BTLGenConfidentiality. Honest evidence. Respect for every family.
Code of Ethics & Research Standards
Read the complete BTLGen policies for Search Angels and research professionals here on BTLGen. Every clause is included, with separate sections for ethical conduct and research quality.
Complete BTLGen Code of Ethics
All 16 requirements below apply to volunteer Search Angels and independent professionals working through BTLGen. This is the full policy, rather than a summary of selected points.
1. Applicability and honest status
Everyone using BTLGen to provide research help must accept this code, whether paid or volunteering. Describe qualifications, role, availability and review status accurately. A badge reflects its displayed scope and date only. Do not promise a discovery, reunion, lineage approval or a specific result before examining the evidence.
2. Member-led research
Work toward the member's agreed question. Ask what they want to learn, what they do not want shared and how they want results delivered. They may pause or stop a case. Do not pressure anyone to investigate, take a DNA test, make contact or publish a story.
3. Living people and family sensitivity
Treat living people's identities, relationships, addresses, adoption history and unexpected parentage as sensitive. Public availability of a clue is not permission to publicize it. Use the least identifying detail needed for the task. Respect a relative's refusal to participate and the possibility that a disclosure may affect several people.
4. Specific DNA consent
Before accessing genetic information, record the authorized person, purpose, data and allowed actions. Explain foreseeable unexpected findings and the limits of privacy. Consent for viewing is not consent for uploading, downloading, sharing, testing another person or publishing. Stop the affected activity when consent is withdrawn; explain any limits on recalling copies already released.
5. Case access and confidentiality
Open only material the member has authorized for the case. Keep case discussions out of public feeds, groups, demonstrations and training examples unless separately permitted and appropriately redacted. Do not assume a colleague or mentor can see a case. Report accidental access or disclosure promptly through the case concern channel.
6. Contact and respectful boundaries
No unsolicited contact with relatives follows from accepting a case. If outreach is within BTLGen's approved service scope, obtain separate approval of the recipient, purpose and message. Never impersonate a relative, pressure someone who declines, or imply that a response is owed. Search help does not include mediation, counseling or stalking.
7. Competence and referrals
Accept assignments within demonstrated ability. Tell the member when a language, location, source type or DNA problem exceeds that ability. Request a separately approved specialist or decline the task. Seek help before making an unsupported conclusion. Do not allow a general badge to conceal a lack of relevant skills.
8. Truthfulness and uncertainty
Do not create records, citations, matches, photographs, success stories or credentials. Label a possibility as a possibility. Correct material errors, notify affected members and document the change. Never change an answer to satisfy a preferred family story, a desired ethnicity or a financial incentive.
9. Original records and intellectual work
Protect originals, retain provenance and credit other people's work. Share only material the case is entitled to use. Do not submit someone else's portfolio as your own or reuse a client report in publicity without permission. Respect archive handling rules and source providers' restrictions.
10. Accounts and platform permissions
Use each service's supported access and sharing methods. Never request or store a member's password, bypass restricted access or encourage the member to do so. Permission to research inside BTLGen does not authorize scraping another service or uploading its data elsewhere. Do not sell case access or member data.
11. Volunteer work and paid terms
Search Angel volunteer research carries no research fee. Any optional expense needs prior, written approval. Professional work requires a clear written scope, price or cap, deliverables and payment/cancellation terms before work begins. Never pressure a member from a free volunteer request into paid work, disguise commissions or charge for invented activity.
12. Conflicts and impartial review
Disclose relationships, referral payments and other interests that may affect advice or review. Step aside from assessing your own work, a close associate or a person whose decision benefits you. Membership level, donations or personal friendships cannot buy or bypass research review. Explain alternatives without denigrating other helpers.
13. Cultural respect and equal treatment
Use respectful names and language and consider the historical context of records. Treat people fairly across backgrounds and family structures. Avoid treating a DNA ethnicity estimate as proof of community identity or membership. Refer community-specific identity or membership questions to the appropriate community authority rather than deciding them for a member.
