Terms and Conditions

Use of the findmypast.com Service and the Material is subject to the following terms,
and by using the findmypast.com Service you accept these terms and agree
to be bound by them.

If you are acting on behalf of another person, you will also bind that person.

It is important that you read these terms carefully.

Amongst other things, they exclude or restrict our liability for loss of damage arising from your use of this website, the findmypast.com Service, and the Material.

    Using the findmypast.com Service

  1. These terms apply to your use of findmypast.com Service and to any subsequent use you make, on any occasion, of the Material and information you obtain.
  2. The Material and the findmypast.com Service are protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights. The Indexes of Births, Marriages and Deaths ("the Indexes") and census images are protected by Crown copyright and database rights.
  3. You may use the findmypast.com Service, the Material, and any information you obtain through the findmypast.com Service, only in accordance with these terms.
  4. You must abide by all restrictions in force from time to time:

    4.1 You must use the findmypast.com Service, the Material, and any information you obtain through the findmypast.com Service, only for your personal family research or for professional family research on behalf of a specific client.

    4.2 You must not download, copy, reuse, resell, or republish online or in print or in any other format any part of the Material, except in the context of an individual family history.

    4.3 You must not make any of the Material available to anyone online, but you may publish your personal family research online even where this incorporates information extracted from the Material.

    4.4 You must not resell any of the Material or any information obtained through the findmypast.com Service, but you may sell a personal family history you have created even where this incorporates information extracted from the Material.

    4.5 You must not alter or adapt any of the Material, nor pass it off as your own work or someone else's.

    4.6 You must not use the Material in any way which is defamatory or fraudulent.

  5. You will not obtain any rights or interests in or to any of the Material or the findmypast.com Service.
  6. We may suspend or permanently disable your access to the findmypast.com Service without warning if you do not comply fully with all these terms at all times and we may take legal action for injunction, damages or both.
  7. Payment, refunds, and your cancellation rights

    Searching on findmypast.com is free but there is a charge to view transcriptions and original records. You can choose to access the paid records on the site either on a pay-per-view basis or by taking out a subscription.

    General

  8. Charges must be paid by credit or debit card, Click & Buy account or findmypast.com voucher, or any such other payment mechanism as we make available on our site from time to time, before you may have access to the Material. You must be the owner of the card, account or voucher.
  9. We will provide you with access to a printable invoice on screen when you register, and we will send you a receipted invoice by e-mail when we have received your payment.
  10. If you have used up all your account credit, you will not be able to access the findmypast.com service until you top-up your account with more units. findmypast.com reserves the right to close accounts that have not been used for two years.
  11. If you are an individual, unless you are using the findmypast.com Service in the course of your business, you may cancel your agreement with us and receive a full refund of your account credit provided that you tell us of your wish to cancel in writing within 14 working days of your registration. Please contact us at cancel@findmypast.com or 24 Britton Street, London, EC1M 5UA. You will not be entitled to the benefit of this clause 11 once you have used the findmypast.com Service to view any records, even if you still have credit on your account.
  12. Pay Per View

  13. Pay-as-you-view charging uses a system of units. The number of units charged to view records varies, depending on the nature of the material viewed. Findmypast.com reserves the right at any time to change the number of units charged for accessing the Material.
  14. Units purchased from findmypast.com are valid only for the period of time notified at the time of purchase. After expiry, any unused units will be deleted from your account and no refunds will be given.
  15. Subscription

    Before purchasing a findmypast.com subscription customers accept both our terms and conditions and our subscription usage terms.

