Announcements

[Bo Peep]

It is important that you read this

The British-Genealogy forums are provided to the public free, for enjoyment, education and discussion. Each Forum has a specific "topic". It is the forum administrator's/moderator's responsibility to uphold this Acceptable Use Policy (AUP). In addition, the forum administrator may define his/her own guidelines as applicable, as long as they do not conflict with this AUP. You must be aware, as a contributor to a forum that you are to accept this AUP and to abide by it and to accept the administrator's enforcement of it. You may not post messages on the forums that attempt to do the administrator's/moderator's job, or to impose these or other rules.

Courtesy

Think of a forum as being a discussion between people having common interests at a meeting in the administrator's own home. You are a guest and must behave with propriety at all times.

In no circumstances are you permitted to post details on the forum of possible living people without their prior knowledge and consent as this could cause untold distress. Any such posts will be deleted immediately and without warning.

It is accepted that sometimes there may be heated discussions where people may disagree, but please behave responsibly and not resort to malicious statements of a personal nature. The Administrator will not tolerate maliciousness or personal attacks on others. In such circumstances, you may expect to be shown the door and the thread closed or deleted. Should anyone object to a thread being closed, reference to the reason why should be made to the Forum Administrator and not addressed to the forum. Do not join in with such discussions or matters relating to them on the forum.

Keep on topic for the forum

Each forum has a defined topic. Overall, the discussions should be about information and resources relating to these. If the discussion alters its course into a topic that is covered by a different forum, then move the discussion to the other forum. The Administrator / Super Moderators reserve the right to move discussions to other more relevant forums. Discussion of politics, war and religion are to be considered to be "off topic" and therefore not allowed, except where in direct relevance to your family history research.

General chat in a forum is considered to be off-topic, so please conduct that in private emails, or in the forum provided for that purpose. Remember that the messages posted to the British-Genealogy forums are stored in archives for the benefit of people researching their family history, so that they can access them at a later date. Do not post anything you are not happy for the "world" to read as unless it breaches the rules of the forum, it cannot be deleted. It is not acceptable to use the forums as a "soap box" to air your views.

Messages about viruses

Virus announcements and discussion of viruses is strictly prohibited except in the relevant forum specifically for that purpose.

Cross-Posting

Posting of the same message to more than one forum is not allowed as it clutters the board and causes confusion. Duplicate posts will be removed.

Signatures

The signature option is awarded for the quality of the posts made. It is a privilege that has to be earned. Recommendations for signatures can only be made to the Administrator by Super Moderators. When the signature option is awarded, you can set your signature by editing your profile.

Links

Links to commercial sites, (any site which has, or offers by advertising, items, donations or services for sale) including pay per view sites, or having a commercial link as a signature are strictly forbidden and will be removed without warning. An exception to this rule is made for Government repositories of records such as the National Archives. Links to other sites merely to boost search engine rankings are also banned. This is a genealogy forum not a free advertising medium for all and sundry. If in doubt, before posting contact: The Administrator

Advertising to do lookups

It is not permitted to advertise on a forum offering to do lookups. (Either paid for or free). This rule will be strictly enforced by the Administrator/Super Moderators. For the avoidance of doubt, such messages include those such as "I have this new book (or fiche or CD) and I am happy to do lookups for anyone". Such messages undermine the viability of products produced by family history societies and other organisations. However, it is allowed and encouraged (subject to the copyright of the author and licence of the product publisher) to help others on the forums with their specific family history problems and queries by using or quoting a limited amount of material from published sources; and in such cases, you should always refer to the source, its author, the publisher and the product.

Copyright

When posting to the forums, what you write remains your copyright. However, there are certain considerations that you should bear in mind. You are responsible for what you write, and you should not infringe the copyright of others. For the avoidance of doubt, you are allowed to quote short sections from the works of others. It is the nature of forums that people may quote all or part of your message in any reply that they may post to the forum, or in private email messages to others. All messages posted to the British-Genealogy forums are archived and are accessible to other registered users of the system. British-Genealogy does not claim copyright of what you write, but you agree to messages being archived for the future use of other researchers. Messages cannot be removed from the archives of the forums, except in the case of directives from a legal court.

