1. Introduction.
2. Ancestory's Role.
3. Privacy.
4. Registration.
5. Cancellation.
6. Membership Services and Fees.
7. Additional services.
8. Restrictions on your use of the Ancestory Service:
9. Further information about the Ancestory Service.
10. Intellectual Property.
11. Your Submissions and Postings
12. Reporting Abuse.
13. Our Liability to You
14. Assignment.
15. Third Party Rights.
16. Severability.
17. Law.
18. Keeping this Agreement.
19. Complaints.
20. Contact.
21. Under 16.
These terms and conditions (“Terms”) set out your rights and obligations, and those of Ancestory - a trade mark of Fore-word Press Limited, a company registered in England under registration no. 05154734 ("Ancestory", "we" or "us"), in relation to use of the genealogy and family research services offered by us (the "Ancestory Service"). You may access the Ancestory Service through our websites at www.ancestory.me.uk, or www.fore-word.com or any other websites specified by us from time to time, (the “Websites”). Our contact details are listed below. “You" or "your" means you as a registered user of the Ancestory Service. You must be at least 16 years of age to use the Ancestory Service. You must not use the Ancestory Service if you are under 16 years of age without the supervision and permission of a parent or guardian. Parents and guardians will be held strictly responsible for any use of the Ancestory Service by a minor who is their responsibility. Your access to and use of the Websites and the Ancestory Service (regardless of whether you become a member or not) indicates your agreement to be legally bound by these Terms. If you do not wish to be legally bound by these Terms you must not use or access the Websites or the Ancestory Service. We reserve the right to change these Terms in our sole discretion from time to time by posting the amended Terms on the homepages of the Websites. Your continued use of the Ancestory Service after changes are posted indicates your acceptance of those changes. If you do not wish to be legally bound by any future amended Terms then do not continue to use or access the Ancestory Service. When you apply to register for membership or submit an order for any part of the Ancestory Service, your application or order constitutes an offer to us to purchase the Ancestory Service on these Terms unless we are offering a complimentary service during development of the site where these general terms still apply to subscribers but no purchase is necessary until such time as we notify you that the service testing period is over and if you wish to continue to use the resource you will be required to re-subscribe (which will constitute an order). The contract for your order is formed when we send you an email confirming your order. We may in our sole and absolute discretion refuse your application for membership or your order for any reason without any liability to you.
We provide the Ancestory Service and members can upload their family-related information or fictitious information provided that it is neither slanderous or liablous. The member hereby indemnifies entirely Ancestory and its owner Fore-Word Press Ltd from any and all litigation, costs and liability whatsoever arising out of the mis-use of this resource for the purpose of slander or any other actionable libellous pursuit. Whether you are a member or a non-member of the Ancestory Service, you acknowledge that we are not and cannot be responsible for the material provided by members whether on the Ancestory Service or outside of it. In particular, you should be aware that Ancestory does not generally pre-screen or monitor the material contributed by members or ensure that it is genuine. Ancestory is not an internet service provider. In order to use the Ancestory Service, you must have internet access and all the software and skills required for email and internet usage.
Our Privacy Policy contains important information about the use of your personal data and other information regarding your privacy. By accepting these Terms and registering as a member of the Ancestory Service, you give your consent for your personal data to be stored and processed in accordance with our Privacy Policy. Any posting, including but not limited to the family tree details and/or message board postings, images audio content or geo tagged location information you submit to the Ancestory Service (including any personal information you post) may be able to be viewed by non-Member internet users around the world including via internet search engines. We advise that you never reveal via the Ancestory Service any personal information about yourself or anyone else (for example: telephone numbers, home addresses or email addresses) which you do not want to be visible to third parties. You are entirely responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your details when using the Ancestory Service. We may send you emails relating to your use of the Ancestory Service from time to time for further details see our Privacy Policy.
Your registration for and membership of the Ancestory Service is personal to you. You may not sell, transfer or grant your registration or membership in part or in whole to any other person or organization. In order to use the Ancestory Service you must register your details with us. By registering with us you agree to provide complete, accurate and current personal data about yourself including your correct name and email address, (which must be under your control), and any other requested details. You may access and amend your personal data details at any time by logging onto the Ancestory Service and navigating to the “My Account” page. If you change your email address or any of your personal details, then you must inform us of the new email address or of changes to your personal details through the “My Account ” page. It is your sole responsibility to maintain the confidentiality of your password and that you are responsible for all activity that occurs under your user name and password. We will not be liable where your password is used by someone else. You should notify us immediately of any unauthorised use of your password and any breach of security as soon as you become aware of it. For security or other reasons, we may require you to change your password or other information which facilitates access to the Ancestory Service.
