Client agreement
Terms of Service
Last updated September 21, 2026
These Terms of Service form an agreement between you and Melissa Reeves Genealogy, operated by Melissa Reeves (the “Researcher”). By submitting a research request, accepting a written project scope, or paying for services, you agree to these Terms.
1. Nature of the service
The Researcher provides historical and genealogical research using available public records, subscription databases, client-provided information, family trees, DNA match information, and other lawful sources. The Researcher also provides digital photo restoration, colorization, scanning and digitization, family photo archive organization, photo dating and identification estimates, and family-history design services. Photo services are digital preservation and creative services, not museum conservation of physical objects.
Genealogy and photo-identification services involve research and interpretation. They are not legal advice, medical advice, genetic counseling, forensic identification, a legal determination of parentage, an appraisal, an authentication of an original object, an heirship opinion, or a guarantee of citizenship, inheritance, tribal membership, or any other legal status.
2. Eligibility and authority
You must be at least 18 years old to purchase services. You represent that you are authorized to provide the information, documents, photographs, family stories, account permissions, and DNA match information you submit. You must obtain appropriate permission before sharing sensitive information about a living person.
3. Scope of work
Fixed-price packages have set limits so the work and what you will receive are clear. One Family History Question covers one focused question and up to three hours of research. Ancestry Family Tree Build covers one starting person, their parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents in the client’s Ancestry account. Tree Review & Cleanup checks up to 25 people. DNA Match Research covers one tester’s matches and up to four hours of review. Family Tree Poster Design covers one digital tree showing up to four generations and one round of changes. “Up to” describes the maximum included work, not a promise that every person, record, date, place, or relationship will be found.
Family History Book Design starts at $395 for up to 20 designed pages using organized client-provided or previously completed research, a print-ready PDF, and one revision. The starting price is not a guaranteed final price. Research, writing beyond light editing, additional pages, extensive image restoration, licensing, printing, binding, extra copies, shipping, and additional revisions are quoted separately.
Photo Restoration & Repair starts at $25 for one digital photograph with light damage. Photo Colorization starts at $25 for one clear photograph showing one or two people and requiring no major repair. Photo Scanning & Digitization starts at $50 for up to 50 loose, flatbed-safe prints no larger than 8 by 10 inches. Photo Printing & Lab Ordering starts at $15 for up to three standard 4x6 prints from print-ready digital files, with local pickup after approval. Family Photo Archive Organization starts at $125 for up to 250 existing digital images. Old Photo Identification & Dating starts at $50 for review of one photograph for up to one hour. Legacy Books & Keepsake Design starts at $250 for up to 12 pages using ready-to-use photographs and text, a print-ready PDF, and one revision.
Photo-service prices are starting prices, not guaranteed final prices. The final scope and quote depend on quantity, size, format, condition, complexity, file quality, requested deadline, delivery method, and whether research, writing, printing, shipping, storage media, extensive reconstruction, or additional revisions are needed. The Researcher will confirm the scope and price before payment is due.
Paid requests to identify, locate, or contact living people are not currently offered. Research beyond a package limit, foreign-language or onsite research, certificate fees, archive fees, printing, shipping, additional revisions, and other out-of-scope work require a separate written quote or agreement.
Only the work described in the written acceptance message or project summary is included. Any additional work requires your approval before additional fees are charged.
4. Account access and third-party subscriptions
You create, own, and maintain any Ancestry, MyHeritage, DNA, or other third-party account used for the project, including any subscription needed to access records. The Researcher will not request your password. When account access is necessary, you must use the provider’s official guest, viewer, contributor, editor, manager, or collaborator invitation tools. You may revoke that access after the project.
Third-party subscriptions, certificates, archive copies, printing, shipping, and other external costs are not included unless the accepted written scope expressly says otherwise.
5. No guarantee of results
Genealogical research is limited by the survival, availability, accessibility, legibility, completeness, and accuracy of records and databases. Historical records, indexes, family trees, oral histories, and DNA match labels may contain errors. The Researcher does not guarantee that a particular ancestor, biological relative, record, relationship, ethnicity, location, or number of generations will be identified.
Conclusions may change if new records, corrected records, or additional DNA matches become available. Documented facts, reasonable conclusions, and unproven possibilities will be distinguished whenever practical.
Photo restoration cannot recover detail that was never captured or that has been completely lost. Colorization, reconstruction, enhancement, dating, and identification may involve informed visual interpretation. Unless reliable reference information is supplied, colors, missing details, dates, locations, and identities are estimates and are not guaranteed to be historically exact. Results also depend on the quality and resolution of the source image.
