Terms of Service
United States
1. Who we are & acceptance
EuropaRoots is a genealogical research service operated by Manuel Grahammer, a sole proprietorship, based in Germany. By placing an order you agree to these Terms, our Privacy Policy, and our Refund Policy.
2. The service
We research your direct-line ancestors in digitized, online-accessible records — parish, civil, and archival databases, including paid sources — and deliver a private digital family chronicle. If a relevant record exists only offline in a physical archive or registry, we point you to it rather than retrieving it as part of the standard service. Research is inherently uncertain: some records were never created, are not digitized, or were lost. We do not guarantee any specific ancestor, generation, or record will be found.
Transcription and translation
At the fixed price the service covers a single document: one letter, one certificate, one postcard or one register entry, of up to two written pages. Longer items are not included; EuropaRoots will provide a separate quote in advance.
The service consists of a transcription and, if ordered, a translation of the submitted document. A machine first draft is permitted; review and release are carried out against the submitted original or scan.
Delivery is made within 2 business days after receipt of payment and of a usable source document. If EuropaRoots misses this deadline and the result has not yet been delivered, you may cancel and receive a full refund of the price paid.
If, after professional review, the document cannot be transcribed in a usable form, EuropaRoots will refund the price paid for this service in full. A document is unreadable only if no substantively usable text can be obtained from it. Uncertain readings or incomplete preservation alone do not give rise to a refund, provided the remaining text is documented.
3. Eligibility
You must be 18+ and able to enter this contract. By providing information about other people (including living relatives), you confirm you are authorized to do so.
4. Orders, pricing & payment
Prices are shown before checkout and charged in the displayed currency (USD for U.S. customers). Payment is processed by Stripe; we do not store card details. Research begins immediately upon successful payment.
5. Refunds
Governed by our Refund Policy (results-based partial refunds). U.S. law provides no statutory cancellation period for this service. The cancellation rights set out immediately below are granted by us contractually.
Cancellation, Refunds and Delivery Time (US Customers)
- Cancellation within 24 hours
You may cancel your order for the digital family chronicle within 24 hours of order confirmation (payment). In this case you will receive a full refund of the price paid, without any processing fee. The refund will be processed within 7 business days to the original payment method. - Cancellation after 24 hours and before delivery
After the 24-hour period and until delivery of the final digital family chronicle, you may still cancel. In this case you will receive a refund of 50 % of the price paid. The refund will be processed within 7 business days to the original payment method. - After delivery
Once the final digital family chronicle has been delivered, cancellation is no longer possible under this section. - Outcome-based coverage refund
The voluntary, system-calculated coverage refund (graduated according to the achieved source coverage, less the processing fee displayed in the Refund Policy at the time of purchase) remains independent of the cancellation rights above. It is calculated and offered proactively by the system only after delivery of the final chronicle. - Delivery time
The binding delivery time is the specific delivery date displayed to you and confirmed in the order confirmation at the time of purchase, if such a date was shown. Otherwise the maximum period of 7, 14 or 28 business days displayed at the time of purchase applies.
If EuropaRoots exceeds this date or maximum period and the chronicle has not yet been delivered, you have the right to cancel the order free of charge and receive a full refund of the price paid. - Civil-status document service
Separate cancellation terms apply to the optional service for obtaining civil-status documents; these are set out in the applicable service description. - Price
The price payable is the amount displayed to you and confirmed at the time of purchase / in the order confirmation. No other price is fixed in these terms.
6. Your data & deliverables
Your family information remains yours. We grant you a personal, non-exclusive license to use the chronicle we deliver. We may use de-identified, aggregated data to improve our methods; we do not sell your personal information (see Privacy Policy).
7. Acceptable use
No unlawful use, no submitting data you are not authorized to provide, no reselling deliverables without permission.
8. Disclaimers
The service and deliverables are provided "AS IS" and "AS AVAILABLE," without warranties of any kind (accuracy, completeness, fitness). Historical records may contain errors we cannot correct.
9. Limitation of liability
To the maximum extent permitted by law, our total liability is limited to the amount you paid for the order; no indirect, incidental, or consequential damages.
10. Indemnification
You indemnify EuropaRoots against claims arising from your breach of these Terms or unauthorized submission of third-party data.
11. Governing law & disputes
These Terms are governed by the laws of Germany, with the courts of Berlin, Germany having jurisdiction, without prejudice to any mandatory consumer-protection rights you may have under the law of your place of residence.
Governing Law and Savings Clause
This Agreement is governed by the laws of the Federal Republic of Germany.
Nothing in this Agreement limits or excludes any mandatory rights you may have under the U.S. Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. § 45) or under applicable state consumer-protection or unfair-and-deceptive-acts-or-practices (UDAP) laws.
12. Changes
We may update these Terms; the version at your order governs it. Material changes posted here.