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Photographing and indexing tips

Many grave monuments are hard to read - here are a few tips for photographing and indexing them. If you have a different tip, please let us know.

Photographing tips

1. Use a mirror to one side: If you use a mirror to one side, the reflected sunlight will help to create deeply contrasting words. Rather than carrying a mirror, a good alternative is a roll of aluminium foil.
   
   
2. Spray water over the stone: Use a small plant spray to finely cover the stone with water. As the water dries off the text indentations will remain wet the longest. With luck the letters will show more clearly as there will be a contrast between the wet and dry surfaces.
   
   
3. Use grass: Wipe the surface of the stone gently with a handful of grass. This will not damage the stone as grass is much softer than any stone and the green colouration will wash off in the rain. This technique may help to make the inscription text stand out more clearly. However do not use this techique is the monument is of soft sandstone or suffering from frost damage.
   
   
4. Use chalk: Gently rub the text part of the monument with chalk. This will not normally harm the monument as chalk is softer that monument stone. However do not use this techique is the monument is of soft sandstone or suffering form frost damage.
   
   
5. Use dirt: Sprinkle a little very slightly moist soil on the writing and brush off the excess. Hopefully, some dirt will remain in the etching of the letters, making it more legible. Then take the photo. When the dirt is very dry, it will soon fall off, or rain will eventually remove any residual dirt from the engraving, thus no harm is done to the headstone. If the soil is too wet, like mud, it will just make a mess and you won't get a good photo.
   
   
6. Use flash: If you use a flash, particularly if photographing slightly to one side, the flash will help to highlight the intentations of the text.
   
   
7. Use portrait mode: If your camera has a number of different modes then try the portrait setting. This mode should give better focus.
   
   
8. Try different times of day: The position of the sun can make tremendous differences to the legibility of monuments. This can be very important in churchyards where monuments normally face the same direction as bodies were placed facing east (except the priest who faced west to face his congregation). Noon is usually a bad time (12 in the winter but different with "summer time"). With monuments that face east/west then the best time could be between 11.30 and 13.30 (different with "summer time"). Stones facing north/south are in sunshine late afternoon in midsummer and are in shade at all other times of the year (facing north: northern hemisphere; facing south: southern hemisphere).
   
   
9. Avoid sunny days when photographing under trees: Photographs of monuments partly shadowed by trees and partly fully lit are usually hard to read. In these cases some extra shade such as an umbrella can helpful.
   
   
10. Avoid rainy and windy days: Rainy days are best avoided as drops can get on the camera lens. Days so windy that it is difficult to stand perfectly steady are also best avoided.
    
    
11. Use the highest quality setting: If you take the photos at the highest setting of your camera then this will allow you to examine the image in much greater detail.
    
    
12. Sprinkle sifted silver sand: Sprinkle sifted silver sand on flat or slanting stones from a salt cellar......magic! Brush clean.
    
    
13. Use a foil windscreen shade: They sell them in auto parts stores. They are like aluminum foil but have a twistable band that allows them to be neatly folded up into a circle and come with a cloth holder. Use them on bright days to cause the shadowning in the lettering.
    
    
14. Never scrap an old headstone of lichens: When lichen is removed it can leave pin holes that allow water to enter the stone and can cause it to eventually break down.
    
    
15. Use paper and pencil: Just using the side of a pencil over some ordinary white paper - like brass rubbing - helps show up even the most difficult to read inscriptions and it's not damaging to the stone.
    
    

Indexing tips

1. Look at adjacent monuments: Often, particularly in churchyards, graves are in family groups. Therefore if you cannot initially read a monument you may find that once you see a name on an adjacent one the name stands out on all of them.
   
   
2. Crossword approach: If you can only read parts of words then write them down and then see if you can work out the name.
   
   
3. Negative and grey scale technique: If you have photo editting software that has a negative or grey scale option then use this and with luck the text will be clearer to read.
   
   
4. Make use of a published Monumental Inscriptions List: These are now available from most Local History and Family History Associations, and if not published on CDs the bound and typescript copies are to be found in Reference Libraries. While full of mistakes and omissions, they have the advantage that many were compiled years ago when the monuments were more legible. For headstones which is only partly decipherable use an MI List for the bits you cannot quite make out. But keep an eye open for howlers, like repeatedly using "Mary" for "Margaret" because the compiler probably used the abbreviation "Marg" and in scribble it might have looked like "Mary" to the typist who transcribed it.
   
   
5. Confirm names and dates using Free BMD: Confirm names and dates using Free BMD if the year is from 1837 onwards. It can be really useful when not quite sure of a name or date - see: http://freebmd.rootsweb.com/