6. DNA and sensitive information
Do not submit account passwords, raw DNA files, Social Security numbers, payment card numbers, medical records, or other unnecessary highly sensitive information through the public intake form. If DNA review is accepted, use the testing company’s official viewer, collaborator, or sharing tools whenever available. You are responsible for reviewing and following the testing company’s terms and for revoking access when the project is complete.
DNA research can reveal unexpected parentage, adoptions, donor conception, unknown relatives, family secrets, or relationships that differ from family tradition. By requesting DNA-assisted research, you acknowledge that possibility and accept responsibility for deciding how to use or share the findings.
7. AI-assisted research and human review
The Researcher may use artificial intelligence and other digital tools to organize minimized research notes, compare names and timelines, develop search strategies, summarize working notes, or identify records worth investigating. AI-generated suggestions are not treated as proven facts. Material findings and conclusions are reviewed by the Researcher and evaluated against available records and source evidence. Passwords, raw DNA files, Social Security numbers, payment information, and unnecessary information about living people are not entered into AI tools.
8. Client responsibilities and prohibited uses
You agree to provide information honestly and to use the service only for lawful, personal family-history purposes. You represent that you own, control, or have permission to reproduce and edit every photograph, document, story, caption, and other protected material you provide. You may not submit unlawful, stolen, defamatory, exploitative, or infringing material.
You may not use the Researcher’s work to stalk, harass, threaten, impersonate, discriminate against, publicly expose, locate, monitor, or contact a person in a deceptive or coercive manner. You may not request unlawful access to private accounts, restricted records, current addresses, workplaces, private telephone numbers, other nonpublic location or contact details, or information you are not authorized to obtain. You may not use the service to evade a protective order, custody restriction, no-contact request, confidentiality program, or other safety measure.
The Researcher may ask reasonable questions about your identity, relationship, purpose, and authority before accepting a project. The Researcher may decline, pause, or stop any project that raises safety, privacy, fraud, harassment, coercion, or legality concerns. The Researcher is not required to disclose confidential screening methods or the reason a request was declined when doing so could create additional risk.
9. Payment
No payment is collected or requested when you submit the intake form. Submission is a request for services, not an agreement that the Researcher will accept the project. The Researcher may accept the request, ask follow-up questions, recommend a different service, or decline the request based on fit, availability, safety, legality, or other reasonable business considerations.
If the project is accepted, the Researcher will email the agreed scope, next steps, amount due, expected timing, and a private payment-page link. The payment page repeats those accepted project details and provides the Researcher’s verified PayPal and Cash App links. Fixed-price work begins only after acceptance and confirmation of full payment.
Custom family history book projects require a 50% deposit after you approve the written scope and quote. The deposit becomes nonrefundable when design work begins. The remaining balance is due before delivery of unwatermarked final print-ready files or placement of a printing order. Printing and shipping charges must be paid before production begins.
Custom photo, archive, and keepsake projects may require a deposit or full payment after you approve the written scope and quote. Any required deposit and payment schedule will be stated in the acceptance message. Physical handling, storage media, printing, packing, insurance, and shipping are not included unless the accepted scope says otherwise.
Outside-lab print orders require approval and payment of the complete quoted amount before the order is placed. Once an approved order has been submitted to a printer, it may not be changed or canceled. Reprints or credits for a verified production defect or shipping damage are limited to the remedy offered by the printer or carrier, except where applicable law requires otherwise.
Do not send payment before receiving an acceptance email. A request that is new, under review, or declined will not have an active payment link. You are responsible for sending the exact agreed amount only to the verified PayPal or Cash App account shown on the active payment page. Payment services are operated by third parties and are governed by their own terms, privacy policies, security practices, and dispute procedures.
10. Cancellations and refunds
The fee purchases the Researcher’s agreed time and work, which may include research strategy, database and record review, analysis, documentation, scanning, file preparation, restoration, colorization, organization, writing, or design. It does not purchase or guarantee a particular discovery, number of ancestors, number of generations, biological identification, DNA conclusion, volume of records, exact historical color, complete image reconstruction, or perfect repair.
Once the Researcher confirms acceptance and begins the agreed work, all payments are final and nonrefundable. This remains true if few or no new facts are discovered, DNA matches do not answer the question, records are unavailable, an image has too little surviving detail for the hoped-for result, or the result differs from what you hoped or expected. The Researcher will still perform the work described in the accepted scope and explain any important limitations.
