How do You read old headstones.

[Fergie38]

I was wondering if there were any tricks of the trade, so to speak, when it comes to reading old and weathered headstones.
Rubbing them with chalk or things like that.

Cheers.

[jksdelver]

Chalk is as good as any. Also try looking at it at different times of the day depending where the sun is

[Lydart]

DON'T rub them with any substance ... they aren't (probably !) yours !   Old headstones can be flakey and rubbing them may flake off bits of stone.  Lichens and mosses growing on old stones are meant to be there ... and its illegal to scrape them off; many are rare species and headstones are the only places where they are found, and the various protection agencies are there to protect them ... and you would be fined if you damaged them !

Seriously, I've found the best way to see more clearly is to look at them at first light or dusk, and you can often see the writing more clearly when they are wet ... so pouring a bottle of water over them won't do any harm.   Take photo's from left, right and centrally, so that you have three to compare which helps with reading the writing. 

Take great care not to push headstones in case they topple ... it can take four men to lift one, and you don't want your foot under one !  Church wardens have a responsibility to check all headstones for safety ... but this doesn't mean all wardens have done so ...

[Jill on the A272]

Fingertips are better than eyes sometimes, you can feel the shape of the letters.

[Lodger]

30 years ago I transcribed many of my local churchyards here in Scotland. Lydart is perfectly correct in her advice about the stones, be careful of loose ones and try not to touch the lichens (but, it is tempting!).

All those years ago I had to do it the hard way, pencil and paper then type the whole thing up on my old Remington (the noise drove my dog mad).
I always found that the low sun of the autumn mornings and afternoons was the best for reading stones.
Nowadays, I take digital photographs and mess around with them on the computer, I find I can read almost everything.

[weste]

I have taken digital photos of some gravestones on which writing is not very clear due to deterioration of the stone but on scanning them into the computer the writing was fairly clear.