Agreeing to these terms
These terms are the agreement between you and Holden's Archive when you use this site or buy from its shop. By creating an account, placing an order or using the archive, you agree to them. If you do not agree, please do not use the site.
The archive and shop are operated by Holden's Archive (Holden Margeson), South Carolina, United States, contactable at holden.archive.history@gmail.com.
These terms work together with the Privacy Policy, Cookie Policy, Copyright & Intellectual Property Policy, Community Guidelines, Content Removal & Copyright Complaints process, the Shipping and Return policies, the Authenticity Guarantee, and, for club members, the History By Mail Club Terms.
Your account
When you create an account, you agree to:
- give accurate account information, and keep it current;
- keep your sign-in credentials to yourself and not share your account;
- not impersonate another person, living or dead, or misrepresent your connection to a family or an institution;
- take responsibility for what is done through your account.
Tell us promptly at holden.archive.history@gmail.com if you believe someone else has used your account.
How you may use the archive
You may read, search and research. You may cite and quote records with attribution. You may keep copies for your own family history research.
You agree not to:
- submit material that is unlawful, or that infringes someone's rights;
- knowingly submit false or fraudulent genealogical information, or information intended to deceive;
- upload malware, or anything designed to damage the site or its visitors;
- attempt to breach, probe or compromise the site, its database, or other users' accounts;
- circumvent access restrictions, visibility settings or permission checks;
- guess, scrape or trade claim codes, or try to claim an item that is not yours;
- use automated tools to harvest the archive in bulk, overload it, or extract data at a rate that interferes with other people's use of it;
- harass, threaten or abuse other contributors;
- use the archive for any unlawful purpose.
Reasonable, courteous automated access for genuine research may be permitted. Ask first at holden.archive.history@gmail.com.
Genealogy is uncertain, and this archive will contain errors
Historical research is built on incomplete, inconsistent and sometimes contradictory records. Names were spelled differently by different clerks. Ages in census returns are frequently wrong. Two people in the same town in the same decade may share a name. Documents are misfiled, mistranscribed and lost.
The archive does not guarantee that any relationship, date, place, identity, document, photograph or historical claim on this site is correct. Material here represents research in progress, at varying levels of confidence. Records carry research status and confidence indicators; please read them.
Do not rely on this archive alone for anything consequential, such as a legal claim, a medical decision, an inheritance question or an application for citizenship. Go to the original records.
We may change records
To keep the archive accurate and lawful, we may correct, restrict, merge, reorganise, remove or annotate any record, including material you contributed. This usually happens because better evidence has come to light, because two records turn out to describe one person, or because of a legitimate complaint.
Your contributions
What happens to material you contribute, and what rights you keep, is set out in the Copyright & Intellectual Property Policy, which forms part of these terms. In short: you keep what you own, and you give the archive only the permissions it needs in order to store, preserve and display your contribution. The Community Guidelines also form part of these terms.
Shop purchases
The shop sells original antiques, historical documents and one-of-a-kind items. By placing an order you agree to the following.
- Items and descriptions. Each item is described and photographed as accurately as we can. Dates, attributions and identifications may be approximate or informed opinion, and age-related wear consistent with the stated condition is not a defect.
- Prices and payment. Prices are in US dollars. Payment is taken by Stripe at checkout. Sales tax is added where it applies. An order is accepted when payment succeeds, and because most items are unique, an item may occasionally turn out to be unavailable, in which case we will refund you in full.
- Shipping, customs and delivery. Shipping is governed by the Shipping Policy. International buyers are responsible for customs fees, duties and taxes.
- Returns and authenticity. Returns are governed by the Return Policy and authenticity claims by the Authenticity Guarantee. Nothing in them limits rights you have under law that cannot be waived.
- Certificates of Authenticity. Items ship with a signed Certificate of Authenticity. A certificate records our identification of that particular item at the time of sale and is not a guarantee of its market value.
- Subscriptions. The History By Mail Club has its own terms, including automatic renewal and cancellation.
Claim codes and document ownership
Items we ship include a claim code. Entering a valid code at holdens-archive.org/archive/claim while signed in links the matching archive record to your account as a record of your ownership of the physical item.
- A code works once. Whoever uses it first becomes the recorded owner, so keep your code private and do not share a photograph of it.
- Claiming is a record only. It does not transfer copyright or any right to reproduce the item, and it does not make the archive record private. The record stays public and searchable.
- Your name is shown as owner of a document only if you choose to show it. You can change that choice at any time.
- We may revoke, reissue or transfer a code or an ownership record to correct a mistake, to deal with a resale or gift, or if we believe a code was obtained or used improperly.
Suspension and termination
We may suspend or close an account that breaches these terms or the Community Guidelines. Where it is reasonable to do so, we will explain why and give you a chance to respond. Serious cases, such as attacks on the site, unlawful material or harassment, may be acted on immediately.
You may close your account at any time by writing to holden.archive.history@gmail.com or from your profile page.
No warranty
The archive is provided as it is, and as it is available. To the fullest extent the law allows, we make no warranties of any kind about the site or its contents, including any warranty of accuracy, completeness, merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or uninterrupted availability. This does not limit the Authenticity Guarantee or your rights as a buyer under law.
Limitation of liability
To the fullest extent the law allows, neither the archive nor its operator will be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for any loss of data, profit or goodwill, arising out of your use of the site. For shop purchases, our total liability for any claim relating to an order is limited to the amount you paid for that order. Some places do not allow these limits, so they apply only to the extent the law permits.
Governing law
These terms, and any dispute about the site or the shop, are governed by the laws of the State of South Carolina, United States, and the state and federal courts located in South Carolina will have jurisdiction, except that nothing here removes any consumer protection that applies to you by law where you live.
Changes to these terms
We may update these terms. The current version, its number and its effective date always appear on this page, and earlier versions stay in the version history. If a change is significant, you will be asked to review and accept it before continuing to use features that require acceptance.