Dear WRG I am in possession of about 20 letters that had been saved and passed down to Bob Schadewald by my grandmother, and now the family has passed them on to me. Many do not bear a Whitney name, but most are from Whitney descendants. However, I need some guidance on one. This is a very precious letter written to my great grandmother, Julia Ardelle Whitney by her father, Henry Payson Whitney. It was written in 1871. The first page is faded to the point of being almost totally illegible, just the faintest of markings. Does anyone know of a way that I might be able to get a legible copy out of this? I tried to scan it and it came out almost all white. I can read more of it on the unscanned copy. Is there a way of doing the impossible? He names some of her cousins in Maine, by first name, and have no idea who these children belong to, so they are going to be a new Whitney search as well. I am transcribing the letters, and scanning, in hopes of being able to preserve the words and the writing if not the actual documents. Any help would be appreciated. Jo Hogle