The Language of the Conquerors: Opening the Lost World of the Turkic Empires for Genealogical Research

Loading...
Thumbnail Image

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA)

Abstract

The imperial records of the Turkic empires of the past several centuries, initially composed in such dead languages as Ottoman and Chagatai Turkish, remain opaque for the millions of people attempting to trace their ancestry into a past in which Turks ruled over much of Europe and Asia. While these empires have receded into the pages of history, their robust records remain in the hands of thousands of state archives, libraries, private repositories, and personal collections. Archivists and librarians struggle to properly catalog and index these orthographically complex Turkic collections. Likewise, researchers without proper training in these moribund and deceased languages overlook these rich resources. Aware of the potential of Turkic records for genealogical purposes, FamilySearch International has implemented an approach to make these records accessible to non-specialists. First, this paper documents the ongoing efforts to train teams of students to index Ottoman and Chagatai Turkish manuscripts. Given the sheer size and scope of these global collections, FamilySearch also leverages machine learning to develop handwritten text recognition to assist in the indexing of Turkic record collections. In sum, this paper proposes a strategy for making all historical Turkic records accessible and useable to local and global researchers and suggests a framework for approaching similar language problems that afflict libraries around the world. Keywords: Ottoman Turkish, Chagatai Turkish, Arabic Script, Hadwritten Text Recognition

Description

Citation