MyHeritage does it again! They recently revealed a new feature on their website introduced as ‘Enhance’. This is in addition to the ‘Colorize’ photo option they provide to their subscribers last fall. You can certainly use Photoshop, or similar software, to try the same thing on your images at home, but that would mean using a lot of filters, and adjustments, and layers, and time, and expertise most of us just don’t have. And who knows if you would even get the same results. So why bother.

Meet my 3x great grandmother Janett/Jennie, 2x great grandmother Carrie, and 2x great Aunt Ida Rosa, again. (Image taken about 1870 to early ’70s).

Being able to colorize is pretty cool. But I have to say, when I enhanced this original scan that I had made from the old photo that my cousin Robert Cain lent me of my ancestresses, tears came to my eyes. There they are right in front of me, real people that I can just reach out and touch, where before they were just poor images on a screen. These enhanced versions of their images have so much more of an impact than the original images did.

Here are some more excellent examples.

The Shaw Boys. Hon. John Shaw at the top, my 3x great grandfather with his brothers in the group image.

Hartley Shepard. Unnoticed before, it appears that Hartley possibly had a scar on his right eye, that even looks to have affected the nerves in his face, the lips on that same side look like they are drooping down a bit.

2x great grandmother Jane (Buchanan) Shepard.

2x great grandfather Frederick William John in his Civil War Union uniform.

This is one of my favorites from the Shaw side.

All I have to say is WOW and well done MyHeritage! I am greatly impressed and touched that you have helped my ancestors feel so much more real and vibrant to me. I am going to be spending lots of time ‘Enhancing’ so many images in the next few weeks.