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Will there be any reimaging of microfilms already in the digital collection?

Stephanie Spencer Booth
Stephanie Spencer Booth ✭✭
February 22, 2022 edited July 30, 2024 in Search

I was trying to read a marriage record from a digitized microfilm on FamilySearch that is almost completely unreadable because of the image quality.

Film # 1055882 image 709 of 1074

I took a trip to the Family History Library last week and tried looking at the microfilm with a ProScan film reader. This is the image with no adjusting whatsoever.

https://www.familysearch.org/photos/artifacts/141654802

According to FamilySearch, they have completed scanning all of the microfilms in the vault. Will they be rescanning any of the images like this one? Because the digital image is so bad, it can't be read.

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Answers

  • MaureenE123
    MaureenE123 ✭✭✭✭✭
    February 22, 2022

    I am not connected with FamilySearch.

    It appears these images are only available to LDS church members, so I cannot look at any of the other images on the film for comparison, as I am not a church member.

    The catalogue record is

    https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/279456 which advises that the records were filmed in 1968.

    I suspect that the problem is with the original filming, rather than the digitisation process, and that there would be no possibility of a rescan.

    If you can show all the images are of the same quality, perhaps it may be possible to request that re-digitisation be considered, but although I have seen this requested in the past, there has been no positive advice from FamilySearch that this is possible.

    You could try contacting the holding Archive, Evangelischen Landeskirchenamt Stuttgart.

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  • Stephanie Spencer Booth
    Stephanie Spencer Booth ✭✭
    February 22, 2022 edited February 22, 2022

    The images should be viewable with any FamilySearch account. This page would not let me post a link to it, but it is one of the sources from 1722 on Agnes Ulmer MCG2-W63.

    The film I made the image from is the same film that was digitized on FamilySearch, so I suspect that the digitizing is the problem. And yes, the whole film would need to be redigitized.

    I am also a Family History Center director who has held on to our old microfilm and microfiche readers although many scoff at their antiquity. If this is the image quality that we are supposed to be throwing out our microform viewers for, then I say NO THANKS! I also have sympathy for people who can't travel to Salt Lake City or another library holding the film to view it. At least a third of every image from this film is unreadable. It's really too bad if your ancestor is in the part that is just a black blob.

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  • A van Helsdingen
    A van Helsdingen ✭✭✭✭✭
    February 23, 2022

    When I, a non-member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, try to view this film, I get the message

    • "To view these images do one of the following: You may be able to view this image by visiting one of our partners' sites or the legal record custodian (fees may apply).

    Which is a euphemism for the records being only available to Latter Day Saints.

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  • Stephanie Spencer Booth
    Stephanie Spencer Booth ✭✭
    February 23, 2022

    Well, you aren't missing much. I was thinking of subscribing to a German website that has images of the same records because maybe they would be readable. I didn't realize that the microfilm it came from had great images. It's just a matter of finding a library that has the microfilm.

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  • Stephanie Spencer Booth
    Stephanie Spencer Booth ✭✭
    February 23, 2022

    I just noticed that the source information says, "images digitized by Ancestry.com." I guess FamilySearch isn't responsible for the low quality digital images. Maybe I need to be complaining to Ancestry.com!

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  • Stephanie Spencer Booth
    Stephanie Spencer Booth ✭✭
    February 23, 2022 edited February 23, 2022

    Here is a screenshot of the same image digitized by Ancestry.

    digitized film.png


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