I love Google

My great passion is genealogy - all the branches of my ancestors - not just the men.

This has recently taken me to Bologna in Italy, where we unearthed amazing discoveries in ancient libraries and archives

Now - back in the UK - the research continues - thanks to Google.

One name on the family tree that we discovered there - was Bonaparte Zani - who lived about 1250.

I popped the name into Google and up came an old 17th century book of letters in the archives of The University of Madrid .
One of these letters is from a Valerio Zani - a cousin of an ancestor - who can also be found on the above mentioned tree.
So-
I am looking at this letter - (written before 1668 - by an ancient relative in Italy) displayed in Google books - on my computer in my home in the UK .

This is just Magic
But it gets more so-

If I select a paragraph and click translate - Google takes the text  - which is in image format and converts it into text format  - and then  translates it  - quicker than I could say - Jack Robinson.
Total Magic.

OK  - the translation needs a bit of tweaking - it is trying to cope with 17th century Italian - but it is quite possible for me to understand what is being said.

And -
What is it saying?
Well Valerio was obviously also the family genealogist, and he was discussing how Bonaparte Zani fitted into the family tree.

Without Google I  would never have known about that book.
Even if by some miracle I had stumbled upon it - I would not have known there was anything inside relevant to my research
Even if I had known it was relevant -  I would not have been able to search for the name Zani inside it.
It is so easy to search for a name in a book that has been digitised.

Google - I love you