Personal Document Translation for Letters, Diaries and Family Records

Certified or Not? Which Personal Documents Need a Certificate

Most personal letters, diaries and family records need only an accurate translation. You need a certified translation, with the translator’s signed certificate of accuracy, when you submit the document to an authority such as USCIS, a court or a consulate.

Every foreign-language document you file with USCIS, including letters or messages used as evidence, needs a full English translation with the translator’s certification (8 CFR 103.2(b)(3)). See USCIS certified translation for what the certificate must include.

Personal Letter and Correspondence Translation

We translate personal letters, postcards, greeting cards, emails, text and chat messages, and other private correspondence. Typical requests:

• Letters from grandparents or relatives abroad that the family can no longer read
• Wartime, emigration and love letters kept as family treasures
• Emails and messages between family members who don’t share a language
• Correspondence used as evidence in a court case or an immigration application (certified on request)

Translators keep the writer’s voice as well as the facts: forms of address, dialect, abbreviations and humour stay recognisable. Names, dates and places are copied exactly as written, and words the translator cannot read are marked [illegible] rather than guessed. Handwritten letters are welcome. Send a clear scan or photo of every page, including the envelope if it shows dates or addresses.

Genealogy and Old Family Records Translation

Old family records help you trace ancestors through baptism, marriage and death entries, civil registers, emigration papers, military records and family letters. Our genealogy translators read historic handwriting, including German Kurrent, 19th-century Latin church records, Cyrillic and Yiddish. They work in German, Latin, Russian, Polish, Italian, Spanish and other languages.

What you receive:

• A full English translation of each record, with names, dates and places in their original spelling
• Notes on old terms, abbreviations and place names that have changed over time
• Unreadable words marked [illegible], never guessed

For the best results, scan at 300 dpi or higher, include the page header and the entries above and below yours, and tell us the family names you are researching. If you need the records for citizenship by descent, an inheritance or a name change, the authority will usually ask for a certified translation (see the table above).

Diaries, Memoirs and Family Histories

Diaries, journals, memoirs, family chronicles and recipe books are translated by the same translator from start to finish wherever possible, so the voice stays consistent across hundreds of pages. We keep the original dates, chapters and page numbers, so you can compare the translation with the original page by page. Long texts are priced per word: send the file or a sample for a free quote.

Personal Content Translation Rates

Personal letters are priced per page. Longer personal writing is priced per word.

• Diaries, memoirs, emails and other long texts: from $0.07 per word, depending on the language pair
• Old handwritten records and letters for genealogy: free quote once we see the scans
• Certificate: a Translation Accuracy Certificate is included at no extra cost when you need a certified translation
• Certified birth, marriage and other civil-status certificates: see translation prices

Personal Content We Translate

Personal correspondence. Personal letters, postcards, cards, emails, chat and text messages, diaries and journals.

Family history records. Church registers, civil birth, marriage and death entries, emigration and passenger records, military records and family bibles, including old handwriting.

Memoirs and family writing. Memoirs, family chronicles, recipe books and personal writing for a family book.

Property and inheritance documents. Property deeds and title documents, purchase and sale agreements, wills and testaments, probate court documents, inheritance declarations, and foreign court orders related to property transfer.

Documents for official use. Birth, marriage and divorce certificates, transcripts and diplomas, IDs & driver's licenses, police clearances, bank statements.

Privacy, Quality Assurance, and Delivery

Your personal data is protected under GDPR. Personal documents contain your most sensitive information — full legal name, date and place of birth, family relationships, financial position, and in some cases criminal or medical history. TheWordPoint processes all personal document data in compliance with GDPR:

• Your documents are never shared with third parties under any circumstances
• If a family member or third party requests a copy of your translated document, we will not provide it
• Documents are transmitted via encrypted channels
• Data is not retained after project completion without your explicit agreement

Translation accuracy for personal documents. In personal documents, every detail matters. A misread date, a misspelled name or a wrongly rendered place name can send family research in the wrong direction or get a document questioned by an authority. TheWordPoint's personal document translators are trained to preserve all information from the original — including stamps, seals, handwritten annotations, and reference numbers — in the translated version.

Free revisions included. If any element of the translation does not accurately reflect the original document, we revise it at no charge.

How Personal Document Translation Works

Prepare a clear scan of your document. A PDF, JPEG, or PNG of the original document. All text must be legible — including stamps and handwriting. You do not need to send the physical original.

Submit for a free quote. Upload at thewordpoint.com/free-quote. Tell us the document type, the language, what you need it for (family reading, research, a court or another authority) and your deadline.

Translation by a qualified native-speaker translator. Your document is translated preserving all original information — names, dates, stamps, seals, handwritten annotations, and reference numbers — exactly as they appear in the original.

Proofreading and QA. A second native-speaker reviewer checks for accuracy, completeness, and formatting consistency with the original. Names, dates, and reference numbers verified against the source document.

Certification and delivery. If an authority will receive it, we add a signed certificate of accuracy.

What Languages We Translate

See all languages

Reviewed and updated  on October 11, 2026, by

Christakis Christodoulou,
Managing Director
Head of the Certified Translation Department