Print this page

Ancestry.com Community Rules and Guidelines





Welcome to the world's largest online community dedicated to family history. This is your chance to share ideas. Ask questions. Offer advice. Forge meaningful connections. Make groundbreaking discoveries. Overall, it's an opportunity to collaborate and share with your family and other community members interested in family history.


The more active you are in our community, the more you'll get out of it. Keep in mind, we're continually making it easier to use and more enjoyable for you.
 

These guidelines will help you and others enjoy your community experience. However, please remember that all use of the Website is governed by the terms and conditions relating to them, which take precedence over these guidelines.
 

Community Values
Our Ancestry.com community comprises the Ancestry, Mundia, RootsWeb and Genealogy.com communities, all of which encourage open and frequent communication between members.


Here are the core beliefs behind our community:
 

  • People have a deep desire to connect with family members, both past and present.
  • Everyone has something to contribute to the community.
  • Honest, open communication is essential, but it must be delivered with respect for other members' thoughts and expressions.

 

Member Conduct and Use – DO’s and DON’Ts

This community is your forum for sharing thoughts, experiences, resources and discoveries. We appreciate your participation. However, we ask that you carefully read and follow the guidelines below. You'll find that most of them come naturally to you.


DO: As a community member, please do the following:
 

  • For starters, simply treat others the way you want to be treated.
  • Respond to the subject (and not the person) if you disagree with something in a post.
  • Share only your own thoughts, ideas and content.
  • Post only information appropriate for a given topic. For example, if you're posting on the "Lansing" surname board, you should be writing only in reference to a "Lansing" connection. If you're posting on the US, regional or international board, you must be making reference to the appropriate location.
     

On the other hand, observe the following DON’Ts (which also constitute violations of contractual and statutory obligations):
 

  • Don't post any photos of living individuals (other than just you) or anyone else's email addresses without their consent.
  • Don't harass, abuse or threaten other members.
  • Don't post any content that's vulgar, hateful, sexually explicit, illegal or otherwise offensive.
  • Don't post commercial messages, fee-for-service postings, advertising or related links, etc.
  • Don't include identifiable information about living people without their direct consent, or, in the case of minors, the consent of their parent or guardian. This includes (but is not limited to) a person's full name, location or contact information.
  • Don't post anything you didn't personally create. That includes copyrighted material you're not authorized to distribute, email messages, notes in GEDCOMs, etc. Read our Notice and Procedure for Making Claims of Copyright Infringement if you have questions.
  • Don't impersonate any individual, business or other entity. Don't pretend to be an employee or representative of Ancestry.com Operations Inc. or anyone affiliated with the Ancestry.com Operations Inc. family of companies, properties or affiliates.
  • Don't post a "seeking information" (query) message with a non-query (data) menu classification selection.
     

We reserve the right to delete messages that violate our terms and conditions, move messages posted in the wrong place and edit the surname field, subject line, etc. in any message. We reserve the right to do any of the above without notice in order to preserve community integrity and ensure that people can find what they're seeking.
 

Rules for Conduct
You must not use the Website or Services:


A. To post, transmit, or display anything that is illegal, threatening, harmful, abusive, harassing, invasive of another's privacy, degrading, defamatory, vulgar, hateful, libellous, fraudulent, obscene, pornographic or otherwise objectionable.
 

B. To post, transmit, or display content that is protected by copyright or trademark or that does not belong to you and for which you do not have authorization to use from the owner of the copyright or trademark, including but not limited to email messages and notes in GEDCOMs. Read our Notice and Take-Down Policy if you have questions.
 

C. To post, transmit, upload, or display content containing proprietary or confidential information to which you do not have a right to transmit.
 

D. For any illegal activity or provide material that promotes or teaches illegal activity.
 

E. To impersonate any person or entity or falsely misrepresent your affiliation with any person or entity or falsely claim an endorsement that you do not have.
 

F. To hold yourself out as an employee or representative of Ancestry or any of our affiliated companies, properties or affiliates.
 

G. To post, transmit or make available advertising, promotional materials, junk mail, chain letters or any other form of solicitation.
 

H. To reproduce, copy or sell any portion of Ancestry or Ancestry database contents.
 

I. To stalk or harass others.
 

J. To systematically download contents and data of the Ancestry database to make or populate another database or for any purpose, with robots, crawlers, spiders or any other means.
 

L. To post, transmit, upload, or display identifiable information about living people without their direct consent, or, in the case of minors, the consent of their parent or guardian. This includes (but is not limited to) a person's full name, location or contact information.
 

K. To post, transmit, upload or display any photos of living individuals (other than just you) or anyone else's email addresses without their consent.
 

User Provided Content
We cannot commit to pre-screening or monitoring member-contributed content. Please let us know if you encounter material that you feel is inappropriate under these guidelines or violates our terms and conditions. Use the "report abuse" links throughout the Website to do so.
 

We can't be responsible for the content that our members create and share in the community. However, we do reserve the right to remove any postings that disregard the above guidelines or violate our terms and conditions. Serious violations or offenses will subject the responsible member to account termination.
 

Important Note: To the extent permitted by applicable law, any information you post in our community is public and can be copied, modified and distributed by others. By submitting or posting content in our community, you expressly grant Ancestry.com Europe S.à.r.l. the rights set forth in the terms and conditions.
 

We may modify these guidelines from time to time. Please check back regularly for updates.