BTLGenResearch & trust

BTLGen Terms & Policies

Terms of use, privacy, cookies, community and contribution rules, copyright, living-person protection and family archive access in one place. No living person’s personal information may be shared publicly through BTLGen.

1. Terms of Service

BTLGen provides genealogy research resources, historical collections, a shared Master Tree and member research tools. Some resources require an account. Access depends on account permissions and feature availability; a link does not grant permission to use a feature. Basic membership and core genealogy resources remain free. Optional professional or additional services may have separately agreed charges. Payment does not grant authority to change the Master Tree or establish a genealogical claim. Keep sign-in information secure. Do not impersonate others, access private records without permission, disrupt the service, harass people or share any living person's personal information publicly. Availability elsewhere or claimed permission does not create an exception. Use only material you have the right to store or share and respect copyright, repository restrictions and contributor permissions. Profiles, private trees, research and contact settings begin private. Sharing selected information does not authorize unrestricted sharing. Genealogy matches do not automatically publish trees, identify private members or merge records into the Master Tree. Content is for research and education. Conclusions can change as evidence appears. A name match, chart, GEDCOM or credential does not prove a relationship. BTLGen does not guarantee a complete pedigree, royal descent, tribal citizenship, lineage-society eligibility, application acceptance or a particular research result. Review evidence and limitations for every claim. Uploading does not transfer ownership. Private storage and deliberate publication are different choices. Imported trees do not automatically change the Master Tree. Contributions require authorized review and supporting evidence. Living-person information must not appear in public contributions or publicly redistributed exports. Cancelling an optional service, closing an account, deleting a private tree, withdrawing a contribution and requesting personal-information removal are separate actions. Use Contact BTLGen to specify the request and records involved. Signing out, stopping a payment or exporting does not delete stored information. An independently supported historical fact is distinct from a contributor's private upload; retained public citations and history must still comply with living-person protections. A free estimate is not a research contract or guarantee of availability or results. Paid research requires a separate written agreement covering scope, fees, expenses and deliverables. Directory listings are starting points, not endorsements or proof of eligibility. Independent websites control their content, fees and terms. Use Contact BTLGen for account, privacy, copyright, accessibility or service concerns. Do not send passwords, financial identifiers, DNA files or sensitive family records through the general contact form.

2. Privacy and information handling

BTLGen processes information supplied for registration and sign-in, profile and privacy choices, research and records deliberately stored, and content deliberately sent or shared through available tools. Contact and estimate forms collect entered information such as name, email, subject, research question and message. Interest lists use the supplied or confirmed email address. Information is used to operate requested functions, manage access, answer inquiries, prepare requested estimates, review corrections and concerns, and send updates to people who join an interest list. Account verification and recovery use the configured transactional email service. No living person's personal information may be shared publicly through BTLGen. This covers trees, profiles, photos, documents, stories, citations, search, charts and downloads. A public source or claimed consent does not authorize public release. New member profiles, trees, living-person information, research and contactability begin private. Available controls permit only account-authorized choices. Members Only is not public or publicly indexed; living and protected information stays private. Private-tree charts use authorized records. Connections must not expose a protected person through public search or another person's chart. Report unexpected exposure or inaccurate imported records. Inquiries are saved in the BTLGen inquiry inbox for authorized administrators; the site then attempts forwarding through Formspree. Storage may succeed even if forwarding fails. Formspree's privacy notice describes its processing. Community and Page reports may preserve deliberately submitted content. Private-message reports expose status and an opaque target identifier to owner moderation, not message bodies, excerpts, attachments or free-text reasons. Reporting does not make a conversation public. Limited page-view and internal-search counting events contain page path, time, broad device/referrer categories and a random event identifier. These counting events do not contain search text, full referrer URLs, IP addresses or persistent visitor identifiers and do not use analytics cookies. The endpoint respects Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control, with a browser-specific opt-out. Analytics uses a 90-day reporting window and cleanup/capacity rules. Necessary sessions and administrative audit records are separate operational records. Export options differ: a Complete Research Archive and GEDCOM export have different contents and limitations. Exporting is not account deletion. Members and nonmembers may contact BTLGen for correction, restriction, removal, interest-list removal or deletion of a form submission. Identify the affected record without unnecessarily repeating sensitive information. Identity/authority verification should be proportionate and use a secure route, not identity documents or credentials in general messages. Accounts, tree/media files, correspondence, reports, audits and backups may have different retention needs. Removing an active record does not necessarily erase backups or others' downloaded copies at the same time. Retained information remains access-restricted. Restoring backups or regenerating outputs must not republish protected living-person information. Independent research websites have their own privacy practices.