It is your responsibility to ensure that your personal data is up to date. We will rely on the information you provide to us. When registering, you understand and agree that you will not:
You may be required to pay to use some aspects of the Ancestory Service. When making a payment to us by providing details of your credit, debit or charge card, you must ensure that you are fully entitled to use that card and that there are sufficient available funds in your account to cover the charges which will be deducted from it for the Ancestory Service.
You may cancel your Membership of the Ancestory Service or your order for any credits which we may from time to time offer subscribers (capitalised terms as defined in section 6 below), and obtain a full refund of any sums paid at any time during the 7 (seven) working days following the date on which we send an email to you confirming your order, PROVIDED THAT:
You agree and accept that once you have accepted these Terms by submitting an order for Membership or Credits, if you send any email messages to other members through your Membership or you use any Credits or your Membership to view Historical Records you will lose the right to change your mind and cancel your order under Distance Selling legislation. Cancellation of your membership of the Ancestory Service You may cancel your Free Membership of the Ancestory Service at any time via the “Help Page”, or by emailing us at the email cancellation. You may cancel your Membership of Ancestory at the end of your membership period by choosing not to renew your annual membership. Where you are a continuous Member you may cancel your membership by notifying us that you wish to cancel not less than 24 hours before your renewal date. Unless otherwise expressly stated to the contrary in these Terms, we shall not refund in whole or part any membership fees you have paid in the event you cancel your membership.
There are 2 categories of membership available for the Ancestory Service:
All prices and offers for membership remain valid as advertised from time to time on the Ancestory Service.
(A) Free Members(i) Core Service Use and Benefits for Free Members.
Free Members may:
(ii) Non-Core Service Use and Benefits for Free Members.
Free Members may also:
For full details about our email communications with you please see our Privacy Policy.
(B) Standard Members(i) Core Service Use and Benefits for Standard Members.
Standard Members may (in addition to the services available to Free Members):
(ii) Non-Core Service Use and Benefits for Standard Members.
Standard Members may also post information and data to any message boards on the Ancestory Service.
Standard Membership FeesYou may upgrade to become a Standard Member at any time. You must pay the Standard Membership fee to become a Standard Member. The price of the Standard Membership fee will be as specified on the payment page on the Ancestory Service (and may differ depending on which country you reside in). The price of the Standard Membership fee does not include Value Added Tax
Standard Membership is valid for the period of time specified on the Ancestory Service after which you must pay again to continue your Standard Membership.
Ancestory reserves the right to change the amount of the Standard Membership fee and the period which it covers from time to time. Any such changes shall not affect your existing Standard Membership, and shall only take effect at the renewal of such Standard Membership.
You acknowledge and agree that we are entitled to alter the amount or the basis of the calculation of our fees from time to time, provided that such amount or basis is clearly stated at the time when you agree to take the relevant Ancestory Service or prior to any fees being taken.
Standard Membership may be fixed or continuous. If you have a fixed Standard Membership, you will need to renew it every time to continue benefiting from Standard Membership.
A continuous Standard Membership is automatically renewed every time your membership lapses and your credit card will be charged again based on the membership type you previously subscribed to. Credit card charges will be processed on the renewal date as stated in the notice of renewal sent by email to the holders of continuous Standard Membership. This notice of renewal will be sent by email 14 days before such automatic renewal. Where the Standard Membership fee is going to increase we will send you notice of renewal 28 days before such automatic renewal. Each notice of renewal email will include the date when automatic renewal is scheduled to take place and the Standard Membership fee applicable, including notice of any increase in the Membership fees where applicable. If you do not wish to proceed with automatic renewal of your continuous Standard Membership, you can cancel entirely or amend your Standard Membership period from continuous Standard Membership to a fixed Standard Membership by emailing us at this email address e-mail us. Any such changes to your Standard Membership period must be completed at least 24 hours before the renewal date referred to in the notice of renewal.
Please note that a continuous Standard Membership may lapse due to our inability to take payment using your selected payment method, for example where your credit card details have changed. In such an event, it is your responsibility to renew your Standard Membership by paying the Standard Membership Fees by alternative means.
