Using PicMonkey to Decipher Gravestones

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Having trouble reading your ancestors’ old and worn gravestones?

Today I am sharing with you how to use PicMonkey to edit photographs of your ancestors’ gravestones.  Often the older stones are old and faded and difficult to read. Using photo editing website is a great way to make the gravestone’s lettering more readable. PicMonkey is a fabulous online photo editing software.  Did I mention it is free!  You can upgrade to a paid royal membership. I currently use the free version, but may upgrade in the future. The gravestone of James T Maddox* will be used in the example.

1. Go to PicMonkey.
2. Click on“Edit”.  Follow the prompts and choose the photograph you wish to edit.

3. Crop your photograph to your preference. 4. Now is the time to enhance your photograph and make the gravestone more readable. Start by clicking the Auto Adjust button on the top left. Sometimes this is all you need to do to achieve the desired results. 5. If your photograph still needs a little more adjusting, adjust the exposure.  Here you can use the Auto Enhance feature or indvidually adjust the brightness, highlights, shadows, and/or contrasts. 5. Still need a little more adjustment to your photograph?  Adjust the Sharpness and Clarity of the photograph. 5. Here is the final product. So….still not great, but  much better. The middle initial became more clear, as did the birth year.  The birth month looks like Mar, but is not known with certainty from the photograph alone.  The death month also can not be determined with certainty from the photograph. The death year did become clear.

IN MEMORY OF

JAMES T MADDOX

BORN

[Mar] 15 1844

DIED

J– 20 189[2]

Do you have any photographs of gravestones you just cannot decipher?  Try using the PicMonkey  to make the photograph more readable.

Were you successful with editng photographs? (I’m sure you were!)  Send me your success story and I will share it here at Are You My Cousin?

*James T. Maddox of Chatham County, North Carolina was my Great Great grandfather. If you are a Maddox cousin, contact me at LissonGenealogy[at]yahoo[dot]com.

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