ViewMate - Image Archive, Image 114417 - Translation - German - France - Ingenheim - simon Elias


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Information

Picture

Question

Category: Translation - German
Approval Date: 8/2/2026 5:06 PM
Family Surname: simon Elias
Country: France
Town: Ingenheim
Date of Image: year 3 (1795)

Click the picture to enlarge

Birth act from the child of Simon Elias: can you help to translate ? Thanks

Response

9/9/2026 5:00 AM

Hi I am sorry that no one else has responded..

I am currently testing AI assisted translation tools and if you are interested I would be happy to have a go with your birth cert.

Unfortunately the image you have posted is too small/low resolution to work with.

Could you post the link to the source document ie online "original" in the Archives ? presumably in one of the state archives for Alsace ... Haut-Rin...Ingenheim ?

I will then go get a more useful copy ...

9/9/2026 1:35 PM

Well I ran pages 16/17 by 3 AI engines.... one declined to give anything...useful and the other two .. well judge for yourself

English Translation (Best Efforts?)

AI Engine 1

On the ninth Prairial in the third year of the French Republic \[May 28, 1795], at three o'clock in the afternoon, to the citizen Simon Elias, trade-Jew residing here in Ingenheim, from his wife, a born Lible, a son was born.

This birth record was properly declared and presented by the above-mentioned father of the child, Simon Elias, on the tenth Prairial \[May 29, 1795] to me, Hanß Gorg Castel, \*praetor\* in the municipality and designated public official for recording births, marriages, and deaths here in Ingenheim. The name Elias was given to him.

Thereupon the present record was drawn up. The witnesses present were Meyer, local citizen and trade-Jew residing here, aged sixty-six years; and Hanß Bobst, citizen and farmer residing here, aged fifty-eight years.

Done in the year, month, and day mentioned at the beginning.

Castel, official
Simon Elias as father, signed in Hebrew
Meyer, witness
Bobst Meyer, witness

AI Engine 2

On the \[next] of Prairial, Year 3 of the French Republic, \[one and indivisible], appeared before me in the village/commune of \[Ingenheim] the citizen and citizeness \[names uncertain], to declare that a child was born to them in the house of Georg Castel, magistrate (Praetor) of the municipality, and the sworn/impartial witnesses, to record the date of birth and confirm the circumstances. The father of the child, Simon Elias, in accordance with Prairial \[decree], duly reported and presented \[the child]. \[A further clause regarding the child, possibly a note that the infant had already been baptized/named, is uncertain.] The witnesses present were: \[Melgus? — citizen], aged fifty-five years, and Hans Adolf, citizen, aged fifty years, \[born] in the year, month and day as stated above.

Signed: Castel, \[presiding officer/witness]
Simon Elias, father \[mark/signature]
Josef Maier, witness

The engines also gave caveats :

AI engine 2

This is late-18th-century German “Kurrentschrift” (civil-registry hand), photographed from a screen/scan at fairly low resolution. This is one of the hardest genres of document to transcribe accurately — even trained paleographers often need to consult originals, comparison alphabets, or parallel entries in the same register to resolve ambiguous letterforms. What follows is my best-effort reading, not a certified transcription. Given how many words I had to infer from context rather than read cleanly, I'd strongly recommend having a professional archivist/paleographer (or the Archives d'Alsace reading room service) verify this before you rely on it for genealogical records.

AI Engine 3

I have examined the two uploaded PDFs as a continuous document, treating the “last two handwritten lines on Page 16 as the beginning of the certificate", followed by the continuation at the top of Page 17. The archive PDFs themselves contain no machine-readable transcription layer—the handwriting has to be read from the page images. ie the actual genealogical reading has to come from visual palaeography.

Because the handwriting is quite difficult in places, I have "not silently normalised or invented words". Where I cannot read a word securely, I have indicated that in the translation and then listed it separately below.

(There followed a very very long list .....)

continues on following post .....

9/9/2026 1:38 PM

continues from previous post ....