3. Cookies and browser storage

Sign-in and security BTLGen uses necessary session cookies for Member and Owner/Admin access. These account areas have separate sessions. Owner multi-factor authentication and authorized View as Member sessions use short-lived, session-bound controls. Clearing cookies can sign you out or interrupt access that requires authentication. Browser preferences and activity counting The browser activity-counting preference is stored locally on your device and must be set separately in each browser. Some presentation choices use temporary tab storage. Clearing storage can reset these choices. BTLGen’s activity-counting events do not use advertising cookies or persistent visitor identifiers. The counting endpoint respects Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control. This describes the current counting system; it does not promise that BTLGen will never carry sponsorships or advertising. Any future tracking feature needs appropriate disclosure and choices. External services Independent research websites have their own cookie and privacy practices when you follow their links. BTLGen’s inquiry inbox attempts forwarding through Formspree, and account emails use the configured transactional email service. Their processing relates to those functions; it should be read alongside BTLGen’s Privacy Policy. Browser activity counting is separate from necessary authentication and operational security records.

4. Community guidelines

Discuss evidence without attacking people. Do not harass, impersonate, threaten, pressure others to reveal private details or publish living-person information. Record access, visibility choices and claimed consent do not override this prohibition. Disagreement about genealogy is not itself misconduct. Credit permitted sources while protecting living contributors. Share only material you may share. Distinguish documented facts, conclusions, traditions and unresolved claims; correct errors when better evidence appears. Use the relevant report control or Contact BTLGen for privacy, copyright, accuracy and accessibility concerns, with a relevant reference and concise explanation. Avoid unrelated sensitive details. Community/Page reports may preserve submitted content; authorized moderation may hide or restore content within its original audience restrictions. Private-message reporting does not expose message content to owner moderation. A report is a request for review, not a finding of misconduct. Privacy reviews must protect reporter and affected-person details. Contact BTLGen with relevant evidence to raise concerns about a decision. No audience change or restoration may override the prohibition on public living-person information. No particular outcome or response deadline is promised.

5. Master Tree contributions and research standards

Private trees and the shared Master Tree serve different purposes. GEDCOM import or a private hypothesis does not automatically publish, verify or merge information. For a proposed change identify the exact person or relationship, sources and citations, reasoning, conflicts and remaining uncertainty. Share only material you have permission to use. Names alone cannot establish a merge or relationship. Public contributions, evidence summaries, images, captions and attachments must exclude living-person identifying information. Check deceased-person records for living relatives. Redaction must remove identifying content and revealing context, not just hide the profile name. If a reliably protected version cannot be prepared, keep it private. Use only contribution/orientation steps available to the account. A local workspace does not submit unless the interface confirms submission. Authorized review is required before changes to canonical records. Professional credentials, badges, automated suggestions and imports never grant unrestricted editing rights. Public contributor credits, citation details, handles, revision histories and links must not identify living people. Keep identifying provenance in authorized private records. Preserve evidence, versions, attribution and reasons for changes while following this privacy rule. Conclusions can be revisited when new evidence appears.

