Photo Restoration Blog

Read about us in the Your Family History Issue 22 December 2011 its out now!

See us in the Your Family History Magazine Issue 22 December 2011

Read about us in the Your Family History Issue 22 December 2011 and a lengthy article dating and restoring photos as well as catching up with Genealogy news and hints and tips. One lucky reader had their prized and only photo of them from their childhood, restored by image-restore. See the result sin the magazine or scroll back through my FB wall https://www.facebook.com/photorestorationrepair to find it! Thanks to Your Family History Magazine for the opportunity and I hope we can work together again in the future.

In order to make a daguerreotype, iodine fumes are used to react with a silver-coated copper plate to form light-sensitive silver iodide. The plate is then exposed to light using a box and lens or camera and the image developed using mercury fumes, before being fixed in a warm solution of common salt. This was quite a lengthy process and the exposures were very slow, as plate was not that sensitive to light as we know photography today. The daguerreotype process was very popular during the first half of the 19th century, is was soon after replaced with faster and less complicated but safer techniques.

Old Daguerreotypes had to be protected by a glass font and sealed to prevent the image getting damaged, The image itself is a thin coating of deposits on the copper plate and can easily be ruined with a simple finger touch. Think of the image rather like candle soot on a glass tile, a very fine power that can be smudged with the lightest of touches.

I recently restored a Daguerreotype for a customer of mine.

Old Daguerreotype Restored

Several scans of this beautiful little old Daguerreotype were needed. It measured around 5 centimeters tall and was encased in a red velvet and brass case, with a glass sealed glass panel protecting the image. The scans were combined to give the best image to start the restoration process.

The Story of a brave soldier in second battle of Ypres 1915, William Ford, joined the Northamptonshire Regiment in 1915 and went to war.

It was the battle of Ypres 1915. The trenches and dugouts stretched as far as the eye can see, like a maze of organized spaghetti. Omnipresent gunfire rang in the air, the smell of powder, thick clay and damp clung to the inside of the soldiers nostrils. Lieutenant William Ford took the initiative to vault the trench and make his move. He was making good progress into enemy territory and out of nowhere came a loud crack and a shot whizzed through the battle smog and ripped through his webbing belt and his stomach, stopping him in his tracks.

The Second Battle of Ypres 1915 (image provided by Wikipedia)

He fell into the mud, amongst the other downed soldiers. Still alive but bleeding badly he crawled out of sight of the gunfire and waited for his next move. A fearsome sound caught his attention and for a moment drew his mind away from his agony. He heard footsteps in the squelching mud close by and pistol fire of a German officer systematically walking from one downed soldier to the next, shooting the wounded and dying. He lay still, closed his eyes and feigned death not breathing for fear of being discovered and shot. The footsteps passed by!

William Ford Battle of Ypres aged 16

During that night a British patrol came by with stretchers looking for the wounded. William managed a feeble groan and the party spotted him. He was rushed off the battle field and his wounds were dressed and patched and in due course he recovered and was sent home.

Soon after the war, William now Sergeant, was sent with his Northamptonshire regiment to Ireland in Dublin to help keep the peace. During his service in Ireland he met a lady and who was desperate to get out of Ireland and the prospect of marrying a Sergeant soon became good friends. William was allowed to court this lady as long he didn’t wear his uniform and he visited through the back door. He survived yet another crisis. Through out the following years he climbed the ranks to Company Sergent Major and served in both India and the Andaman Islands but was sent home with family in 1939.

William Ford was then recalled for action once more in the Second World War. His contribution to the Second World War was a step back from his previous encounters in the front lines but still and important part of the war effort, training the new recruits throughout the 1940′s. At this time he had progressed through the ranks to Major, he eventually and died around 1971 aged 73. A true man of British grit!

William Ford Born 1898.