Privacy and ethics in family research

Genealogy is research into real lives. The dead leave public records. The living have a right to privacy. Keep the two apart.

Rules for living people

• Do not publish names, birth dates, addresses or photographs of living people without their permission.
• Mark living people as living in your tree. Most software hides them when you share.
• Collect only what a living relative chooses to give you. This site's methods are for researching ancestors. They are not for investigating, locating or monitoring a living person.
• Ask before you record an interview, and ask again before you share it.

Rules for sensitive findings

• You will find adoptions, second families, crimes, institutions and causes of death that relatives kept quiet. Verify before you tell anyone.
• Consider who is still alive to be hurt. Some findings can wait.
• Tell the truth in your records. Decide separately what to share, with whom, and when.

Rules for DNA

• Get a relative's informed consent before you ask them to test. Explain that results can reveal unexpected parents and siblings.
• Never test another adult's DNA without their knowledge.
• When a match turns out to be a surprise close relative, contact them gently and give them room. They owe you nothing.
• Keep other people's match information private.

Rules for sources

• Use records you are legally allowed to access. Respect archive rules and copyright.
• Credit the researchers and volunteers whose work you use.
• Correct your tree in public when you find you were wrong. Others have copied it.