Because payment is not requested until after acceptance, no fee is charged for a declined request. If the Researcher cannot perform accepted work after receiving payment, the payment will be returned, less only any nonrefundable processing fee actually charged by the payment provider when permitted by law. Nothing in these Terms limits a refund, dispute right, or consumer remedy that cannot lawfully be waived.
11. Timing and communication
Any completion estimate is an estimate, not a guaranteed deadline. Delays can result from record-access restrictions, archive response times, website outages, record requests, illness, emergencies, or the need for clarification. You agree to respond within a reasonable time when additional information or authorization is needed.
12. Deliverables and permitted use
Unless otherwise agreed, the final deliverable may include a written summary, family tree information, record citations, links, images of lawfully available records, and notes about unresolved questions. Deliverables will not intentionally include a living person’s nonpublic current address, workplace, private telephone number, or other sensitive location details. After full payment, you may use the original written deliverable for personal and family-history purposes and may share it privately with relatives, subject to the privacy and safety restrictions in these Terms. The Researcher retains ownership of original formatting, research notes, methods, templates, and original written analysis. Public records, third-party images, database records, and other third-party materials remain subject to their own rights and restrictions.
Family Tree Poster Design, Family History Book Design, and Legacy Books & Keepsake Design include the agreed high-resolution digital file and one round of changes unless the written project details say otherwise. Photo restoration and colorization are performed on a digital copy. The original scan is preserved separately when practical, and the physical original is not intentionally altered. Physical production and shipping are separately quoted.
You are responsible for having permission to reproduce photographs, writing, and other protected materials you provide. Final color and appearance may vary by screen, scanner, printer, paper, ink, binding, framing, and production method. Printing begins only after you approve the final preview.
Print dimensions may require cropping or borders when the source image and chosen paper have different proportions. The Researcher will obtain approval for a material crop before ordering. Minor differences in color, brightness, contrast, sharpness, paper texture, trim, and placement between a screen preview and a physical print are normal and are not automatically defects.
Do not mail or drop off photographs, albums, documents, negatives, slides, or other originals until the Researcher has accepted the project and provided written handling instructions. If physical transfer is approved, you are responsible for secure packing and any agreed tracked and insured shipping. The Researcher will use reasonable care but cannot guarantee against every risk of loss, delay, theft, damage, or deterioration during shipping, handling, scanning, or storage.
13. Confidentiality and privacy
The Researcher will use reasonable care with client information and will use it to evaluate, perform, document, and administer the requested service. Genealogy research is not protected by attorney-client, doctor-patient, therapist-patient, or similar legal privilege. Information may be disclosed when reasonably necessary to use a research or payment provider, comply with law, respond to valid legal process, protect safety or rights, or address fraud or a payment dispute. See the Privacy Notice for more information.
14. Third-party sources and services
The Researcher is not responsible for the availability, accuracy, security, pricing, policies, production, shipping, or conduct of Ancestry, FamilySearch, Find a Grave, Newspapers.com, DNA testing companies, archives, payment services, printing companies, shipping carriers, or other third parties. Mpix is the Researcher’s current preferred outside photo lab but is an independent company, not a partner or affiliate. Another reputable lab may be recommended when the requested size, product, timing, or price makes it a better fit, but the provider and quote will be disclosed before ordering. A link, citation, recommendation, or use of a third-party service does not create an endorsement, partnership, or control of that service.
15. Disclaimer and limitation of liability
To the fullest extent permitted by law, services and findings are provided based on the information, records, and source images reasonably available during the project, without warranties of completeness, accuracy, merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or a particular result. The Researcher is not liable for decisions, family disputes, contact with relatives, emotional distress, reputational effects, inheritance issues, legal proceedings, third-party shipping failures, or other consequences arising from your use, disclosure, or interpretation of the findings or edited materials.
To the fullest extent permitted by law, the Researcher’s total liability arising from a project will not exceed the amount you paid for that project. This limitation does not apply to liability that cannot lawfully be limited, including liability for willful misconduct where applicable.
16. Governing law and disputes
These Terms are governed by Maryland law, without regard to conflict-of-law principles. Unless applicable consumer law requires otherwise, any court proceeding must be brought in a court with jurisdiction in Allegany County, Maryland. Before filing a claim, the parties should make a good-faith effort to resolve the concern directly. Nothing in these Terms waives a consumer right or remedy that cannot legally be waived.
17. Changes, severability, and entire agreement
If any provision is found unenforceable, the remaining provisions remain in effect to the extent allowed by law. The accepted project scope, these Terms, and the Privacy Notice contain the entire agreement for the service unless both parties agree to a written change. Updated Terms apply to future projects and will be identified by a new “last updated” date.