Terms of Service

1. About us

The Indian Archive is an independent heritage research service helping customers search family records and traditional registers in India, understand findings, and preserve results in a customer archive. You can contact us at namaste@indianarchive.com.

We are not a government service and are not affiliated with the Government of India or any government body.

The service is operated by Archive Heritage Group Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales under company number 17322145.

2. Using the service

Customers may create an account, complete a free prepayment assessment, provide family information and optional audio, review a suggested register route, select up to four centres, choose whether to include the entry/update service, review the quoted price and pay for the selected research.

3. Accounts

Customers must provide accurate account information, keep login details secure, and tell us if they suspect unauthorised access.

4. Customer information and permissions

Customers are responsible for making sure the information, documents, photographs, audio and family details they provide are accurate to the best of their knowledge and are provided with appropriate permission. Customers grant us permission to use the provided information solely to deliver and support the service.

5. Nature of the research service

The service is best-efforts heritage research. Research may involve India-based researchers, priests and purohits, record holders, field workers, translators and reviewers. Outcomes depend on the availability of records, the quality of customer information, local access, cooperation of record holders, centre or region, language, the condition of documents, and field circumstances.

6. No guarantee of record discovery

We do not guarantee that a family record, register entry, lineage, person, event or specific archive will be found. Some records may be missing, inaccessible, damaged, incomplete, unavailable, inconsistent or not locatable.

7. Not official verification

Any findings are provided for heritage, family-history and personal archive purposes. They are not legal, civil, immigration, probate, tax, caste or community, religious-status or government verification documents.

8. Assessment, quote and payment

The register-route assessment is free. Sign-in is required so the customer’s information and progress can be stored securely. The assessment may suggest one or more likely research centres but does not guarantee that a record exists. Before payment, the customer selects the centres to be searched and whether to include the register entry/update service. The full price and selected services are shown at checkout. A research case is opened only after payment has been confirmed.

9. Refunds and cancellations

Refund eligibility depends on the package, checkout terms and the stage of work already completed. Once research work has started, costs may already have been incurred, including researcher, priest or record-holder, field, translation, administrative or payment processing costs. The search fee is non-refundable once research has begun, except where required by law or where we are unable to provide the service. If no matching record is found, the customer still receives a written account of the work completed.

10. Customer uploads

Customers must not upload unlawful, abusive, false, malicious, infringing or harmful content. Customers must not upload documents they are not authorised to share.

11. Family tree and archive output

Family tree entries, translations, summaries and archive documents are prepared from customer-provided information and available findings. They may contain uncertainties, spelling variations, transliteration choices, translation notes or unresolved conflicts.

12. Corrections and review requests

Customers can ask us to review possible mistakes. We may correct errors where reasonably supported by available information. Some disagreements may reflect conflicting source material or incomplete records.

13. Referral codes

Referral codes may provide discounts if valid at checkout. Referral availability, discount amount, expiry, eligibility and currency restrictions may vary. Referral codes cannot be guaranteed or applied after payment unless the system or policy allows it.

14. Acceptable use

Customers must not misuse the website, attempt unauthorised access, interfere with systems, scrape data, impersonate others, upload malware, harass staff or researchers, or use the service for unlawful purposes.

15. Intellectual property

The website, design, branding, text and generated archive presentation belong to The Indian Archive or its licensors. Customers retain rights in materials they upload, but grant us permission to use them to provide the service. Customers may use delivered archive material for personal and family purposes.

16. Service availability

We aim to keep the website available but cannot guarantee uninterrupted or error-free access. Maintenance, technical issues, third-party services and field conditions may affect availability.

17. Third-party services

The service may rely on payment providers, hosting providers, authentication services, email services, analytics, storage, translators, researchers and other service providers. Their availability and terms may also apply.

18. Limitation of liability

We are not liable for losses caused by inaccurate customer information, unavailable records, third-party delays, local field conditions, or events outside our reasonable control. Nothing in these terms excludes liability that cannot be excluded by law.

19. Privacy

Our handling of personal information is described in our Privacy Policy.

20. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. The latest version will be available on this page.

21. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales, unless mandatory consumer protection laws in the customer’s country require otherwise. Customers may have local consumer rights that cannot be excluded.

22. Contact

For questions about these terms, contact namaste@indianarchive.com.