We may remove any of the Core or non-Core Services at any time.
You will not be entitled to any refund of the Standard Membership fees except where we withdraw:
In such circumstances you may, in our sole discretion, be entitled to a refund of your Standard Membership fee for the remainder of the period to which that fee relates.
We may remove all or any part of the non-Core Services (such as message boards) from the Ancestory Service, either on a temporary or permanent basis, without liability to make a refund to you.
(iii) Additional services for Free Members and Standard Members
Free Members and Standard Members may also:
(a) use links to free basic family tree information (via the Ancestory Service) on the contact us page (after subscribing and logging on) from the various England and Wales census records, the birth, marriage and death indexes for England and Wales from and British World War I and World War II death records ("Historical Records"); and other colonial records via the national archives and others which we will amend from time to time. Ancestory is in no way endorsing the contents of any 3rd party sites and cannot be responsible for errors relating to any transactions on those sites once you leave the Ancestory site via these links.
(b) Purchase Ancestory Records Credits ("Credits") to view Historical Records in more detail via the Ancestory Service when this service is operational on the site and offered to members.
The exact content of the Historical Records is not specified on the Ancestory Service but will include:(i) any other records we may, in our sole discretion, add from time to time.
Before viewing a record you will be informed of how many Credits it will cost once this functionality has been activated for subscribing Members.
You may purchase Credits on the Ancestory Service at any time from the date that we activate this service on the site. The cost of purchasing Credits and the period of time they are valid for will be specified on the payment page on the Ancestory Service. The price of Credits does not include Value Added Tax. Your Credit balance can be checked at any time in the “My Account” page of the Ancestory Service when this service has been activated (Not available during beta testing).
You will not be entitled to a refund or any compensation in whole or in part for any inaccuracies or for poor quality of the images of Historical Records except where:
Ancestory or its affiliates may offer new or ancillary services through the Ancestory Service from time to time. Your use of those services may be subject to additional terms and conditions, or rules of use, which you must comply with. We may, in our sole discretion, terminate these Terms and our provision of the Ancestory Service to you, without any liability to you and without refunding any sums paid by you if you fail to comply with a material provision of the terms or rules governing such additional services.
Any new or ancillary services offered to you from time to time may require the payment of fees by you either to us or to a nominated third party on terms which will be provided to you at the time you submit your order for such new or ancillary services.
The contents of the Ancestory Service, webpages, computer codes of elements comprising the Ancestory Service and any software provided to you by us may not be copied, reproduced, communicated and/or made available to the public, republished, downloaded, posted, recorded, broadcast or transmitted or used in any other way except for your own personal, private and non-commercial use, or unless otherwise expressly permitted by us.
You agree that you will not use the Ancestory Service in any way that may lead to the encouragement, procurement or carrying out of any criminal or unlawful activity, or cause distress, harm or inconvenience to any other person.
You will not do anything that may cause damage to the Ancestory Service or our servers, systems or equipment or those of third parties, nor access or attempt to access any users' data or to penetrate or attempt to penetrate the Ancestory Service security measures.
You shall not publicise, post or advertise your contact details (including your email or postal address, phone number, website address or any other contact details) to any other member of the Ancestory Service except by making contact with them through any prescribed Ancestory Service message centre.
You agree to compensate us in respect of any damages suffered by us or any of our losses resulting from any claim made by a third party in each case in respect of any matter arising from your use of the Ancestory Service in breach of these Terms or from your violation of any applicable law or regulation.
You agree not to give any indication that you have any commercial relationship with us, or that you are our agent or that we have endorsed any submission you may make.
We reserve the right to suspend, restrict or terminate your access to any part of, or all of the Ancestory Service at any time at our sole discretion.
We may also ban or suspend you as a user of the Ancestory Service if you do not comply with these Terms. Any person whose access has been suspended or terminated may not re-register for, or re-access, the Ancestory Service without our prior consent.
We make no promises and offer no guarantees as to the truth or accuracy of any material available on the Ancestory Service whether it is provided by members or any other party.
Any content or information available on the Ancestory Service is not intended as advice and should not be relied on by you.
