This archive is a shared research project. These guidelines exist so it stays useful and civil. They apply to every contribution: records, photographs, documents, biographies, notes and comments.
Do not submit
- anything unlawful;
- malware, or anything designed to compromise the site or its visitors;
- information you know to be false, submitted in order to deceive;
- material you do not have permission to submit;
- material that infringes someone's copyright or other rights;
- threats, harassment, or targeted abuse of another contributor;
- hateful content directed at people because of race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, disability, sex, gender identity or sexual orientation;
- sexual content involving children, or any sexually exploitative material;
- private information about a living person that has no genealogical purpose, such as home addresses, telephone numbers, financial details, government identification numbers or medical information;
- spam, advertising, or links posted to drive traffic elsewhere.
Getting the history wrong is not misconduct
Being mistaken is not a violation of these guidelines. Family history is built from partial and contradictory evidence. Careful researchers reach different conclusions from the same records, and conclusions change as new evidence appears. Disagreement about a parentage, a date, an identification or a line of descent is ordinary research, not misbehaviour.
What we ask is that disagreement be handled as research:
- say what your evidence is, and cite it where you can;
- distinguish what a record states from what you infer from it;
- mark uncertainty as uncertainty, since the archive has confidence levels and research statuses for exactly this;
- leave a competing conclusion in place rather than overwriting it, and where the archive supports it, record both and note the conflict;
- argue about evidence, not about the person presenting it.
What crosses the line is deliberate falsification: inventing a relationship, fabricating a document, or knowingly attaching a real photograph to the wrong person in order to mislead.
To raise a disputed record, add a research note to the record with your evidence, or write to holden.archive.history@gmail.com. For anything touching a living person, someone's rights or a possible legal problem, use the Content Removal & Copyright Complaints process.
Living people and members' privacy
Take particular care with anyone who may still be living.
- Do not add detailed information about a living person without good reason.
- Do not publish a living person's contact details, address or identification numbers.
- Do not upload a photograph of a living person who has not agreed to it.
- Set living people's records to a restricted visibility.
- A member's date of birth and residences are private to that member. Never try to find out, infer or republish them.
Any person may ask about information concerning them by writing to holden.archive.history@gmail.com, or through the contact page. They do not need an account.
Claim codes and ownership
Claim codes belong to the person holding the item they came with. Do not guess codes, try to claim items that are not yours, or post codes publicly. Do not use the owner-name feature to harass or identify people, and do not scrape owner names.
Photographs and documents
- Upload only what you have the right to upload.
- Say where it came from, and who holds the original if you know.
- Do not remove or crop out an existing credit, watermark or caption.
- Transcribe rather than alter; if you enhance a scan, say so.
If something here is wrong
Small corrections: fix them, and note your source. Larger disagreements, or anything touching a living person, someone's rights or a possible legal problem: use the Content Removal & Copyright Complaints process.
If these guidelines are breached
Depending on what happened, we may leave a note on the record, restrict or remove material, ask you to supply sources, or suspend or close an account. Serious cases may be acted on immediately. Where it is reasonable, we will explain and give you a chance to respond.