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Family History · For individuals

The letter is irreplaceable. The restoration should act like it

Restore family letters, photographs, certificates and journals gently - and read the handwriting back without changing it.

No card required Free to start Original always kept

Family letter, February 1906

1 uncertain
The same 1906 family letter restored, the folds lifted and the hand left exactly as written

Transcription · delivered beside the image

Dear George,

I received your letter safe and was

sorry you were unable to come, but

it could not be helped. Aunt Eliza

Her hand is left exactly as written. Doubtful words are shown with their own crop.

Built for family history

AAncestry researchersLLocal history societiesPParish record groupsOOne-name studiesGGenealogy circlesFFamily archivesHHeritage volunteersMMemoir projectsAAncestry researchersLLocal history societiesPParish record groupsOOne-name studiesGGenealogy circlesFFamily archivesHHeritage volunteersMMemoir projects

What this usually looks like before us

Family paper gets the gentlest defaults in the platform: damage lifted from around the strokes rather than through them, and never a hand rewritten. Thirty free points is enough to restore a letter and judge the result on your own paper rather than on someone else's demo.

Today
Letters folded in a drawer for fifty years
Water marks and damp from loft storage
Yellowed sellotape holding a torn page together
Handwriting nobody in the family can read any more
With Docovly
Gentle by default
Creases from decades of folding
Transcribed, not replaced
Ready to frame
How it works

Four steps, and it asks you almost nothing

The console looks at the page, says what it found and what it proposes, and does it. You never have to learn the filing system to get the benefit of it.

Step 1

Add

Photograph the letter with your phone - it does not need a scanner.

Step 2

Look

The page is surveyed and the handwriting identified as handwriting.

Step 3

Restore

Damage is lifted from around the strokes; the hand is left exactly as written.

Step 4

Finish

Download the restored sheet, the transcription, and the untouched original.

How the work is different afterwards

Survey, treatment and verification - the same three things the console shows you on every single page.

Gentle by default

Fading and staining are lifted without touching the handwriting - letterforms are left exactly as they were written.

What is wrong with itMeasured
Folded in quarters for fifty yearshigh
Damp shadow along the top edgemedium
Fountain ink faded on the closinglow

Creases from decades of folding

Fold shadows are removed and strokes crossing the crease are rejoined from both sides.

What will be done
1Repair aged paper
2Keep faint marksFree
3Read the document

Transcribed, not replaced

The letter is read into searchable text delivered beside the image, never over it.

Before delivery
Original keptv1
Held regions composited
Reading back…
The gentlest defaults in the platform

Her handwriting, not a computer's

Personal paper runs at the careful setting by default: fading and staining lifted from around the strokes, letterforms left exactly as they were written, and the reading delivered as separate text beside the image rather than over it.

  • Letterforms restored, never normalised or re-set
  • Transcription delivered beside the image, not on it
  • Uncertain words shown with their original crop
  • Fold shadows removed and strokes rejoined across the crease
  • Free to start, no card - try it on your own letter

Personal letter, 1943

Version history · every step revertible

Ready
Original capturev1 · untouched
Treatments applied3 steps
Held regionscomposited back
Fields exportedCSV + withheld
Text verified against the original0%

30free points, no card

My grandfather's field letters are readable for the first time since I inherited them. His handwriting, not a computer's.

FH

Family historian, Yorkshire

Who this is for

Family History covers a few different jobs. These are the ones people arrive with.

Family historians

Read the letters and certificates your research actually depends on.

Anyone who inherited a box

Start with the one document you care about most and go from there.

Memoir and legacy projects

Turn a shoebox into something the rest of the family can actually read.

Start with one difficult document.

Free to start, no card. Bring the sheet your current process cannot handle and judge family history on that.

Questions

Family History, answered

What this audience asks before committing anything to a restoration pipeline.

Have a document you are not sure about?

Send us a photograph of it. We will tell you honestly whether it is recoverable before you spend anything.

Ask us

No. Personal documents default to the gentlest treatment available: damage is lifted from around the strokes and the letterforms themselves are left as they were written.

For individuals

Letters and keepsakes, gently.

Restore family letters, photographs, certificates and journals gently - and read the handwriting back without changing it.

Free to start · no card · the original is always kept