Terms of Use

These terms govern your use of the Kinderhof website and services ("Kinderhof", "we", "us"). By creating an account or using the site you agree to them. If you do not agree, please do not use Kinderhof.

1. Who can use Kinderhof

You must be at least 18 years old, or the age of majority where you live, to create an account. Children use Kinderhof through child profiles managed by a parent or guardian, who is responsible for the profile and confirms they have the authority to create it.

2. Your account

Sign-in is by a link we email to you. Keep your email account secure, and do not share sign-in links. You are responsible for activity in your account. Tell us promptly if you think someone else has accessed it. Information you give us must be accurate.

3. Families and roles

A family account has members with roles: owner, admin, member and child profile. Owners and admins can invite and remove people, change roles and manage the family's content. Each family must always have at least one owner. By inviting someone, you confirm you have a good reason to believe they want to join. Owners are responsible for how their family account is used.

4. Your content

You keep ownership of the family information, files and tree data you provide ("Your Content"). You give us a limited licence to host, process and display Your Content only as needed to run Kinderhof for you and your family, for example to build your calendar and games. You promise that you have the right to provide Your Content, and that it does not break the law or anyone's rights. Family trees contain information about other people; please respect their privacy, particularly the privacy of living people and children.

When you upload a GEDCOM file, you confirm that you have the right to share it with your family on Kinderhof. Please do not upload details of living people that you do not have permission to share. Kinderhof does not store names or details for people it treats as possibly living, but notes, places and occupations of people who have died are stored as written, so please check them first. See the Privacy Policy.

5. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• break the law or infringe anyone's rights;
• upload content that is harmful, harassing, hateful or unlawful, or malware;
• try to access other families' information, or access the service by means we have not provided;
• probe, overload or disrupt the service, or bypass rate limits or bot protection;
• scrape, resell or repackage the service, or use it to build a competing service;
• use Kinderhof to collect information about people in order to harass, discriminate against or exploit them.

6. Third-party services

Kinderhof may let you connect third-party services such as FamilySearch. Your use of those services is subject to their own terms and policies, and we are not responsible for them. Kinderhof is independent and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by FamilySearch or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. FamilySearch is a trademark of its owner. Features that depend on a third party may change or stop if that party changes its terms or access.

7. Features in development

Uploading a GEDCOM file and browsing your family tree are available now. Other features described on this site, including the family calendar, the games and the FamilySearch connection, are marked "coming soon". They may change or may not be released. Kinderhof is provided as it is developed, and we may add, change or remove features.

8. Fees

Kinderhof is free while it is being built. We may introduce paid plans in the future. We will announce any pricing on this site, give clear notice and ask for your agreement before charging you for anything.

9. Our intellectual property

The Kinderhof name, logo, design, software and site content, other than Your Content, belong to us or our licensors. You may use the service as intended, but you may not copy or reuse our branding or code without permission.

10. Privacy

Our Privacy Policy explains how we handle information and forms part of these terms.

11. Suspension and ending

You can stop using Kinderhof and delete your account or family at any time. We may suspend or end access if you break these terms or put others or the service at risk. When an account or family is deleted, its data is deleted as described in the Privacy Policy.

12. Disclaimers

Kinderhof is provided "as is" and "as available". Family history information, including data from files you upload or from third parties, can be incomplete or wrong. We do not guarantee that tree data, calendar entries or game content are accurate, or that the service will be uninterrupted or error-free. Nothing in these terms limits rights you have under consumer law that cannot be excluded.

13. Limitation of liability

To the extent the law allows, we are not liable for indirect, incidental, special or consequential damages, or for lost data, profits or goodwill arising from your use of Kinderhof. Our total liability for any claim relating to the service is limited to the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim (which is nothing while Kinderhof is free). Nothing excludes liability that cannot be excluded by law.

14. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. We will give you reasonable notice of material changes by email or on the site. If you keep using Kinderhof after changes take effect, you accept them.

15. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the place where the operator of Kinderhof is established, and disputes will be handled by the courts of that place, except where local consumer law gives you the right to use the courts where you live. Contact us if you need to know the details for your situation.

16. Contact

Questions about these terms: hello@kinderhof.org.