6. Content, copyright and attribution

Upload and share only material owned or authorized for the selected purpose. Access to a record is not necessarily permission to reproduce it. Respect repository conditions, client confidentiality and contributor rights. Uploading does not transfer ownership to BTLGen, and private storage does not authorize public publication. Preserve source, repository, creator, rights-holder and citation details where known in the appropriate protected records. Never claim another person's work as your own. Before public use review faces, names, signatures, contact details, annotations, captions, filenames, metadata and background details. Copyright permission does not override living-person privacy; material about a deceased person may still expose a living person. Public credits, citations, captions, member links and revision histories must not identify living contributors, researchers, photographers, authors, clients or rights holders. Keep identifying provenance privately. Use a non-identifying description only if it satisfies applicable rights and citation requirements. Do not remove required credit and publish as if the conditions were satisfied. If no permissible privacy-preserving attribution exists, do not publish the material. Public-domain status or availability elsewhere is not a privacy exception. Decorative portraits and illustrations are not proof of identity or relationships. Use Contact BTLGen for copyright concerns, identifying the material/location, rights involved and reply details without unrelated private information. The general contact route is not represented as a formal statutory notice-and-counter-notice process.

7. Living Person Privacy

Absolute prohibition on public sharing No living person's personal information is to be shared publicly through BTLGen. This rule applies to members, relatives, clients, children and people mentioned incidentally in historical research. Do not publish it even if another source makes it public or someone claims consent. These policies create no public-release exception. Personal information includes names linked to identifiable living people, birth details, addresses, contact information, locations, recognizable photographs, signatures, account identities, family relationships and other identifying details. DNA, health, financial, identity-document and account-security information must never be placed in public genealogy content. Where the rule applies The prohibition covers trees, profiles, photographs, audio, video, scanned records, captions, filenames, metadata, transcripts, stories, research notes, citations, posts, comments, search snippets, charts, maps, relationship paths, previews and public downloads. It applies to living-person information inside a deceased person's record or attachment too. Do not reveal a living person indirectly through a family grouping, unique event, location, account link or connection path. Removing a name is insufficient if the remaining context identifies them. Contributor credits, citation authors and change histories must follow the same protection. Keep identifying provenance privately when public credit would expose a living person. If exposure cannot reliably be excluded, keep the material private. Living, deceased and uncertain status Treat unknown or uncertain living status as protected. Do not assume death solely from an estimated age, an old birth date, a name match, an imported label, an unsourced tree or missing recent information. Evaluate reliable evidence that the death record belongs to the same person, record the basis for the conclusion and reassess conflicting evidence. A death citation is evidence to evaluate, not an automatic guarantee. Even when the subject is documented as deceased, review the material for living relatives and other identifiable living people before public use. A privacy-protected label does not itself determine living status. Private and Members Only are different audiences New member profiles, private trees, research and contact settings begin private. Sharing controls permit only actions authorized for that account and record. Private means restricted to its authorized owner or expressly permitted participants. Members Only means the permitted signed-in audience; it does not mean public and must not be publicly indexed. Membership, matching, friendship or group access does not grant general permission to publish a tree or living-person information. A match does not automatically reveal private membership, publish records or authorize a Master Tree change. Protected living-person information remains private; a wider audience choice must not override that protection. Files, charts and exports Check visible content and supporting data before making a chart, image, report or file public. Suppress identifying endpoints, intermediate people and revealing relationship context. Do not assume generated charts or exports automatically redact living people. An authorized private export can contain living-person information for the owner's own records. Exporting does not change its privacy status or authorize public redistribution. Keep such copies secure and private. Do not place them on public websites, social media, public file links or public archives. Any public extract must exclude living-person personal information from its contents and metadata. Raising and handling a privacy concern Use Contact BTLGen to identify a suspected exposure with the page or record reference, a brief explanation and a way to respond. Avoid repeating sensitive details or attaching original identity documents to a general inquiry. Member content may also have a relevant report control. Privacy review should assess direct and indirect exposure, related copies and attachments, the original audience and conflicting living-status evidence. Reporter and affected-person details must not be added to public discussions. Keep uncertain status protected during investigation. Corrections should consider related previews, searches, charts and downloads. This policy sets a publication requirement. It does not claim automated tools detect every living person, automatically redact every file or remotely erase downloaded copies. Available controls and reports support review; no specific response or deletion deadline is promised here.

