Our stories: A Danish volunteer
Continuing our spotlight on volunteer translators, we’d like to introduce Ulla Plon, a MyHeritage member from Denmark, who has been helping to translate MyHeritage products into Danish for over a year.
With a mixed family background Ulla’s family tree extends to several parts of Denmark, Austria, Galizia (now part of Ukraine), Norway, Germany and more.
Born in 1952 in Copenhagen, to a Danish mother and a father who was a Jewish refugee from Vienna, Ulla spent her first 10 years in the suburbs. Later, she moved with her parents and younger brother 50km north to a small town on the coast near Elsinore, the setting of Shakespeare’s immortal tragedy, Hamlet.
Since she was a child, Ulla was always interested in her family history.
“I loved it when my mother and maternal grandmother told me family stories and about their own childhood.”
Her own research took off about six years ago when she discovered how much information she could find online.
“I needed a place to store all my findings and luckily stumbled across MyHeritage, which had both the online version and Family Tree Builder.”
Ulla’s research took a different turn when she discovered SmartMatches.
“While I carried out much of my initial family research using Danish censuses, parish records and local literature, through SmartMatches I was able to trace some of my family roots much further back – to other countries and periods.”
With a background in urban planning, a 20-year journalism career and translation, she signed up to be a translator for MyHeritage to help ensure Danish language products are up to the same high quality as in other languages.
She is still passionate about her research and excited to continue finding more about her family history.
“With the most recent addition to MyHeritage, the indexing and digitizing of Danish historical records, I am sure I will be able to fill out some of the holes in my family tree.”
We want to thank Ulla for her help in making sure Danish speakers get the most out of MyHeritage products.
Do you speak another language at the native level? Would you like to join our volunteer team? It’s a wonderful way to help families learn about their roots easily, with all information available in their native languages.
To learn more about becoming a volunteer like Ulla, email us at translations@myheritage.com.
Juliana H-H Cheng
May 12, 2015
I have a distant uncle also last name Cheng whom migrated to Denmark, married and had three boys whom I met years ago when the boys were children. We used to send Christmas card to stay in touch but since had lost track of each other at least eight or nine years ago….only refer to as “Ah Chin”, first name has the word which sound “Chin” in it. Don’t remember the English name which he used to work at United Nation in Coperheiken(sp?) in Denmark. Glad that he had three boys, hence there should be three Chengs in Denmark if the spelling on the same Chinese characters for Cheng has not been changed to Denish spelling. Any suggestions on how to link them to my family tree which is scattered in four or five continents in the U.K.;Canada; Thailand; Germany;Australia; Japan besides China; Hong Kong and the U.S.A.?