List of Uncertain Words & Phrases

AI Engine 1

Page 16, Line 22 (Bottom entry line 1):
“dem Bürger handels Jud...\” — The surname of the father following "handels Jud" (trade-Jew) at the beginning of the record is heavily abbreviated or blended into the standard opening phrase.

Page 17, Line 2:
“eine gebohrene Lible / Löble\” — The maiden name of the mother appears as \*Lible\* or \*Löble\*, but the exact cursive vowel loop is somewhat compressed.

Page 17, Line 10:
“welchem der näheme Flies / Elias ist beygelegt worden\” — The given name assigned to the child was written over an erasure or corrected inline by the scribe (transcribing "Elias" or "Flies" with irregular lettering).

Page 17, Line 13–14:
“Meyer... Bobst / Babst\” — The handwriting in the witness description mixes local dialect spellings of surnames (\*Bobst\*, \*Babst\*, \*Meyer\*) with heavily looped characters that make standard transcription ambiguous without regional parish register comparisons.

Page 17, Signature Line 2:\
“Simon Elias \[Hebrew Script]\” — The father signed his name using Hebrew letters rather than German Kurrent cursive, which was standard practice for Jewish residents of Alsace during this revolutionary period.

AI Engine 2

Page 17, Line 1–2 "nächsten prairial" - The specific day-word before "prairial" is unclear — could be an ordinal number or the word "nächsten" (next/following).

Page 17, Line 3 | Village name | Same issue as Page 16 — the commune name is not cleanly legible on its own; I'm relying on the context you provided. |

Page 17, Line 5–6 | "Simon Elias" | Fairly confident on "Simon," less so on "Elias" — the second name is short and could be a different word (patronymic vs. given name is unclear). |

Page 17, Line 7–9
"zufolge prairial gehörig angezeigt und vorgestellt" - Standard registry formula (reported and presented in accordance with the decree) — the general meaning is a good template match for acts of this type, but several individual words are traced rather than confidently read.

Page 17, Line 9–10
"der vorigen Elias ist bey gelegt worden" - This clause is one of the murkiest on either page — I could not confidently resolve what circumstance is being described (possibly relating to a prior registration or a note about the child), so treat this sentence as a placeholder rather than a real translation. |

Page 17, Line 12–13
"Melgus" (witness name) - Very uncertain — the initial letters could also form a completely different name. |

Page 17, Line 13–14
"fünf und fünfzig Jahr" / "fünfzig Jahr" - Ages (55, 50) are reasonably legible as numbers.

Page 17, Line 14
"Hans Adolf" - Given name pairing is a guess — "Adolf" in particular is not cleanly formed.

Page 17, Line 16
"Castel \[Trauzeuge?]" - Castel's role in the closing signature block (witness vs. presiding official) is unclear — I don't have a confident reading of the word after his name.

Page 17, Line 17
"Josef Maier" - The final signature line — "Josef" is plausible, "Maier" is a common-enough Alsatian surname to be a reasonable guess but not a certain reading.

Misc Notes

Prairial :The ninth month of the French Republican calendar, which dated from September 22, 1792. It began May, 20, and ended June 18.

ViewMate Posting VM 114417

Submitted by Bruno Simon Blum

Learn more about our organizational leadership, mission, and values. There are numerous opportunities to get involved yourself!

Search millions of records from around the globe, including more than 4 million records related to the Holocaust, and more than 4.2 million burial records. Records are continually added each month - check back often for new information!

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Enhance your research with online classes and dozens of helpful articles. University students can apply for the Bennett & Robin Greenspan L'dor V'dor Legacy Program, and those "out of school" can help preserve Jewish Heritage in Poland with unique study & volunteer experiences.

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The JewishGen site is offered as a free public resource. However, it costs a lot of money to maintain and expand our services. If you are in a position to do so, please consider a contribution today - your support will make a difference!

ViewMate Posting VM 114417

Submitted by Bruno Simon Blum