14. AI and other tools
Use tools to assist documented human research. Disclose material AI assistance in deliverables and assessments. Verify every resulting claim, citation and transcription against sources before relying on it. Do not send private case records or genetic data to an external AI service without explicit, informed permission and approved handling.
15. Communication and accountability
Provide the agreed updates, disclose delays and keep useful records of work, decisions and expenses. Communicate difficult findings with care and within the requested boundaries. Cooperate with a fair complaint review and explain corrections. No harassment, retaliation or public exposure of a person who raises a concern is allowed.
16. Stewardship and departure
Continue learning in the specialties you offer. Reaccept materially revised policies and meet renewal requirements. On withdrawal or suspension, arrange a permitted handover, give the member their agreed deliverables and end unauthorized access. Keep only information needed under the agreed retention rules; do not carry private cases into a new service without permission.
Complete BTLGen Research Standards
All 18 requirements below apply to volunteer Search Angels and independent professionals working through BTLGen. This is the full policy, rather than a summary of selected points.
1. Define the case
Record a precise question, the people and time/place involved, the member's purpose and the boundaries of the task. Identify what would count as progress, what cannot be promised and what the member does not want pursued. Do not substitute an attractive but unrelated family story for the question.
2. Preserve the starting material
Review existing research before repeating it. Retain the original GEDCOM, source files and imported values; record the origin of each item. Keep a separate working interpretation. Never overwrite originals or silently repair relationships merely because a new hint or an imported tree suggests a different answer.
3. Plan the work
Create an ordered plan suited to the question, location, period and available resources. Note expected records, known gaps, authorized access and costs. Revise the plan as evidence appears. Document why an important avenue could not be explored and where a qualified specialist is needed.
4. Consult and record sources
Locate the most useful available evidence, inspecting the underlying record when possible. Record enough source details for another researcher to find what was used. Distinguish a record image from its index, a transcription or a copied tree. Cite a source actually examined rather than implying examination of an inaccessible original.
5. Preserve content faithfully
Keep the image, transcription and researcher's interpretation distinguishable. Mark uncertain handwriting, editorial additions, missing pages and cropped content. Retain the original name spelling and date alongside any normalized search form. Never fill a gap in a document with plausible invented text.
6. Separate people carefully
Compare identity using time, place, age, associates and other relevant evidence. Do not merge same-name people automatically. Keep conflicting candidates separate until evidence supports identification. A photograph, online tree or name match alone must not attach a record to the wrong person.
7. Evaluate dates and places
Record calendar conventions, approximate dates, jurisdiction changes and historical place names where they affect interpretation. Explain an estimate and its basis rather than converting it into an exact date. Consider migration, language, social context and access to records when assessing whether events could concern the same person.
8. Evaluate information and contradictions
Assess who supplied information, when it was recorded and whether the source may depend on another source. Compare relevant facts across the record set. Document contradictions and the reasoning used to resolve them. If a conflict remains material, keep the conclusion open rather than hiding the inconvenient evidence.
9. Track searches that find nothing
Maintain a research log including unsuccessful searches, collections, date ranges, search terms and access limits. Distinguish a missing record from an incomplete or unsuccessful search. Explain when absence is informative and when it cannot support a conclusion. Do not bill or report repeated work as new without explanation.
10. Assess relationships explicitly
Explain how the evidence supports each claimed identity or relationship and address reasonable alternatives. Keep legal, adoptive, social and biological relationships distinguishable. A copied pedigree is a lead rather than an independently demonstrated relationship. Give a reasoned written answer or a clear statement that the question remains unresolved.
11. Integrate DNA carefully
Use authorized DNA evidence with documentary research, the correct test-owner identity and recorded test details. Assess plausible relationship ranges and relevant limitations. Account for multiple relationships or population structure when material. Do not identify a parent or ancestor from a single unexplained match, an ethnicity estimate or a match's unverified tree.
