Kindred Ink Try it free
For the box of family letters in the closet

Finally read every letter in the family box.

Kindred Ink reads your scanned letters, records and photos, even Grandma's cursive, and turns them into a private family library you can search in seconds.

Try it free for 3 days See how it works
  • Your scans never leave your PC
  • Launch sale $49.99, no subscription
  • Windows 10 and 11
Kindred InkLetter from Edna, 1947
Transcription

Oct. 12th, 1947 Dear Martha, The wheat came in fine and Papa says we may come down to Hot Springs by Christmas. Tell little Ruth her Grandmother is knitting the blue mittens. Your loving sister, Edna

Needs a look: Ruth or Rath? Date Oct 12, 1947 People Martha · Edna · Ruth
Sound familiar?

You have the box. Nobody can read it.

Every family has one: a shoebox or a trunk of letters, certificates, obituaries and photos. Scanning it is the easy part. Making sense of it is where it stalls.

Nobody reads cursive anymore

Faded ink, old-fashioned loops, a great-aunt's hurried hand. Half the family can't read it, and the half who can are busy.

A thousand files called IMG_4471

Your scans sit in folders with camera names. Finding "the letter where Grandpa mentions the farm" means opening them one by one.

Online services want it all uploaded

The big genealogy sites can read old handwriting, but only after you upload your family's private papers and keep paying a subscription.

How it works

Drop in a folder. Kindred Ink does the reading.

  1. Add your scans

    Drag a folder onto the window, or point Kindred Ink at the folder your scanner saves to and new scans show up on their own. Phone photos, JPEG, PNG, TIFF and HEIC all work. Your files are never moved or renamed.

  2. It reads every page

    Typed and printed pages are read the moment they arrive. For handwriting, choose Read handwriting and a small AI model works through the page right on your computer, piece by piece.

  3. Search, tag and share

    Type a name, a place or a year and every matching page comes up. Dates are found for you. Tag the people, then send the whole thing to your family tree program.

Search

Find the one letter that mentions the farm.

Every word on every page goes into a search index on your computer. Look up a name, a town or a year and Kindred Ink shows each page it appears on, with the line highlighted.

  • Dates like "Aug. 3rd, 1935" are picked out automatically, so a year finds everything from that year.
  • Names in greetings and signatures ("Dear Martha", "Your sister, Edna") are suggested as people to tag.
  • Fronts and backs of photos stay together, so the note on the back is never lost.
  • Fast with thousands of scans: the library opens in a blink.
Hot Springs 1947
3 pages found
Letter from Edna · Oct 12, 1947
…Papa says we may come down to Hot Springs by Christmas…
Photo, back · Summer 1947
"Martha & Ruth at the bathhouse, Hot Springs"
Christmas card · Dec 1947
…so good to see you all in Hot Springs this year…
Handwriting

Reads old cursive, and tells you when it isn't sure.

Kindred Ink cuts each page into small pieces and reads every piece twice, where the pieces overlap. When the two readings disagree, the word is marked Needs a look so you can glance at the original and pick the right one. You get the speed of AI without trusting it blindly.

  • Runs on your own computer. Not a single page is sent anywhere to be read.
  • About 15 to 20 seconds for a full-page 1930s marriage record on a PC with a modern graphics card.
  • Queue up a whole box. It works in the background, and you can pause, close the app, and pick up later.
  • Your corrections always win. Kindred Ink never overwrites text you've fixed by hand.
On the page → what Kindred Ink reads
License No. A 38530
License No. A 38530
2nd day of August, A.D. 1935
2nd day of August, A.D. 1935
George W. Sweigart, Clerk
George W. Sweigart, Clerk
Needs a look: Sweigart or Swigart?
Private by design

Your family's papers stay in your house.

Birth records, letters, old photos of people who never imagined the internet. Kindred Ink keeps all of it on your own computer. There's no account to make and no cloud to trust.

