Terms and Conditions including GDPR
The www.rootsireland.ie website is run by the Irish Family History Foundation Ltd. (IFHF) on behalf of its county genealogy centre members on the island of Ireland. The Irish Family History Foundation has been the coordinating body for a network of county genealogy centres on the island of Ireland for over thirty years. The genealogy centres’ databases include various denominations of church records of baptisms, marriages and deaths/burials, census returns/substitutes, gravestone inscriptions and more.
Before using or purchasing any IFHF or its member centres’ products and services you must agree to the following terms and conditions that define your rights, responsibilities and benefits. This applies to any users of any of the IFHF or its member centres’ datasets. By purchasing a subscription you agree to be bound by our Terms and Conditions. If you do not agree with any of these Terms, or if you have any objections to our Website Privacy Statement, you must not use the service or website.
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
On 25 May 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a new Europe-wide regulation which covers data protection came into force. This new regulation is intended to strengthen the data protection rights of everybody within the European Union. GDPR strengthens your rights to privacy and the information held about you. Providing transparency and accessibility in relation to customer information is a key element of the new regulation.
We updated our Privacy Statement and our Terms and Conditions on 25th May 2018. You can view our Privacy Statement at the following link:
The changes described in our new Privacy Statement and Terms and Conditions are intended to clarify your rights as a customer of www.rootsireland.ie. Please take some time to read the new Terms and Conditions and Privacy Statement. If you are not happy with these statements then you can request that we delete your account. If you have any further queries regarding GDPR, please contact us at enquiries@rootsireland.ie.
Description of the service
www.rootsireland.ie and the IFHF offers subscribers access to use an index search of various Irish genealogical sources, including the most complete database of Irish parish records in the world, and the opportunity to view the available details of the records that have been extracted from these various original sources. Subscribers can research their own Irish family history with the help of these extensive databases of Irish records.
Fair usage/Subscription Limits
We have a fair usage limits on each of our subscriptions as follows:
- 500 record views for one-day access
- 1,300 record views per month for a monthly subscription
- 1,400 record views per month for a 6 month subscription
- 1,500 record views per month for an annual subscription
If you do manage to reach your limit, you will not be able to view any further records until the end of the month’s subscription period and the limit will then be automatically reset. If you wish to continue searching please contact us via email to allow you to buy another subscription.
Your use of the site
You may access rootsireland.ie with an individual browser to compile your own family history or, if a professional, on behalf of a specific client. You may not use bots, page-scrapes, crawlers, spiders, robots, deep-links or any other automatic device, program, algorithm or methodology access tools; you may not use any similar or equivalent manual process to access, acquire, copy or monitor any portion of this site or any of its content, or in any way reproduce or circumvent the navigational structure or presentation of this site or any its content, to obtain or attempt to obtain any materials, documents or information through any means not purposely made available through the site. We reserve the right to bar any such activity and close your account without notice. You may use graphics, information, data, editorial and any other content displayed on or accessible through the website (“content”) for your personal or professional family history research only, and download content as search results relevant to that research and cite the origin of the content. The download of whole or material parts of any part of this site or its database is prohibited. You may not share information taken from this website on social media, including, but not exclusively, screen grabs or transcripts – this is intellectual theft. Failure to adhere to this simple request will see the immediate suspension of Roots Ireland accounts and possible legal action. This also includes administrators of social media pages and other websites which allow this fraudulent practice.
You must register with us to use the website. If you are under 16 do not register unless you have permission from your legal guardian to do so. We reserve the right to ask you to provide us with a copy of identification that will verify your age.
You must provide accurate, complete, up-to-date registration information. The account information we request is to help us prevent spam, fraud or abuse. Failure to do so will result in a breach of these terms. You may not select or use the name of another person with the intent to impersonate that person, use the rights of another person without authorisation, or use a name that is offensive to a reasonable person.
It is your responsibility to keep your personal information – including your email address and password – secure, accurate and up-to-date. You must notify us by email at enquiries@rootsireland.ie of any known or suspected unauthorised usage of your account, or any known or suspected breach of security, including loss, theft, or unauthorised disclosure of your password or credit card information.
You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your password. You will never be required to reveal your password to a member of staff and you should never email us your password. If you are asked to do so by someone purporting to represent the IFHF then this is a fraud attempt and you must notify us at enquiries@rootsireland.ie.