8. Family archive access, preservation and exports

Basic access to your own stored family archive does not require an optional purchase. Ending an optional paid service does not itself remove basic access. Core genealogy access remains free, and uploads remain your materials. This concerns stored records, not subscription-only material on external websites. A citation/link is not a stored file. Account authorization and privacy restrictions remain applicable. This is not a promise of unlimited storage, permanent operation or access to another person's records. Available exports help maintain independent copies. The Complete Research Archive includes current structured data and media actually stored for the selected tree, plus the original GEDCOM for imported trees or native starting snapshot where available. It does not fetch missing external files; read its contents description. GEDCOM is a separate interchange format with fidelity limitations; other applications may interpret extensions differently. Preserve original files and review warnings. Private exports may contain living-person information and remain private after download. Do not redistribute publicly or assume automatic redaction of relationships, photos, attachments or metadata. An export provides portability, not a production database backup. Restoration/re-import of the complete archive is not currently provided. Keep additional secure copies of important records. BTLGen does not promise permanent preservation or recovery of every file.

9. Ownership and limited hosting permission

You retain ownership of material you own. Uploading does not make BTLGen the owner and does not give other members unrestricted rights to use it. When you upload material, you give BTLGen a nonexclusive, royalty-free permission to store it, make technical copies, format it for display, create thumbnails and exports, and process it solely to provide the functions you request. Access is limited to people and services authorized for those functions and remains subject to privacy restrictions. This permission does not authorize selling private research, using private uploads in advertisements, general-purpose research tools training, or publishing living-person information. Private storage is separate from a public contribution. A private upload does not grant permission to publish it in the Master Tree or identify its uploader. An approved public contribution permits only its reviewed, privacy-compliant public presentation. Private evidence and change history needed to explain research decisions remain subject to applicable retention and privacy requirements. Removing material ends permission for new discretionary uses. Necessary restricted copies may remain only for an identified operational or lawful retention purpose. Removing your copy cannot erase copies previously obtained by others. Independently sourced historical facts are distinct from your original photographs, text and private documents. Living-person protections apply throughout.

10. Removal requests and reconsideration

Use Contact BTLGen to identify whether you want account closure, removal of a private tree or file, withdrawal of a contribution, optional-service cancellation, or correction or restriction of personal information. These requests have different effects. Signing out or cancelling payment is not a deletion request. BTLGen will assess the request, verify identity or authority proportionately where needed, identify the affected records, and explain the action taken or why it cannot be completed as requested. Requests are subject to applicable legal rights and deadlines. Do not send identity documents or passwords in the general contact form; necessary verification must use an appropriate secure method. Keep an authorized export of important private research before requesting removal. Exporting does not itself delete information. BTLGen may restrict reported material while reviewing a possible privacy, copyright, security or community violation. Responses should be proportionate and may include correction, content restriction or justified account-access limits. A report alone is not proof of misconduct. Affected people may request reconsideration through Contact BTLGen with relevant evidence. Review should consider the original reason and new information while protecting reporters and private data. Reporters need not confront uploaders first. Private-message reports retain their metadata-only boundary; this process does not authorize administrators to read private message bodies. No appeal, restoration, account privilege or audience choice overrides the prohibition on public living-person information. No guaranteed outcome is promised.

11. Service limitations and legal rights

BTLGen aims to provide useful, accurate research tools, but records, interpretations, software and external links can contain errors or become unavailable. Do not treat a chart, match, automated suggestion, title, badge or imported relationship as proof without examining its sources. Preserve originals and independent copies of important research. BTLGen does not guarantee uninterrupted availability, recovery of every file, unlimited storage, a complete pedigree or success with a third-party application. These limitations do not remove responsibilities or remedies that applicable law makes non-excludable. No arbitrary liability cap, blanket indemnity, jury waiver or mandatory arbitration is imposed by this page. Raise service or policy concerns through Contact BTLGen, identifying the page or transaction and requested resolution. This does not prevent contacting a regulator, pursuing a legal remedy or exercising another applicable right. A separately agreed written research-services contract governs the specific paid work it covers. If a provision cannot lawfully apply, the remaining provisions continue to apply to the extent permitted by law.