Help restoring faded handwritten document...

Question

Hi! I have been doing some ancestry research and came across a document I was looking for for a long time. However, the document is faded and I'm having a lot of trouble figuring out what it says. Here are links to the 2 pages of the document:

https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1-12403-18934-41?cc=1807092&wc=5840150

https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1-12403-18935-40?cc=1807092&wc=5840150

I'm by far not a photoshop expert, but I can follow instructions quite easily or if anyone can help me out with this, I would greatly appreciate it! Thanks!

Chuck Uebele · Answer

If these are at the full resolution that you have, the noise/grain will create issues along with the lack of resolution. You can try using an adjustment layer such as levels to increase the contrast to make the text more legible. Open the file in PS and select from the main menu: Layer>New Adjustment layer...>Levels. When the levels dialog box opens you can adjust the sliders below the histogram (the end point ones) so that you can hopefully read the text better. Maybe someone else has some better suggestions.

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