Translate Russian cursive
Russian cursive letters look very different from printed Cyrillic, with similar loops for letters like и, ш, and м. Upload a photo of a handwritten letter or card. FamilyLore transcribes the Russian text line by line, translates it into English, and underlines doubtful words.
Your first three pages need no account and no card.
A Russian letter from our shelf, as read
A dotted underline marks a word FamilyLore was unsure of; [?] is its own note on a doubtful reading.
Russian cursive letter
- море штиль - плывешь как в аквариуме.
- Крабов больших нет а маленьких - тьма-
- тьмущая. Вот уж - действительно санитары
- моря. Я вначале не верил, что можно
- бросать пищевые отходы в море - а потом
- посмотрел, волн на берег да, нельзя, там они
- будут гнить шторма или дождя, а в море
- тонут и бесследно исчезают.
Also on the shelf: V. K. Arsenyev’s 1910 letter in pre-1918 Russian · Taras Shevchenko’s 1860 letter in Ukrainian cursive
How well it reads, measured
| Script | Pages | Characters read correctly | Names, dates and numbers right | Misread words it marked | Last run |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Russian and Ukrainian7 pages · 3 Nov 2026 | 7 | 86%Characters read correctly | 69%Names, dates and numbers right | 80%Misread words it marked | 3 Nov 2026 |
Measured on documents with human transcriptions. The figures reflect current test runs and update as pages are added. How well FamilyLore reads
Questions
- Can’t ChatGPT do this?
- A general chatbot can read some Russian cursive, sometimes well, but it usually hands you clean text with no sign of which words it guessed, and its makers publish no figures for this script; FamilyLore marks the words it is unsure of and publishes how often it reads correctly, in the table above.
- What if it reads a word wrong?
- Tap a word to see the other readings FamilyLore weighed, and correct it if you know better. The translation is redone from your correction. Most misread words carry a mark, but not every one, so a name or a date that matters is worth checking against the photo.
- Does FamilyLore handle Soviet and pre-1918 spelling?
- Yes. Both pre-reform spelling with letters like ѣ, і, ѳ and post-1918 modern Russian cursive are supported. FamilyLore keeps the exact letters as written in the transcription.
- Who sees my pages?
- Only you. A page becomes public only if you share it, and then only to people who have the link. Deleting your account deletes the photos you uploaded.
What FamilyLore doesn’t read well yet
- Census returns, metrical books, and tabular documents set out in columns.
- Faded handwriting and two-page spreads. Faded pages are measured on only a few pages so far.
- Documents written in Ukrainian or Russian mixed with Polish or Church Slavonic.
From photo to text in three steps
Take a photo of the page
Lay the sheet flat, in daylight and without flash. A phone photo of the whole page is enough.
Upload it
“Russian or Ukrainian, 1918 to 1941” is already chosen.
Read it
You get the page as it was written, in modern spelling, and in English. Correct a word you know better yourself.
Rather read it yourself?