This Ancestory Service may from time to time contain links to other third party websites and services through advertising or otherwise. These links are provided for your ease of reference and convenience only. We have no control over those third party websites or services and are not responsible for their contents. We do not endorse the material contained in their websites or services, and have no association with their operators. You agree that we won't be party to any transaction or contract with a third party that you may enter into and we won't be liable to you for any loss or damage which you may suffer by using those third party websites and services. You agree that you will not involve us in any dispute you may have with such third party websites and services.
From time to time we enter into platform services agreements with third parties. These agreements allow third parties (such as Adobe) to install third party software and to incorporate content, material or applications on the Ancestory Service for use by Members (“Platform Applications”).
You may choose whether or not to use Platform Applications. Prior to using a Platform Application, the third party provider may require you to agree to their own terms and conditions. If you do not wish to be bound by such terms and conditions, do not agree to them and cease your installation or use of the relevant Platform Application. We accept no responsibility for Platform Applications or for any loss or damage that may arise from your use of them. You acknowledge that you install Platform Applications at your own risk. Ancestory shall not be responsible for any loss, damage or harm suffered by you or be a party to any dispute between you and any third party arising out of your use of a third party site or Platform Application or arising out of or in connection with the material included on the Ancestory Service by Members and other third parties.
You must exercise the same degree of caution in appraising what you see on the Ancestory Service as you do offline.
Even though members are prohibited from doing so, people may provide information, or otherwise behave, in a way that is unreliable, misleading or even illegal. You should also note that people may not necessarily be who they say they are.
Your use of the Ancestory Service is entirely at your own risk.
Nothing contained in these Terms shall be construed as conferring by implication any licence or right to use any trade mark, patent, design right or copyright of Ancestory or of any third party.
All intellectual property rights (including copyright, trade marks, and other intellectual property rights) in the Websites and all material or content made available by Ancestory via our Service (excluding any Submissions by members (in respect of which see below)) shall remain at all times the property of Ancestory their owner Fore-Word Press Ltd or Ancestory’s licensors.
The names, images and logos identifying us, our partners or third parties and our/their products and services contained in the Ancestory Service, are proprietary marks and may not be reproduced or otherwise used without express permission.
Nothing contained in these Terms shall be construed as conferring by implication any licence or right to use any trade mark, patent, design right or copyright of Ancestory or of any third party.
As part of the Ancestory Service we may offer you the facility to submit a contribution or upload any content to the Ancestory Service , such as any text (including, for instance, in forums, on message boards or information in your family tree), photographs, graphics, video or audio (“Submission”).
We shall not be responsible for the content of any Submissions contributed by members or the behaviour of members or users of the Ancestory Service.
Please note that where you make any of your details, information or Submissions available to other members, they may be able to copy and reproduce such details, information or Submissions against your wishes. Ancestory shall not be liable to you in the event that a member copies or reproduces your details, information or Submissions.
You are solely responsible for creating backup copies and replacing any content or Submissions you post or store on the Ancestory Service or provide to us.
You agree that any Submission you make to the Ancestory Service, is subject to the following additional terms:
You retain all ownership rights in any Submission you may make: You promise that you are the original owner of any Submission you make or you have the necessary licences, rights, consents, and permissions to authorise us to use your Submission. In particular, you promise that you have obtained the permission of all of the people featured or referred to in the Submission (and if they are under 18 their parents or guardians as well) to our use of the Submission on the Ancestory Service. You agree to give us evidence of all such licences, rights, consents, and permissions if so requested by us. You acknowledge that the contents of any Submission material other than personal data will be considered non-confidential.
By making a Submission to the Ancestory Service, you grant us a worldwide, perpetual, non-exclusive, royalty-free and transferable licence (with the right to sub-license) to use, edit, reproduce, record, modify, translate, distribute, play, perform, make available to the other users of the Ancestory Services, prepare derivative works of and to display your Submission by any medium or method whether now known or later developed to be exercised in our sole discretion throughout the world for the full term of copyright and other rights and all renewable and extension thereof including, for the avoidance of doubt, the right to register any design rights and/or trademarks. You agree to waive your moral rights in your Submission.
You acknowledge and agree that where you make a Submission to a public section of the Ancestory Service, your Submission shall be available for viewing by other Ancestory members and may be accessible to other internet users around the world.