You are responsible for all usage or activity on the website using your login details and password. Distribution of your password to others for access to www.rootsireland.ie is expressly prohibited and shall constitute a breach of these terms. Any fraudulent, abusive, or otherwise illegal activity may be grounds for termination of your account, at our sole discretion, and may be referred to the appropriate law enforcement agencies.
On completion of the registration and payment process you will have the ability to search our index and view records within the time period of your subscription only. You may use www.rootsireland.ie and its contents for your own personal, non-commercial use, i.e. to research your own family history, or to research a specific family for a client. You should not provide third parties who are not your family members or named clients with details of any of the records that you have paid to view, even if you provide them for free.
You may access www.rootsireland.ie only personally with an individual browser (bots, crawlers, spiders, and other automatic access tools are prohibited); use graphics, information, data, editorial and any other content displayed on or accessible through the website (“content”) only for your personal or professional family history research, and download content only as search results relevant to that research. For example, the download of the whole or material parts of the database is prohibited.
Resale of the database or portion thereof, except as specific results relevant to specific research for an individual, is prohibited. Online or other republication of content is prohibited except as unique data elements that are part of a unique family history or genealogy.
Violation of this limited use license may result in immediate termination of your membership and may result in legal action against you. You may use the software provided on the service only while online and may not download, copy, reuse or distribute that software, except where it is clearly stated in connection with software that it is made available for offline use, and a license for such use is provided in connection with that software. Rootsireland.ie, the IFHF and its member centres retain title, ownership and all other rights and interests in and to all content, except as expressly set forth in these terms.
Usage of the site does not imply any permanent benefit or warranty. Access to this site is at the discretion of the IFHF and its member centres. The IFHF may alter this agreement at any time. Check each time you use the site for changes to the agreement. Your continued use of the site after any change indicates your acceptance of that change. If you do not accept the change, then please do not use the site.
Please consult our HELP section at http://www.rootsireland.ie/help/help-getting-started
Ownership of data
All material on the website (content) is owned, copyrighted or licensed by the IFHF and its member centres.
You are licensed to review, download, and print the content for your personal genealogical and family history research, or for a client only. You may not publish material from this site in whole or in part in any electronic, print or other medium, except as unique elements that are part of a unique family history or genealogy. Violation of this license may result in immediate termination of your account and may result in legal action for injunction, damages, or both.
The records and features of this website exist because the participating county genealogy centres have spent time and money to make them available online. These organisations own the intellectual property rights of the records and relevant website features. You may use the content on the website for private and non-commercial purposes, unless you are providing it for an individual client. You may not use the records to create your own work (e.g. a database of records, an article, publication), copy or reproduce the records (either in whole or in part), or make available, share or publish them unless you have our express permission in writing.
Purchasing a subscription
In order to use the full search facility and to view the details of any records on www.rootsireland.ie you need to purchase a subscription. Currently there are four subscription options available; 24 hours, 1 month, 6 months and 12 months.
All prices are given in Euro (€), GBP (£) or USD ($).
VAT is included in the price and is charged to EU customers only, using the VAT rate in the country in which the customer is located. Payment details including VAT are sent via email to the customer following a successful payment.
Payments
You can purchase a subscription using any of the credit or debit cards listed on the payments’ page. All offers and products are subject to availability and the IFHF and its centres reserve the right to change prices without prior notification.
When making a payment you will be asked for your credit card or debit card details via Global Payments (formerly Realex). When you place an order, Global Payments will validate your card details. Payment may be declined for security reasons. If the transaction is not authorised you will be notified and invited to re-submit your details. The security measures built into this system are designed to protect the IFHF, its centres, and its customers from fraudulent transactions and to ensure that all its customers can use the facility with full confidence.
Your subscription is not confirmed until the validation of your payment. At the same time that you complete the online subscription process you will be sent a confirmation email outlining the details of your subscription and your subscription will then commence. It is recommended that you keep this email and/or print it out.
Once you have purchased a subscription you may use it to search the index and to view the details of any record that you find following a search.
Types of subscription
When purchasing a subscription you must choose or
‘Single Payment’ will debit your card once only at the time of payment. When this expires you will need to go through the payment process again yourself to either renew your subscription or purchase a new subscription.