Kindred InkOnline genealogy services
Where your scans goStay on your PCUploaded to their servers
Reading old handwritingIncluded, unlimitedUsually needs a paid plan
What you payOnceEvery month or year
Works without internetYesNo
If you stop payingNothing to stop payingFeatures are locked

Kindred Ink goes online for three things only: the one-time download of the handwriting reader, checking for app updates, and activating your license or releasing a computer seat. Once activated, it works fully offline with no periodic license checks. Your scans and your words are never part of any of them.

Works with what you use

Your research doesn't stay locked in one app.

Family tree programs

Export a GEDCOM file with your people, dates and transcriptions. Opens in RootsMagic, Legacy, Family Tree Maker, Gramps, Ancestry and FamilySearch.

Searchable PDFs

Save any scan as a PDF that looks exactly like the original and can still be searched. Easy to email to a cousin or print for a reunion.

Backups

One file holds everything you've added. Kindred Ink also keeps a small backup every week on its own, and a restore can be undone.

Scanner folders

Point it at the folder your scanner saves into. Each new scan is added and read a few seconds after it lands.

Pricing

Buy it once. Keep it.

No subscription and no limits on how many pages it reads. Try everything free for 3 days first.

Kindred Ink

Launch sale

Regular price $99.99 after launch

$49.99USD · one-time · yours to keep
  • Printed and handwriting reading, unlimited pages
  • Search, dates, people, scanner folders and backups
  • GEDCOM and searchable PDF export
  • Every version 1 update, free and automatic
  • Future major versions: optional $29.95 upgrade for owners
Buy Kindred Ink · $49.99

Secure checkout by Stripe. Your license key arrives by email and appears on the confirmation page. Covers 2 computers. No subscription.

License terms · 30-day refund policy · Support

Free trial

3 days with everything turned on.

No card needed. Download, add a folder of scans and see what's in your family box. If you decide not to buy, everything you added stays yours. After 72 hours, viewing, search, GEDCOM export, PDF export and backup remain available; adding and editing need a license.

Download for Windows
System
Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit
Download
Version 1.0.0 · about 78 MB. No admin password needed.
Handwriting
One-time 3.1 GB download the first time you use it. Fastest with a graphics card from NVIDIA, AMD or Intel.
Updates
Small and automatic. Never in the middle of your work.
Questions

Good questions, straight answers.

How well does it really read cursive?

Very well on clear handwriting, and well enough on hard handwriting to save you hours. Faded ink, torn corners and unusual spellings still trip it up sometimes, which is why words it isn't sure about are marked Needs a look. You check those few words instead of retyping the whole page.

Typed and printed pages (obituaries, certificates, newspaper clippings) are read automatically and very accurately.

Do I need a powerful computer?

For printed text, no. Any Windows 10 or 11 PC is fine.

For handwriting, a graphics card makes a big difference. With one from the last several years, a full page takes seconds to a minute. Without one, a page can take ten minutes or more. It still works, quietly in the background, so you can queue a box overnight. The free trial is the easiest way to see how fast it is on your computer.

Does anything get uploaded?

No. Your scans, transcriptions, names and notes stay on your computer. Kindred Ink only goes online to download the handwriting reader once, check for updates, and activate your license or release a computer seat. Activated computers do not need periodic license checks, and none of these requests include your files.

What happens after the 3-day trial?

Buy a license and keep going, with everything you've done still in place. If you don't buy, nothing you added is taken away: your scans are untouched and you can always export what you've added.

Will it move or change my original files?

Never. Kindred Ink reads your scans where they are and keeps its own notes in a separate place. Removing a scan from your library doesn't delete the file. And if you move your scans to a new drive, you point Kindred Ink at the new folder and everything reconnects.

Is there a Mac version?

Not yet. Kindred Ink is for Windows 10 and 11 today.

How do upgrades work?

Every version 1 update is free and installs itself in the background. When a major new version comes out, upgrading is optional and costs owners $29.95. Your copy keeps working either way.

The letters have waited long enough.

Open the box this weekend. Three days is plenty of time to find out what's in it.

Try Kindred Ink free See pricing