Full Privacy Policy

 

Any information that you share with us is yours and always remains yours.  

We never use it for any purpose other than what you ask us to use it for.

Genealogical Information

  • Bring your own information (BYOI) book. We need access to the genealogical information and documentation that you have available in order to search for cultural/historical/image information that pertains to your particular family’s history.  You may provide that to us in any way that you wish.
    Rest assured that we do not keep copies of your family’s personal information after we complete your book, except if the information is included in the book itself, for we do keep secure copies, for our own records, of the books we have created. (See Book Information below.)

  • Diagnostic search. You may either share your electronic or paper information with us in the format of your choice, or we can help you create a family tree in My Heritage, Ancestry, or another platform of your choice. You then share your tree with us for as long as we are doing research for you.  In any case, when we have finished our work for you, you simply unshare your tree with us, or we return your paper information. 
    Rest assured that we do not keep copies of your family’s personal information after we complete your book, except if the information is included in the book itself, for we do keep secure copies of the books we have created, for our own records. (See Book Information below.)
    However, you may request that we keep a back-up copy of your information, if you so desire, but we will not do so unless you specifically request it.  This may be useful if you are considering having us do additional work for you in the future.

  • Diagnostic search + further genealogical research. All of the terms that apply to the Diagnostic Search section still apply with one opt-out exception.  By default, we provide you the service of keeping a back-up GEDCOM file of the genealogical research that we did for you in our secure files.  You may opt out of this service at any time.   
    This is why.  If a tree is deleted from Ancestry or an account is deleted from My Heritage, that information cannot be recovered.  Because of this, our policy is to retain a GEDCOM (genealogical back up) file of the final family tree that we submit to you, so that in the event that your tree is accidentally deleted, a backup copy will be available.     
    Please be aware that GEDCOM files may not retain all of the detail that is available in a fully documented My Heritage or Ancestry account, so if you need to use our backup copy, you may lose some of the detail that was originally included in your online tree.  Thus, it is always wise to treat your online tree cautiously.  This is also one reason to consider making your tree public—so that other people can make redundant copies of what you have found.   
    You may opt out of our GEDCOM backup service at any time. Please just let us know and we will happily comply with your request.

  • Holocaust Inquiry Submission Replies

    If you ask us to submit inquiries to holocaust archives on your behalf, we will ask your permission to retain a copy of the information contained in the replies that you receive. We are pleased to submit your inquiry for you, regardless of whether you grant us permission to retain a copy of the information you receive in reply.

    The reason we ask permission to retain a copy of that information is so that we can study the forms and the information on them to better understand what information may be available for you and future clients. The forms and information that are returned in the reply to an inquiry are often in several languages. It takes us a while to study them. If we can keep them on file, then over time, we can come to a better understanding of the information they contain and better serve our clients.

Book Information

Your book is your book. This is how the information for your book is saved or shared.

  • We keep a secure, electronic, backup copy of the files for each of the books we create.  There are several reasons for this:

    • If you wish to have additional copies of your book printed, we can easily accommodate you if we have your file in our archives.

    • If, at a later time, you wish to create a more extensive book, based on an earlier book that you have already purchased, then we can also readily accommodate you, starting with your archived file.

    • Keeping files of our work allows us to monitor and improve our work.

  • We must share PDF files of your finished book with our publisher in order to get your books printed.  Our publisher uses those files only to publish your book.

  • Public Historical, Cultural, and Image information. We gather a great deal of information prior to choosing exactly which images and contextual information to include in your book.  While this information is rooted in the time and place from which your family comes, most of it is not specific to your particular family.  Some examples include pages about towns, cities, regions, historical context, occupations, typical daily life, etc.  These contextual images and information that are not specific to your family may be used in part or as a whole in other books.

Sample Books and Book Pages

You probably browsed pages in our online gallery before choosing to use our services. You may have even thumbed through a physical book.  Let us tell you how we protect the privacy of the clients for whom those books were originally created.

  • We never share a book or book pages with family-specific information publicly without the express, prior permission of the client.

  • Prior to sharing a client’s book or book pages with family-specific information, we consult with the client about which information they wish to keep private and what they are willing to have seen publicly.  We then make a public version of the book or page that fully complies with our client’s wishes by changing names, dates, story details, and any other identifying information that they wish to have masked.  We make the book or page public only after it meets our client’s approval.

  • Some pages provide information only about a location or historical context, with no identifying personal or family information involved.  We share these pages freely, for they often resonate with others who have ancestors from that time or place.  We hope that you have enjoyed them, too.

Interviews

If we desire to record any of our interviews with you in order to capture important information to aid our work for you, we will always clearly ask your permission before doing any recording. You may ask us to stop recording at any time, and we will always delete every recording as soon as we finish your project, if not before. And, of course, we will never share your recordings with anyone else.

Our precautions

We take every reasonable precaution to protect the software and files that we use to conduct research and create books.  We do not like to have our computer systems or private cloud accounts hacked any more than you do.  However, we acknowledge that even highly secured systems can be breached. In the highly unlikely event that we become aware of a security breach that may provide access to any of your information that is in our care, we will use the most recent contact information that we have on file for you to make you aware of the nature of the breach, how it may affect you, and what we will do about it.