12. Bound sensitive conclusions
Keep genetic and living-person conclusions within the member's permissions. Do not infer a medical diagnosis, assign community citizenship or publish a living person's parentage from the case. Discuss unexpected results privately with the requesting person before any separately approved disclosure.
13. Write usable reports
Present the question, work completed, sources, evidence-based reasoning, findings, limits and recommended next steps. Include relevant negative and conflicting results. Clearly separate established findings, tentative interpretations and unknowns. A member should be able to understand the answer without access to the researcher's private memory or tools.
14. Use precise confidence language
Explain why a conclusion is strong or tentative. Do not attach invented confidence percentages to relationships or present a tool's score as proof. Treat genealogical proof as a reasoned conclusion supported by the available evidence; remain willing to revise it when material new evidence appears.
15. Review consequential changes
Check citations, names, calculations and relationship logic before delivering a report. During mentoring, the mentor reviews within the member's permissions. In the GED workspace, suggest consequential relationship changes for the member to review; do not make irreversible merges or silently rewrite their tree as a side effect of a case.
16. Deliver and make corrections traceable
Give the member the agreed report, relevant permitted records, research log and next steps in usable formats. Preserve version history, authorship and source links. If a correction changes a conclusion, record the reason and notify affected authorized case participants. Do not delete a previous conclusion without an explanatory history.
17. Secure the research workflow
Use BTLGen's existing authorized storage and approved provider sharing methods. Apply permissions to files, previews, downloads and search results as well as pages. Avoid copying case material into personal or external services without approval. Keep a record of access grants and consent changes, and follow a published retention and deletion schedule.
18. Close and reassess
At completion or a stop request, record the case outcome, unresolved questions, remaining access and agreed retention. An unresolved result can be responsible work. Before resuming an old case, recheck the question, permissions and relevant evidence. Use renewal and case feedback to identify learning needs without turning private cases into public examples.
How these policies apply to your case
These are BTLGen’s complete original participation requirements. They apply to the conduct, research and privacy practices of people accepting work through this platform. A short description on a service card does not replace them.
Every case, including volunteer work, requires a confidentiality agreement (NDA) and a research agreement signed by both parties before a helper receives private case access or begins work. The research agreement must define the question, scope, deliverables, communication, fees or free volunteer terms, expenses, permissions and handling of records. New terms require new signatures.
Free volunteer research and optional appreciation
Search Angel research services are free. An optional donation or thank-you gift is recommended to recognize the volunteer’s time, through the helper’s agreed Cash App, PayPal, Venmo or another payment service. Giving is entirely your choice and never a condition of receiving help or results.
An optional donation goes directly to the volunteer through the method the parties agree to use. It cannot become a minimum charge, a condition of help, a way to buy a desired finding or a reason to withhold results. Outside expenses require prior written approval. Professional service listings are free; professional research fees are separately agreed between the parties.
Independent participants and reviewed scope
BTLGen is a place for people to connect and find genealogy help. Search Angels and research professionals who participate here are independent volunteers or service providers, not BTLGen employees. Any research arrangement is made directly between the member and the helper. Joining or receiving a BTLGen review badge does not create employment, authorize someone to act for BTLGen, or guarantee a result.
BTLGen’s review applies only to the skills and scope stated in the current reviewed profile. It is independent of any credential issued by a professional organization. A general review does not authorize every country, language, specialty or DNA task.
Concerns and responsibility
Report a privacy or conduct concern through private member support, identifying the case or application reference without posting family or DNA evidence in public. A member can pause future helper access while a concern is addressed. Researchers must correct material errors and explain the effect of a correction on the case.
Policy version: BTLGen-Research-Help-2026-10-06-v1 · Effective 6 October 2026. These are BTLGen policies; they do not reproduce another organization’s publications or confer that organization’s credentials.