  16. After payment for the subscription, you have a cooling off period of fourteen days. If you decide within that period not to continue with your subscription you will be issued with a refund of the full subscription amount less any units used, which will be charged at our standard rate of 10p per unit. Where no units have been used, a full refund will be given. Notification of cancellation should be by email to cancel@findmypast.com no later than fourteen days from the date of purchase. After the cooling off period, no refunds can be given on subscription accounts under any circumstances, unless the service becomes unavailable for more than 28 consecutive days.
  17. This subscription service is made available for personal use only. This specifically excludes usage in connection with professional services or employment or for commercial gain, or the resale of your research. Third-party lookups, where data is searched for on behalf of another person and the results passed on to that person, whether for payment or gratis, are not permitted except in the context of passing on details of the subscriber's own personal family history. If you intend to use our services for any of the excluded purposes you should not take out a subscription, even if you have received our invitation to subscribe. You may not allow your login and password to be passed on to anyone other than the account holder for usage. If you are interested in a subscription for professional or corporate use please contact sales@findmypast.com. In the event of misuse of the service or violation of our fair usage limits we reserve the right to withdraw subscription privileges and charge retrospectively for all units used at our standard rate of 10p per unit.
  18. The subscription is made available to personal customers only and to ensure the availability of a high quality service for all customers, we enforce a strict Fair Usage Policy. We monitor all our accounts on a daily basis and reserve the right to suspend or terminate an account at any time where there appear to be violations of our normal terms and conditions and these subscription usage terms. We will always attempt to make contact with the account holder prior to termination or suspension to check that the excessive usage is not a temporary activity or to arrange a different payment plan or higher-usage account. We regard as excessive any usage that exceeds either an average of 1000 units per month over a rolling three-month period, or 200% of the average usage for all subscribers, whichever is the greater.
  19. VAT

  20. All prices quoted are inclusive of VAT and any applicable sales taxes. Our prices do not vary with the VAT status of the customer and we are not able to refund VAT to customers living outside the UK.
  21. Your obligations and liabilities

  22. You must be eighteen years old or over, or have the permission of an adult, to register to use the findmypast.com Service. Suitable payment methods for people under eighteen are vouchers and click&buy
  23. As part of the registration process, you will select a password and register either an email address or a user name. You must not register a user name which impersonates anyone else and we will not permit you to register a user name that we consider to be frivolous or offensive.
  24. You must provide us with accurate and complete registration information and keep it updated.
  25. You must notify us as soon as possible, by post or e-mail to support@findmypast.com, if you know of, or suspect, any unauthorised use of your account or any breach of security (including loss, theft, or unauthorised disclosure of your user name, password or credit card information).
  26. You must keep your user name and password confidential. We will not ask you to reveal your password to anyone.
  27. Your obligations in these terms are in addition to any obligation or liability you have under general law.
  28. Our liability is restricted

  29. All conditions, warranties and other terms which would otherwise be implied by law are excluded. This clause 23 does not apply if you are an individual unless you are using the findmypast.com Service in the course of your business.
  30. Subject to clauses 23 and 25 of these terms, our liability to you for any loss you may suffer as a result of using or being unable to use the findmypast.com Service is restricted to the total payments you made to us in the calendar year prior to the date on which your claim arose. If you require us to assume a higher level of liability to you please contact us by e-mail to support@findmypast.com. There will be an additional charge for this.
  31. The exclusions and restrictions of our liability set out in these terms cover our liability however it arises (including our liability for negligence) for loss of the kind described even if it is of a kind: (i) which we have been advised could or will occur; or (ii) which in the circumstances would arise in the ordinary course of things; or (iii) which is reasonably foreseeable at the time of your using the findmypast.com Service or the time of the relevant event or occurrence.
  32. Nothing in these terms limits or excludes our liability for fraudulent misrepresentation or death or personal injury caused by our negligence. Any statutory rights you may have as a consumer remain unaffected.
  33. Data protection and privacy

