How we handle personal information

The Ancestry Register.

Controller: Ancestry Holdings Ltd, trading as Ancestry Register, company number 17394154, registered office 71-75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9JQ. Contact us at support@ancestryregister.co.uk or on 0333 339 0029.

Information we hold

Depending on the enquiry, we may hold:

• Names, dates and places relating to you and your family
• Addresses and other contact details
• Information about a deceased person and their estate
• Correspondence between you and us, including notes of calls
• Documents you send us to support an enquiry
• Technical details such as your IP address, logged in our hosting provider's server logs for security and reliability

Sources include public records, executors, professional advisers, family members and information you provide, including through our contact form.

Why we use information

We use personal information to maintain the Register, research family connections, respond to enquiries and keep a record of our work. Research uses public records and information we already hold, including information about people we have not yet contacted.

Our legal basis is legitimate interest: in keeping the Register, in that research, and in responding to enquiries. Where you have given consent for a specific purpose, we rely on that instead. You can object to our use of your information at any time; see Your rights.

The same legitimate interest covers server logs: keeping the Register secure and reliable. We do not use personal information to make automated decisions about you, and we do not sell it.

The contact form temporarily uses your IP address to limit repeated submissions and reduce spam. This does not determine anyone's entitlement to an estate.

Who may receive information

We may share information with the executor, administrator or professional adviser handling the estate concerned. We may also share it with service providers, such as our hosting and email providers, who act on our instructions. Beyond this, we disclose information only where the law requires it.

How long we keep information

We keep estate entries, research and correspondence while a matter is open and for twelve years after it closes.

Identity documents are deleted within three months of the check. Enquiries that do not concern a record we hold are deleted after twelve months. Server logs are kept under our hosting provider's arrangements; see Cookies.

Your information rights

• Ask what we hold about you, and receive a copy
• Ask us to correct information that is wrong or incomplete
• Ask us to delete information we no longer need to keep
• Object to, or ask us to restrict, a particular use
• Ask us to transfer information you gave us, where that applies

Email support@ancestryregister.co.uk with your request. If you are unhappy with our response, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.

Questions about this policy

Questions about how we handle information can be sent to support@ancestryregister.co.uk. See also cookies and the privacy and security section of The Register.