only from local archives or registries, or require knowledge of local language and historical recordkeeping practices.

Frequently Asked Questions About Genealogy & Historical Research

Hire a Genealogist, Historical Records Researcher or Historical Document Translator

To discuss a genealogy, archival research, heir-search, paleography or historical document translation project, please provide as much information as available about the person, family, document, geographic location, approximate date and purpose of the research.

Submit your inquiry using the green “Certified Translators, Interpreters, Genealogists, Historical Records Experts” form on the right. We will review the information you provide and determine how All Language Alliance, Inc. can assist with the historical research, record retrieval, transcription or translation required for your project.