Terms of Service

1. About these terms

These Terms of Service govern your use of thefamilyarchive.app and its account, archive, research, mapping and publishing tools (the “Service”). The Service is operated by The Family Archive, United States of America (“we,” “us” or “our”). Contact us at support@thefamilyarchive.app.

By creating an account or using the Service, you agree to these terms and applicable policies linked here. If you do not agree, do not use the Service. Our Privacy Policy explains how personal information is handled; our Billing, Cancellation & Refunds explains paid membership. A separately agreed written arrangement or a specific offer controls if it expressly replaces a provision here.

2. Accounts and eligibility

You must be at least 18 years old, have legal capacity to enter this agreement, and provide accurate account information. An adult may contribute lawful family history concerning children, subject to appropriate parental authority, consent and privacy protections. Accounts are for individuals; do not impersonate someone else or use another person’s credentials.

Keep your password and recovery methods secure, use available security controls, and notify us promptly of suspected unauthorized use. You are responsible for activity you authorize and for keeping your email address current. We may verify ownership before helping recover an account. Registration and individual features may be limited, unavailable or offered by invitation.

3. Family spaces and living people

Workspace owners and authorized editors manage family membership, contribution rights and available sharing settings. Site accounts, paid membership and family permissions are separate. A subscription does not make you a workspace owner or authorize access to private material.

Before uploading or publishing names, dates, photographs, correspondence, location details or other information about living people, obtain any permission required by law and consider their reasonable expectations. Do not publish sensitive identifiers, private contact details or confidential records without lawful authority. Privacy controls help restrict access, but you must also review narratives, captions, documents and exported books for private information.

Public material may be visible to visitors, indexed by search engines, copied or downloaded. Changing a record’s visibility or removing it later cannot reliably recall copies held by others. A family’s preferences do not override another person’s legal rights.

4. Your content and our limited license

You retain any copyright and other rights you hold in biographies, photographs, documents and other material you contribute (“Your Content”). We do not acquire ownership of Your Content. Historical facts may not be protected by copyright, and a document or photograph may belong to someone other than its uploader.

You grant us a nonexclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, store, reproduce, format, display and transmit Your Content only as needed to provide, secure and maintain the Service, carry out your sharing and publishing instructions, and make operational backups. Authorized service providers may perform these tasks for us subject to appropriate restrictions. This license does not authorize selling your private family material or using it to train an external generative AI model.

You represent that you have the necessary rights and lawful basis to contribute and share Your Content. You also authorize access by other members to the extent allowed by the workspace’s permissions. Removing content ends its use for active service delivery where feasible, subject to shared contributions, valid legal obligations, limited backup retention and copies already distributed under your instructions.

5. Shared records, books and exports

Family biographies and research records may be shared contributions rather than one member’s exclusive archive. An authorized edit to a canonical biography can affect the shared record and books that refer to it. A personal book’s arrangement and front matter remain subject to that book owner’s permissions; buying membership does not transfer ownership.

Saved exported editions are fixed snapshots. Later corrections, removals or access changes do not rewrite an existing edition or a downloaded or printed copy. You are responsible for checking permissions, accuracy, attribution and privacy before distributing a book or export.

Available exports have different scopes. A structured tree export is not necessarily a complete backup of all files, books or service settings. Keep independent copies of important material; the Service is not a promise of perpetual preservation or a substitute for your own backup plan.

6. Acceptable use

Use the Service lawfully and with respect for other people. You must not:

• Upload unlawful, infringing, defamatory, threatening, exploitative or malicious material, or harass people through the Service.
• Expose living-person information without lawful authority, evade workspace restrictions, or collect private records through unauthorized scraping.
• Attempt to bypass authentication, payment controls or security protections; interfere with availability; introduce malware; or test systems without authorization.
• Misrepresent research evidence, impersonate others, send spam, resell accounts, or use the Service for unrelated bulk storage.