  34. When you register to use the findmypast.com Service you are required to provide us with information and personal details about yourself. We are a registered data controller, and our registration number is Z6639808. We will always use your data lawfully in accordance with the United Kingdom Data Protection Act 1998.
  35. If you have registered with the site or subscribed to the newsletter we may store your personal data and use it to contact you to provide you with service updates and news from findmypast.com. Otherwise, we will not contact you unless you have given us your consent to do so, or unless it is necessary to resolve some problem.
  36. We will send newsletters to you only if you have specifically registered with us to receive them. You may choose to opt-out of the newsletter at any time by following the unsubscribe instructions in each newsletter or by visiting the 'My Account' section of the site after signing in.
  37. We will not pass your details to third parties unless you have given us your consent to do so.
  38. We may store some of this information on your own computer (as a 'cookie') so that we can access this information while you are connected to this website in order to improve our service to you. If you remove the cookie we cannot guarantee that you will be able to benefit from all our facilities. In particular, we will not be able to prevent you being charged again to look at an image you have already paid to view.
  39. Vouchers

  40. Only vouchers issued by findmypast.com and purchased from an authorized stockist can be accepted as payment for use on our site.
  41. A separate set of Terms and Conditions are applicable to stockists or purchasers of bulk volumes of findmypast.com vouchers. These can be found on the reverse of the order form and here.
  42. Vouchers cannot be refunded under any circumstances, but a replacement voucher or equivalent units will be supplied if a voucher is damaged or faulty.
  43. Service availability

  44. findmypast.com reserves the right to withdraw or modify one or more aspects of the findmypast.com Service where we have legal or commercial reasons to do so, including privacy, data protection or other legal objections to the content or conduct of the findmypast.com Service.
  45. While all reasonable measures are taken to ensure the availability of the findmypast.com Service, there may also be times when the findmypast.com Service is unavailable for technical reasons. No refunds or extensions to expiry dates of units will be given due to the unavailability of the service unless the interruption continues for more than 48 hours.
  46. Links to third party sites

  47. Our site contains links to other websites. findmypast.com is not responsible for the privacy practices, the content, services availability or any other aspect of those web sites.
  48. Changes to these terms

  49. We may change these terms at any time. If we do, we will display a notice on the home page of this website for one month after the change is made. If you use the findmypast.com Service after such a notice appears, you will be deemed to have accepted the revised terms and to have agreed to be bound by them, whether or not you actually read the notice or the new terms.
  50. Termination

  51. If your agreement with us ends, then no matter how or why it ends all these terms will continue to have effect except for clause 3. This clause 39 does not apply if you cancel the agreement pursuant to clause 10 or 13.
  52. Law

  53. These terms, your agreement with us, your use of the findmypast.com service, and any issue arising in connection with any of these, are all subject to English law and the courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction in respect of any dispute arising in connection with any of these.
  54. Interpretation

  55. In these terms:
    • 'Claim' means any form of claim, whether formal or informal, including legal proceedings.
    • 'Including', 'in particular' etc: These, and related expressions, are only intended to indicate particular examples. Their use, and the use of such examples, is not intended to limit in any way whatsoever the interpretation or construction of these terms or any other words in terms.
    • 'Loss' means any form of loss or damage, and any liability incurred to a third party, and includes all costs and expenses incurred in connection with that loss, damage or liability or in connection with any claim concerning that loss, damage or liability.
    • 'Material' means anything made available to you through the findmypast.com Service, including all text, data, diagrams, photographs, computer programs, thesauruses and other works.
    • 'Must' denotes an obligation.
    • 'Person' means any individual, firm, association, corporation or other body or legal entity.
    • 'Service' is the provision of Material supplied through the website of findmypast.com.
    • 'We' means Find My Past Ltd trading as findmypast.com. Related expressions (such as 'us' and 'our') are to be interpreted accordingly. Where these terms exclude or restrict our liability, these expressions include the company's directors, agents, officers and employees to the extent they are acting in the course of their duties.
    • 'You' means the individual using this website and the findmypast.com Service, unless that individual is acting on behalf of any other person, when it includes that other person. 'Your' is to be interpreted accordingly.
    • Your obligation not to do something includes an obligation not to authorise or permit any person to do it.
    • The singular includes the plural and vice versa, and gender includes all genders.
    • Headings are for ease of reference only and are not to be used for the purpose of interpreting these terms.

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