Photo & Slide Digitization
Choose the right scanning resolution
Give every photograph and slide the detail it deserves. Work out a useful scanning resolution before you lift the scanner lid.
Read the guideThe HeirloomMath library · 12 guides
Keep the stories.
Understand the details.
A little care today helps a family’s history travel further. Start with the photographs in your hands, or the questions in your family tree.
Preserve your collection
Photographs. Home movies. A lifetime of memories.
Make thoughtful choices about scanning, restoration, file formats, and the copies you keep for the next generation.
Photo & Slide Digitization
Choose a format for the long term
Keep a master worth returning to, and a smaller copy to share. Understand what TIFF, PNG, and JPEG mean for your family collection.
Read the guidePhoto Restoration
Make sense of faded photo colors
A faded photograph still has a story to tell. Learn to read its color histogram before making changes to the scan.
Read the guidePhoto Restoration
Restore a portrait, preserve a likeness
A sharper image should still look like the person you remember. Set careful boundaries for AI restoration and keep your original scan.
Read the guideArchival Storage & Backup
Give your family archive a lasting home
Turn a folder of scans into a collection your family can find, understand, and protect—with consistent names and a practical backup plan.
Read the guideHome Movies & Audio
Plan a new life for home movies
Bring tapes and film reels into your digital archive. Identify the format, estimate storage, and understand the choices before capture.
Read the guideFollow your family’s story
A name, a date, a thread to follow.
Read the clues in old records. Work through calendar changes, census ages, handwriting, and family relationships with care.
Calendar & Tombstone Math
Read the dates behind a gravestone
A recorded age can help you look for a birth date. Compare the old 8870 shortcut with calendar arithmetic, and keep the uncertainty visible.
Read the guideCalendar & Tombstone Math
Untangle old calendar dates
Two years on one record need not be a mistake. Learn how calendar changes and colonial date conventions shape a family timeline.
Read the guideCensus & Kinship Math
Find a birth window in census records
Look beyond a single estimated birth year. Use the census date and recorded age to build a window you can compare with other records.
Read the guideCensus & Kinship Math
Understand your place in the family tree
Make sense of cousin relationships, generations removed, and shared DNA estimates without treating one number as proof of a relationship.
Read the guideCensus & Kinship Math
Follow a surname across different spellings
Family names do not always stay the same on paper. See how Soundex groups similar sounds and where you still need to search separately.
Read the guidePaleography & AI Transcription
Read the handwriting your family left behind
Approach old letters, wills, and deeds one line at a time. Use AI as a transcription aid while preserving uncertain words and original spelling.
Read the guide