A reminder will be sent to you, via email, 7 days before your subscription expires, so you can renew it if necessary or in the case of automatic renewal, it will show the renewal cost and you can CANCEL any further payments.
within 24 hours.
You can renew your subscription, or purchase a new subscription at any time and each renewal or new subscription will begin when the previous one ends. A limit is set, however, on how far into the future you can purchase subscriptions.
If the card that you use for your automatic renewal payments is due to expire then you need to start a new subscription with the new card details.
1 day (24 hours) Discount
If you purchase a 1 day (24 hours) subscription, and then upgrade to a 1, 6, or 12 month subscription within 30 days, the cost of the 1 day subscription will be deducted from cost of the new subscription. The upgrade discount will not apply with any other special offers or discounts.
Subscription prices may change at any time and are adjusted to keep the prices in line with the fluctuations in exchange rates.
To stop automatic renewal payments, log into your account, choose My Account, My Subscription and click Cancel Automatic Renewal payments.
Once your subscription has commenced you can immediately access the index and view records. Therefore, you do not have any cancellation or withdrawal rights under S.I. No. 207/2001 – European Communities (Protection of Consumers in Respect of Contracts Made by Means of Distance Communication) Regulations, 2001. However we will refund you, if you have not viewed the full details of any records.
Saving Records
You can save a limited number of records into your My Records folder. The saved records are then accessible to you in the future, once you have an active subscription, under the ‘My Records’ option under My Account. You can delete records or add records to this list as long as it does not exceed the limit at any time. We would advise you to print out or save to your own computer any records that you wish to view after your subscription is finished.
Refund policy
If you purchase a subscription you can contact us and cancel the purchase within seven days and we will give you a full refund as long as you have not performed excessive searches of the index and have not viewed any records. Refunds will be made to your credit/debit card only.
A subscription is valid for a fixed time period as shown on your confirmation email.
A subscription cannot be transferred to another customer’s account.
A subscription can be used to view records on any of the IFHF participating centres’ databases.
We strongly recommend that you see exactly what records are currently available for the county/counties you are interested in searching under Online Sources BEFORE you take out any subscription.
While IFHF will seek to redress matters of grievance, refunds will be granted at the sole discretion of IFHF management.
Liability disclaimer
The information, products and services included on this website may include inaccuracies or typographical errors. Changes are periodically made to the information herein. The IFHF and its member centres provide all content “as is”, and without any warranty of any kind, express or implied. We disclaim all warranties, express or implied, to the fullest extent permissible by law. We do not warrant that the functions on this site will be uninterrupted or problem free, that errors will be corrected or that this site or sites or the server(s) that make it available are free of viruses or other damaging materials.
While every possible care has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the material held on this database, www.rootsireland.ie and the IFHF cannot be held responsible for any errors or omissions.
Please note that while this database is extensive, we do not make any claim that it is exhaustive and cannot therefore guarantee the presence of specific records.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION
We do not have records for every Irish county*; we do not have images or links to images of all original sources; the amount of records and sources provided by each county genealogy centre varies widely. Please also note that we have very few records after circa 1925. You need to check BEFORE you purchase a subscription exactly what is currently available for the county or counties in which you want to search.
We provide a HELP section, lists of Our Records by county and Example Records; you can access this information on the homepage under Getting Started.
*We have a significant number of records for counties: Antrim, Armagh, Carlow, Cavan, Cork North and East excluding Cork City, Derry/Londonderry, Donegal, Down, Dublin N & S excluding Dublin City, Fermanagh, Galway, Kildare, Kilkenny, Laois, Leitrim, Limerick, Longford, Louth, Mayo, Meath, parts of Monaghan, Offaly, Roscommon, Sligo, most of Tipperary, Tyrone, Waterford, Westmeath and Wicklow.
*We have a small amount of Co. Clare and Co. Wexford records.
*We do not hold all County Kerry records. We have no records for Cork south and west or Cork city, part of Co. Tipperary and part of Co. Dublin and Dublin city.
Please check our Online Sources for current lists for the counties above.
