HeirloomRead the old letters your family kept.
Photograph a handwritten letter. Heirloom gives you a faithful transcription, the same letter in plain modern wording and, when it was written in another language, an English translation — all beside the original page.
Prepaid page credits: one credit reads one page. You see the exact number before you pay.
Sample reading · synthetic letter
What a reading looks like
The people and place in this letter are invented, so you can judge a reading without sharing anything. Real letters vary; the original stays beside the text so you can check it.
Faithful: keeps the writer’s spelling, “&” and abbreviations such as “Wm.”
- Millbrook, March 14th 1891
- My dear Sister Hattie,
- Your kind letter came Tuesday & I was
- glad to hear the little ones are well.
- We have had a hard winter but Father
- says the creek is going down at last.
- Mother sends her love & wishes you would
- come in May when the roads are fit.
- I have finished the blue quilt & will
- send it with Uncle Amos if he goes to town.
- Write soon & tell me all the news.
- Your affectionate brother
- Wm. H. Calloway
How a reading works
Upload the pages
Phone photos or a PDF scan of one letter. Put the pages in reading order and remove any that don’t belong.
See the cost, then pay
One credit per page you choose to read. Buy a credit pack through Stripe if you need more.
Read beside the original
The transcription, modern wording and any translation sit next to the page so you can check every line.
Correct and keep
Fix a name or a date, keep the letter in your private library, print it or download the text.
How page credits work
- One credit reads one page — one side of paper you choose to read.
- Prepaid. Buy a credit pack before your first reading. There is no subscription.
- Exact cost first. After you upload, the review step shows how many credits the letter needs.
- Up to five pages per reading in this beta. Longer letters can be read in parts.
Prices
Credit pack prices are shown here and before checkout once sales open.
Heirloom’s web app is in a private beta; nothing is charged until you choose a pack.
If a page can’t be read
Faded, torn or very dense pages sometimes defeat the reader. When a reading fails, the credits held for it are released back to your balance and you can try clearer photos.
If Heirloom can’t confirm whether a reading finished, its credits stay on hold until that is resolved. It is never sent twice or charged twice.
Your letters stay yours
Pages and readings are stored encrypted in a private library that only your account can open. You can delete a letter, or your whole account, whenever you choose.
Readings come from an AI model and can contain mistakes, especially with names and dates. That is why the original is always shown beside the text, and why every line can be corrected.
Guides for reading old letters
- How to read an old letterA practical method for reading old family letters: get a clear image, read for context, build the writer’s alphabet, mark doubtful words and check your reading.
- Transcribing from photosPhotograph or scan handwritten letters so they can be transcribed well: lighting, page order, file types, transcription conventions and keeping the result.
- Old cursive letterformsA reference for old English cursive: the long s, look-alike capitals, superscript abbreviations, shortened first names and old date terms like inst. and ult.
- Translating old lettersWhy old letters in German, French, Polish or other languages should be transcribed before they are translated, what makes old scripts hard and how to check a translation.
Start with one letter.
Upload it, check the pages and see exactly what the reading costs before you buy anything.
Read your letter