Terms & Conditions

1. Who provides this service

Find My Roots (FindMyRoots.online) was created by Mico Se'khu Hadjo Gentle on behalf of the Yamassee Tribe and is owned, operated and administered under the inherent authority and law of the Yamassee Tribe upon statutory Native land. All tribal rights are retained with or without federal acknowledgement. Nothing in these terms waives, limits or diminishes the sovereign authority, immunities, rights or property of the Yamassee Tribe.

2. Eligibility and accounts

You must be at least 16 years old, or the age of majority where you live, to hold an account. You are responsible for the accuracy of the information you provide, for keeping your credentials secure, and for all activity under your account. Notify us immediately of any unauthorized use.

3. What the service does — and does not do

Find My Roots is a research tool. It searches public and licensed archives, organizes evidence, and helps you decide what to investigate next. It does not certify identity, ancestry, ethnicity, citizenship, enrollment, or membership in any tribe, nation or organization.

• Search results are leads and evidence, not proof.
• Unverified leads are labeled as such and must never be treated as a confirmed ancestor, match, enrollment or citizenship.
• Artificial intelligence features explain, extract and summarize evidence already retrieved. They do not create facts, records or citations.
• An absence of results is not proof that a record or relationship does not exist.

4. Membership, billing and cancellation

A free tier is available. Paid membership is billed in advance on a recurring basis at the price shown at checkout until you cancel. You may cancel at any time from your account; cancellation stops future renewals and takes effect at the end of the paid period. Except where required by law, fees already paid are non-refundable. Taxes may apply. Prices may change with notice before your next renewal.

5. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• upload content you have no right to share, or that violates another person's privacy;
• use the service to harass, stalk, defame, discriminate against, or make unfounded claims about any person, family, tribe or nation;
• scrape, resell, redistribute or bulk-export the service, its archives, or its outputs for a competing product;
• attempt to bypass paywalls, login walls, robots restrictions, rate limits or source policies of any archive, through the service or otherwise;
• reverse engineer, disrupt, overload, or attempt to gain unauthorized access to the service.

6. Your content and your family data

You retain ownership of the documents, photographs, oral histories and case information you upload. You grant us a limited license to store, process and display that content solely to operate the service for you and anyone you invite to collaborate. We do not sell your family data. You may delete your content or your account at any time.

7. Cultural and tribal materials

Tribal records, rolls, oral histories, cultural knowledge and community materials made available through Find My Roots remain the property and cultural patrimony of the Yamassee Tribe and their respective communities. Access is granted for personal and family research only. Commercial use, republication, redistribution or derivative datasets require prior written permission from the Yamassee Tribe. Private archive material remains owner-scoped and access controlled.

8. Intellectual property

The Find My Roots name, logo, marks, interface, research methodology, software and compiled indexes are the property of the Yamassee Tribe and its licensors, and are protected under tribal law and any other applicable law. No license is granted except as expressly stated here.

9. Third-party archives

The service connects to third-party repositories and archives. Their content, availability, accuracy and terms are outside our control. Historical records may contain offensive, inaccurate or harmful language; original wording and spelling are preserved as evidence of how a record classified a person, not as a statement of fact about them.

10. Disclaimers and limitation of liability

The service is provided "as is" and "as available" without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy, or non-infringement. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, our total liability arising out of or relating to the service will not exceed the amount you paid in the twelve months before the claim, and we will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages.

11. Governing law, jurisdiction and sovereign immunity

These terms are governed by the laws of the Yamassee Tribe, applied on statutory Native land, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Disputes will be resolved first by good-faith negotiation, and thereafter before the tribal forum designated by the Yamassee Tribe. Nothing here constitutes an express or implied waiver of the sovereign immunity of the Yamassee Tribe, its officers, agents or enterprises. Where a provision is held unenforceable in a given forum, the remainder stays in force.

12. Suspension and termination

We may suspend or terminate access for breach of these terms, unlawful conduct, or misuse of cultural or tribal materials. You may close your account at any time. Sections concerning intellectual property, cultural materials, disclaimers, liability and jurisdiction survive termination.

13. Changes and contact

We may update these terms; material changes will be posted here with a new effective date. Questions may be sent to support@findmyroots.online.