We provide a link to the microfilmed register on the National Library of Ireland website, www.nli.ie. The link will appear at the bottom of the record transcript if there is a match. This link will bring you to the relevant parish register of baptism or marriage. It will not bring you to the page on which the record was originally entered, but you can select the record type, year and month to put you close to the correct page. It is important to note that the microfilmed parish registers are not complete; they cover the period up to 1880/81, whereas the records on www.rootsireland.ie go to at least 1899.
You will also find parish registers on our site that have never been microfilmed; likewise, not every parish register has been transcribed by our county genealogy centres. We are continuing to index records and regular updates are made to our website.
Please check the list of sources to see if the sources or parishes, denominations and timeframe that you are interested in searching have been computerized for any particular county. Additions and updates take place at regular intervals.
The IFHF and its member centres make no representations concerning the suitability, reliability or accuracy of the content or the service provided on the website for any purpose. We disclaim all warranties, expressed or implied, in connection with the content and the services provided, including conditions of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title and non-infringement. In no case will we be liable for any direct, indirect, punitive, special or other damages including, without limitation, lost or delay of use, lost profits, loss of data or any other damage in contract, tort, equity or any other legal theory, even if advised of the possibility thereof.
If you are dissatisfied with this website or any terms of its use, your sole remedy is to discontinue using it.
Every care has been taken to ensure that the information included is as accurate as possible. Although this information may be based on records which have legal status, nothing contained in these databases has a standing in law; it is supplied purely as family research and any use made of it outside the immediate family depends entirely on the permission of the holders of copyright in the original records.
If you cannot locate the ancestors that you seek through your use of the website we would advise you that we offer professional research services via our individual member centres. Our researchers can determine which, if any, records relating to your ancestor can be located. If an ancestor is located, further research can be commissioned.
Links
This website may link to other websites that the IFHF and its member centres believe may be of assistance to you in your genealogical research. These sites are not maintained or controlled by us and we are not responsible for their content. Although we make a good faith effort to link only to tasteful, appropriate sites, some may contain inappropriate or objectionable material. If you find such material while using the websites please notify us immediately at enquiries@rootsireland.ie.
This website contains an index and transcriptions of many Irish records, including the majority of the Irish Catholic parish registers. It was compiled in most cases from the parish registers held in the local parishes. There are transcripts of records on this site that are not on the National Library of Ireland’s Parish Registers’ microfilm site. Where it is possible we have provided a link from our record transcripts to the relevant register on the NLI parish register microfilms website. Subscribers will need to search the microfilmed register in chronological order to find the original entry.
These terms and conditions do not affect your statutory rights.
Trademarks
www.rootsireland.ie, www.rootsireland.org, Clann, Irish Genealogy Matters, the Irish Family History Foundation (IFHF) and any accompanying logos or designs are trademarks of the IFHF and its member centres. They may not be used without the express permission of the Board of the Irish Family History Foundation.
Note: The IFHF and its centres reserve the right to amend the Terms and Conditions and Refund Policy at any time without notice to further protect you and improve the quality of our service. These Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy are personal to you. You may not transfer your rights under this agreement to third party. Our Terms and Conditions are subject to the laws of the Republic of Ireland.
Termination
If we decide to discontinue the website or service, or if you breach these terms contained in this document, we may suspend or terminate your access to the Website and Service.
Communications from www.rootsireland.ie/IFHF
In line with GDPR, if you agree by ticking the ‘Send me the occasional email’ box at the time of registration, we will send electronic mail to you for the purpose of informing you of changes or additions to the website or service, or of any related products and services. You may opt out of commercial advertising and marketing emails at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link at the end of each such email or by going to My Account and changing your email preferences. Please see our Website Privacy Statement for further information on how we manage and process your personal information.
Other
These terms and any disputes arising out of or relating to these terms, the service or the website (including contract, tort, statutory and other claims) shall, to the extent permitted by law, be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Republic of Ireland and subject to jurisdiction by the Irish courts.
Any failure by us to enforce any term of these Terms shall not affect our right to require such performance at any subsequent time, nor shall the waiver by us of any breach by you of any provisions of these terms be taken to be a waiver of the provision or provisions itself.
These terms, including any terms, conditions and policies expressly referenced herein, shall constitute the complete understanding and agreement between you and us, and shall supersede and cancel any prior or contemporaneous understandings and agreements, except as expressly provided otherwise by rootsireland.ie/IFHF.