You are responsible for the contents of any Submission you may make and the consequences arising from its use on the Ancestory Service. You will not upload to the Ancestory Service any material or content which is in any way defamatory, obscene, unlawful, harmful, offensive or inappropriate or infringes the rights of a third party or may have the effect of being harassing, threatening, abusive or hateful or that otherwise degrades or intimidates an individual or group of individuals on the basis of religion, gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, age or disability. You agree not to infringe any laws in order to produce or make a Submission. You agree not to transfer files which contain viruses or other harmful programs. Further, you must not endanger yourself or others, take any unnecessary risks in order to produce or make a Submission.
You also agree not to advertise or promote third parties' or your own goods or services including by way of the distribution of "spam" email. In particular, you agree not to use the Ancestory Service to provide links to third party websites. We do not guarantee or endorse any content posted on the Ancestory Service by members.
We may accept your Submission, modify your Submission, or refuse to display your Submission at any time in our sole and absolute discretion. We may also withdraw your Submission and/or suspend, restrict and/or terminate the Ancestory Service provided under these Terms immediately without notice to you for any reason, including, without limitation, where we suspect your Submission to be in any way defamatory, obscene, unlawful, harmful, offensive, inappropriate or to infringe the rights of a third party. We have no obligation to modify or remove any inappropriate, offensive or unlawful content.
Please note that we cannot accept any Submission containing any music, save where expressly permitted by us.
If you see anything on the Ancestory Service which appears to breach these Terms, please contact us to inform us of such breach by using the "Report Abuse" function, or by clicking here or by emailing us at the address specified below, as we do not monitor every Submission contributed by members before it is placed on the Ancestory Service.
The Ancestory Service is provided on an 'as is' and 'as available' basis. We do not guarantee which aspect of the Ancestory Service will be available. We cannot promise that the Ancestory Service will be accurate, free from errors or omissions nor that it will be available uninterrupted and in a fully operating condition.
The Ancestory Service may be suspended temporarily and without notice in the case of system failure, maintenance or repair or for reasons reasonably beyond our control. We will not be liable to you or to any other person in the event that all or any part of the Ancestory Service is discontinued, modified or changed in any way.
The views expressed in any content or material which is uploaded by you or other users of the Ancestory Service do not reflect Ancestory’s views. We make no promises and offer no guarantees as to the accuracy of any Submissions.
Ancestory accepts no responsibility and makes no promises or guarantees as to the quality of images or the accuracy of the Historical Records.
We accept liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence or that of our employees and agents. We do not seek to exclude liability for fraudulent misrepresentation by use or our employees or agents.
Nothing in these Terms is intended to restrict your statutory rights as a consumer (including your rights to receive a reasonable standard of service, more details about which can be obtained from your local Trading Standards Office or Citizen's Advice Bureau);
We do not accept any liability for:
These Terms shall not make us responsible for any damage or loss (including loss of profits, revenue or business) caused to you where such damage or loss is not reasonably foreseeable to you and us when you use the Ancestory Service, including where the damage or loss results from our breach of these Terms.
Our liability to you for any loss or damage in connection with these Terms shall be limited to the greater of:
We may wish to transfer our rights or obligations or sub-contract our obligations under these Terms to another other legal entity. You agree that we may do so provided that:
These Terms are personal to you. You may not transfer your rights or obligations under these Terms to anyone else.
These Terms are not intended to give rights to anyone except you and us. This does not affect our right to transfer these Terms under clause 14.
If any provision of these Terms shall be found by any court or administrative body of competent jurisdiction to be invalid or unenforceable, such invalidity or unenforceability shall not affect the other provisions of these Terms which shall remain in full force and effect.
These Terms are available in English only. We will do our best to resolve any disputes over these Terms. If you wish to take court proceedings against us you must do so within the United Kingdom. Relevant United Kingdom law will apply.
We don't separately file a copy of the Terms entered into by you and us when you register for the Ancestory Service. We recommend that you make a durable copy of these Terms by printing and/or saving a downloaded copy on your own computer. You can always access a copy of our latest Terms on the Websites.
Complaints may be reported to us through our "contact us" link on the Ancestory Service or by post at the address below. We will reply to all complaints within 28 working days.
You can contact us by post at:
Ancestory,
c/o Fore-Word Press Ltd 53 Rodney Street,
Liverpool,
L1 9ER,
UK
if you are aged under 16 please be advised that Ancestory require you have parental consent to this site. furthermore your address information will not be Geotagged by the Ancestory website for security reasons.