Image Enhancement Software

[Maoser]

Hello.

I'm new here and I hope I've put this in the appropriate section. I found this forum by Googling "image enhancement software forums".

I'm researching an event that took place in 1965 and I'm coming up with pages from the archives of various newspapers which have been Xeroxed, or photographed in some way. Some of the print is nearly impossible to read.

Does anyone know of any software that can enhance the print and allow me to read it easier? I know things are done with various wave-lengths of light in reading old documents, but the originals are required and of course I don't have those; I have digital copies on my computer.

Here's about the worst example of something I need to decipher.

Thanks.

 

[addictions]

Do you need all of It sorting or just certain parts of It as I feel like having a mess about with It.

 

[TB]

Did you get those off of archives.winnipegfreepress.com? If not, that would likely the best place to start. The full year membership price of $99 would be on par or cheaper that any software you might buy and if you can get by with only the $16 one month membership, all the better.

 

[Maoser]

Wow. I'm not only getting some pretty solid advice, but also some help with my detective work.

addictions -- I need the part of it transcribed that contains this passage:

I'm trying to track down a guy named Leonard Hogue, including his wife's maiden name for the purposes of interviewing family members. It may also be helpful if I can have the names of people who were in the proposed marriage party that may be listed on that page. That little snippet above is from the search engine on ancestry.ca; a subscription genealogical service that I've heard is quite good. However, the quality of the preview pane above appears to be much better than what you get when you go to the main page doesn't it? The first image I posted here is what you get when you click on the preview window. Regarding the engagements announcements page, it will not be under the listing Hogue. The family died in 1965 and with 6 children, there's no way they just got engaged in 1960.

TB -- As I mentioned, I got it from ancestry.ca. I have a feeling that they will come up with the same stuff as archives.winnipegfreepress.com though, but the price for one month is about identical so it may be worth it just to see.

A little more background. The main events I'm interested in took place in Vancouver and Coquitlam, BC in 1965. Leonard Hogue was a Vancouver cop who was involved with other Vancouver cops in bank robberies and a 1.125 million dollar heist from a Canadian Pacific Railroad (CPR) station. When the police were closing in on him to make an arrest, he went home, murdered all six of his children between the ages of 3 and 14, his wife, and then killed himself. Eight people dead just like that; seven innocent people and one D-bag. I actually stumbled on the Brandon, Manitoba connection after searching ancestry.ca before I subscribed to it. It looks like the Hogue family was originally from Brandon. Ancestry.ca only shows the preview panes until you fork out about 15 bucks to them.

I've contacted the Vancouver Sun but they either want me to hire a researcher for 70 bucks an hour, or I've got to browse their microfilm archives myself. I'll be doing that in early May the next time I'm in Vancouver. I've also spoken to a very high-ranking former Vancouver Police officer who was a detective at the time, but he did not work this specific case.

Thanks guys. As I said, that one large image is about the worst quality of any I've come up with that are of interest to me. Here's one more that's a little better. I have about 8 so far that need deciphering. I can make a lot more out on this one though.

I'm not going to crop this because I'm not sure if any image quality is lost when altering or cropping an image.

 

[Maoser]

Just came up with this.

I've got a helluva lot of work to do.

 

[addictions]

Yes my sister joined ancestry and traced our roots to the late 1700's. What a horrific yet interesting story.
if you want you can post links to full size images there easier to work with.

 

[supersquirrel]

i bet ancestry doesn't work with Mexicans...

 

[Maoser]

Yes my sister joined ancestry and traced our roots to the late 1700's. What a horrific yet interesting story.
if you want you can post links to full size images there easier to work with.

I'm working on some of the stuff right now. I don't want to burden any of you guys with stuff that I can decipher myself. As soon as I get this done I'll put up the ones I'm having problems with. The first one I put up would be cool to figure out though.

Thanks again.

 

[addictions]

Mr and Mrs F ??????
(Andrew?) are pleased to announce
the engagement of there only
daughter Mary ???? ??????
to Leonard James Hogue son of
Mr and Mrs J. T. Hogue. The
wedding will take place on
August 23 19(3?)(5?)(6?)(?) at 5.00 PM. In
Windsor Park United Church.


Sorry just thinking out loud. I'm really busy with work but will help when I can.

Also found this
Los Angeles Times (1923-Current File) - Los Angeles, Calif. Date:Apr 22, 1965Start Page:17
at
http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes...imes&desc=Family+of+Eight+Found+Shot+to+Death
and can downlod articles Los Angeles Times Document Purchase $3.95 or have a limited subsription thats quite cheap mabe more info may be on there too.
Found this via http://en.wikipedia.org:80/wiki/List_of_family_slaughters#cite_note-82

 

[Maoser]

Mr and Mrs F ??????
(Andrew?) are pleased to announce
the engagement of there only
daughter Mary ???? ??????
to Leonard James Hogue son of
Mr and Mrs J. T. Hogue. The
wedding will take place on
August 23 19(3?)(5?)(6?)(?) at 5.00 PM. In
Windsor Park United Church.


Sorry just thinking out loud. I'm really busy with work but will help when I can.

Also found this
Los Angeles Times (1923-Current File) - Los Angeles, Calif. Date:Apr 22, 1965Start Page:17
at
http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes...imes&desc=Family+of+Eight+Found+Shot+to+Death
and can downlod articles Los Angeles Times Document Purchase $3.95 or have a limited subsription thats quite cheap mabe more info may be on there too.
Found this via http://en.wikipedia.org:80/wiki/List_of_family_slaughters#cite_note-82

Ok I just realized I've sent you on a wild goose chase. The middle name of Hogue in that snippet is James, whereas the Leonard Hogue I'm looking for has a middle name of Raymond. I'm very sorry about this. These aren't the same guys.

Regarding the link you provided, all I get is a subscription request from the LA Times when I open it.

I'll have a couple more images up in a moment. I think it gets easier now that we can rule that one out.

 

[Maoser]

What about the second large one above; the one with Hogue's photo? There's some pretty difficult stuff in there.

I really feel like I'm taking advantage of you here. I'm at an information gathering phase right now and I'm just getting as much as stuff together as i can that shows promise. I wish to hell there was some magic software that could help out. I wasn't expecting anyone to actually sit down and take this on like you are.

 

[Maoser]

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