Posting of Illegal Copies of Material

British-Genealogy.com has a zero tolerance policy regarding the posting of illegal copies of material that is either in copyright or which contravenes the license of use. This applies to copies of material posted to the forums, or seen to be being posted in private emails to other users of the system. In particular, please note that when you have a copy of a census page, either from a CD or downloaded from a web site, it is ILLEGAL to make a copy and forward it to someone else. Please read the licence and copyright notice on the source from where you obtained the census image. It will include the words "must not be copied" and "for personal research only". For the avoidance of doubt, this applies to copies of census page images(which are not allowed), and does not apply to census transcriptions (which are allowed). A partial image of a census page, posted as part of a specific query or as an answer to a query is allowed.

Failure to comply with the rules and responsibilities in this Acceptable Use Policy may result in a member being suspended or removed from the forum system, at the discretion of the List Administrator.

[Bo Peep]

1. This is a very large and popular family history forum, and we know that for a 'Newbie' it can be quite overwhelming. Hopefully, the following tips may help you.

2. It may make life easier for you if before you start, you close up most of the boards by clicking on the little chevrons on the right hand side of the page.

3. Please have a good look around at all the various Topics and Threads, and when you are ready, say hello to all of the members in the, ‘Introduce Yourself’ forum. Everyone here is very friendly and always happy to welcome new members.

4. List your research names and dates in the 'Surname Interests' section. Hopefully, someone else will be chasing after the same names.

5. When you have them sorted out, post any queries in the relevant county section. It would help your fellow researchers if you were to head the thread with the surname concerned, in capital letters. We really do want to help you, so please make sure you give as much information as possible; names, dates, etc. when you make your post(s).

6. For lots of FREE information, tips, resources and ideas, just pop along to the main British Genealogy site at, http://www.british-genealogy.com and take a peek at what is available. Lots of information to show you ways to help trace your family history and it is all completely free.

7. Unless you want to be swamped with spam, it is not wise to include your email address in your posts.

8. Please DO NOT duplicate threads as this just causes confusion for everyone.

9. Under no circumstances are you permitted to post details of possible living people on the forum without their prior knowledge and consent, as this could cause untold distress.

10. Please post your queries on the FORUM. It is pointless sending them to the Administrator as I guarantee she will not know the answer.

11. Finally but most importantly, we really want you to enjoy being a member of our community. If you are having problems navigating the site, please contact a Moderator and they will be very happy to help you.

[Bo Peep]

The Administrator of these forums, or the Moderators participating, neither accept responsibility for nor give any warranty or other assurance as to the content of the material appearing on this website, its accuracy, completeness, timelessness or fitness for any particular purpose.

To the full extent permissible by law under no circumstances will British-Genealogy.com (Parish Chest Ltd) nor persons connected with, be liable in any way for any Content, including but not limited to, any errors or omissions in any Content, its accuracy, completeness, timelessness or fitness for any particular purpose or for any loss or damage of any kind incurred as a result of the use of any Content posted, emailed, transmitted or otherwise made available via this site.

British-Genealogy.com (Parish Chest Ltd) and/or persons connected with disclaim all responsibility for any damages or losses (including, without limitation, financial loss, damages for loss in business projects, loss of profits or other consequential losses) arising in contract, tort or otherwise from any material appearing on British-Genealogy.com (Parish Chest Ltd) or names associated with.

It is not possible for the Administrators of these forums, or the Moderators participating, to fully and effectively monitor Messages that are submitted for infringement of third party rights. If you believe that a message infringes your legal rights, you should notify the Administrator or a Moderator immediately by means of email giving such information to enable the recipient to amend, delete or remove in its entirety the message.

This site may provide, or third parties may provide, links to other World Wide Web sites or resources. British-Genealogy.com (Parish Chest Ltd) has no control over such sites and resources, and you acknowledge and agree that British-Genealogy.com (Parish Chest Ltd) nor persons connected with, are not responsible for the availability of such external sites or resources, and does not endorse and are not responsible or liable for any Content.

Be aware that Google and other search engines regularly spider this site, so DO NOT post anything you are not happy for the world to read.

Any user who finds material posted by another user objectionable or inaccurate is encouraged to contact us via e-mail. We are authorized by you to remove or modify any data submitted to this website for any reason we feel constitutes a violation of our policies, whether stated, implied or not.

Email contact: The Administrator