company guide
Terms & conditions
Standard terms of use for the Make Family Tree Now website and the free family tree builder. Your data is yours, our guides are ours, and the site is provided as-is for research purposes.
- Guides free to read and reference; reprint requires permission.
- Family tree data you enter belongs to you.
- No warranties on record accuracy — genealogy is a judgment activity.
- US federal law; Rhode Island jurisdiction.
- Full terms will replace this summary before launch.
How to use this guide in real research
Begin with a specific person, place, and approximate date rather than a name alone. Record the repository, collection, image or certificate number, and access date for every result. That citation lets another researcher retrace the same evidence and helps you distinguish people who share a name.
Treat indexes and transcriptions as finding aids. Whenever possible, open the original image and compare names, ages, relationships, locations, and informants with records you already trust. A plausible match becomes a supported conclusion only when independent sources agree and conflicting evidence has been addressed.
Quality checks before adding a conclusion
- Search spelling variants, initials, nicknames, neighboring households, and a wider date range.
- Prefer records created close to the event, while noting who supplied each fact.
- Keep negative searches and rejected matches in your research log so work is not repeated.
- Mark uncertain relationships clearly until multiple independent records support them.