We may investigate credible reports and restrict or remove material or access when reasonably necessary to protect people, comply with law or enforce these terms. Where appropriate and lawful, we will explain the action and provide an opportunity to contact support. Immediate action may be necessary for serious safety, security or legal issues. Report suspected infringement using our Copyright page.

7. Membership and payment

Paid plans, trial eligibility, recurring charges, taxes and cancellation terms are disclosed before purchase. When paid checkout is available, you authorize the recurring payments you expressly agree to at checkout. Our Billing, Cancellation & Refunds forms part of these terms.

Canceling membership generally changes paid-tool access at the end of the trial or paid period; it does not, by itself, erase family records or close your account. We will communicate material price or plan changes before they apply and give you an opportunity to cancel, subject to applicable law. We will not silently convert a free account into a paid subscription.

8. Closure, suspension and succession

You may request account closure through Account Settings or support@thefamilyarchive.app. We verify the request and review shared records and applicable retention obligations. Closing an account does not automatically destroy an entire shared family archive or contributions that other members lawfully maintain. Request subscription cancellation separately unless support confirms it has been handled.

We may suspend or terminate access for a material breach, security risk, legal requirement or discontinuation of the Service. Where practical, we will provide reasonable notice and an opportunity to retrieve eligible material. Urgent action, legal restrictions or technical limitations may prevent advance notice.

An owner’s death or incapacity does not automatically transfer an account or grant access to private records. A representative may contact support with appropriate evidence of lawful authority. We will consider applicable law, other members’ rights and the relevant permissions; we do not disclose passwords or guarantee a requested transfer. Designate trusted authorized collaborators and keep suitable exports as part of your own succession planning.

9. Research, outside services and availability

Family history, dates, OCR transcriptions and research suggestions can be incomplete or wrong. Review original sources and distinguish evidence from inference. The Service does not provide legal, medical, genealogical certification or other professional advice.

Optional sign-in, payments, maps, community links and outside research sites may involve third-party services with their own terms and privacy practices. We are responsible for our obligations concerning providers we engage, but do not control independent websites or guarantee their availability.

We may improve, change or retire features. We use reasonable care in providing the Service, but do not guarantee uninterrupted access, error-free operation, a particular research result or permanent storage. Scheduled maintenance, outages and circumstances beyond our reasonable control can occur.

10. Warranties and responsibility

To the extent permitted by law, the Service is provided “as is” and “as available,” without implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose or noninfringement. Nothing here excludes a warranty or right that cannot legally be excluded.

To the extent permitted by law, neither party is liable under these terms for indirect, incidental, special or consequential losses that were not reasonably foreseeable. Our total liability for claims arising from the Service is limited to the greater of USD $100 or the amounts you paid us for the Service in the 12 months preceding the event giving rise to the claim.

These limitations do not apply to fraud, willful misconduct, gross negligence, death or personal injury where applicable law prohibits limitation, or other liability that cannot lawfully be limited. You remain responsible for your unlawful conduct and content. Consumer protections and mandatory remedies under applicable law take priority.

11. Disputes, changes and general terms

Please first contact support@thefamilyarchive.app with a description of any concern so we can try to resolve it. These terms do not impose mandatory arbitration or waive your right to bring a claim in a court with jurisdiction. Applicable United States law and any mandatory protections of the jurisdiction that legally applies to you govern; no particular state or exclusive court is designated here.

We may update these terms. The effective date identifies the current version. Material changes will be communicated through the Service or an available account contact method before they take effect where required; changes requiring new consent will not be treated as accepted merely through silence. If you disagree with a change, stop using the Service and contact us about your account and eligible exports.

If a provision is unenforceable, the remaining provisions continue to apply. A failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver. These terms and the applicable policies are the agreement concerning the Service, subject to a separate written agreement and mandatory law. You may not transfer your account or this agreement without our consent. Any permitted business transfer remains subject to privacy obligations and notice required by law.