Story Submission Terms

What it means when you trust us with a name.

Effective May 1, 2026 · Last updated May 1, 2026

The plain-language summary

You promise the story is yours to share, and that what you wrote is true to the best of your knowledge.
You give us permission to publish it on the Site, in the form your privacy choice describes.
You keep the copyright in your words. We don't sell your story to anyone.
You can ask us to fix it, take it down, or change how you're credited at any time.
We review by hand. We may decline a submission, edit lightly, or come back with questions.

The full terms below say the same things in legal language.

1. Scope

These Story Submission Terms ("Submission Terms") govern any story, biographical material, photograph, document, recording, or other content (collectively, "Submission") that you provide to Honored Ancestors through the Submit a Story form, by email to info@honoredancestors.com, or by any other channel we offer. They are part of, and incorporate by reference, our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.

2. Your representations and warranties

By making a Submission, you represent and warrant that:

You are at least 18 years old and have the legal capacity to enter these Submission Terms.
You have the right to share the Submission and to grant the license in Section 4. If the Submission includes content created by someone else (a photograph, a quoted passage, a document), you have permission from the rights holder, or that content is in the public domain, or your use is otherwise lawful.
The Submission is true to the best of your knowledge.
The Submission does not knowingly violate the privacy, publicity, copyright, trademark, or other rights of any person.
The Submission is not defamatory, harassing, threatening, hateful, or unlawful, and is consistent with the dignified purpose of the Site.
If the Submission includes information about living persons (such as descendants or relatives of the honored person), you have a reasonable basis to believe those persons would not object to the inclusion of that information.
If you are not next of kin to the honored person, you have a reasonable, good-faith belief that the family would welcome a public remembrance of the kind we publish.

3. You keep your copyright

You retain all copyright and other ownership rights in your Submission. We do not claim ownership of your words, your photographs, or your other content.

4. License you grant to us

By making a Submission you grant Honored Ancestors a worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual (subject to Section 6), non-exclusive, sublicensable license to host, store, reproduce, lightly edit, format, display, perform, distribute, and publish the Submission on the Site and on our official channels in connection with the Site, in accordance with the privacy preference you select on the form.

This license exists so that we can actually run the archive — keep the story online, format it into a story page, share it on a social channel that links back to the archive, include it in reasonable archival or preservation systems, and continue to host it as part of the public record. We do not use this license to sell your Submission, license it to advertisers, or syndicate it for commercial profit. If we ever offer a commercial use case (for example, a printed book of remembrances), we will seek your separate, explicit permission first.

You also grant us the right to use your name as the submitter in connection with the Submission, in accordance with the privacy preference you selected. If you selected an anonymous option, we will not display your name.

5. Editorial rights we reserve

We may, at our reasonable discretion:

Decline to publish a Submission, in whole or in part
Edit a Submission lightly for clarity, length, formatting, factual accuracy, spelling, or grammar
Combine multiple Submissions about the same honored person into a single page, with credit
Add contextual notes, headings, dates, or place names
Decline content we consider inconsistent with the dignity of the Site

If we make substantive edits beyond light copy work, we will normally email you first, especially if you opted in to editorial contact.

6. Withdrawal, removal, and corrections

You may withdraw a pending Submission at any time before it is published by emailing info@honoredancestors.com. You may also, at any time after publication:

Request a correction
Request a change to how you are credited
Request that the published story be removed

We will honor reasonable removal requests from the original submitter or from documented next of kin of the honored person. After a removal, the license you granted us in Section 4 ends with respect to ongoing public display of the removed Submission, but we may keep minimal records (such as the fact of the takedown and a backup copy) for a reasonable time for legal, archival, or abuse-prevention purposes.

7. Content we will not publish

We will not knowingly publish Submissions that:

Defame or attack the honored person or any other identified person
Disclose intimate medical, financial, sexual, or addiction information about living people without consent
Include unredacted Social Security numbers, full dates of birth of living people, financial account numbers, or other sensitive identifiers
Use the platform to advance political campaigns, fundraising scams, advertising, or commercial promotion
Are clearly fabricated or impersonated
Violate the law

8. Photographs and documents

If your Submission includes a photograph or document — either now or in a follow-up — please only send images and documents you have the right to share. By sending us a photograph, you confirm that either (a) you took it, (b) you obtained it lawfully and have permission to share it, or (c) it is in the public domain. We may decline to publish images whose provenance we cannot reasonably establish.

9. Family and next-of-kin requests

Honored Ancestors honors families. Documented next of kin of an honored person may request, at any time, that a story about their relative be amended, attributed differently, or removed. We will work in good faith with families and submitters to find a respectful outcome.

10. No compensation

You are not entitled to any payment, royalty, or other compensation for any Submission. Our work is to keep the names alive, not to monetize them.

11. Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Honored Ancestors and its operators from and against any claims, damages, costs, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of or related to a Submission you make in breach of these Submission Terms, or in breach of the rights of another person.

12. Changes

We may update these Submission Terms from time to time. The license you previously granted under Section 4 with respect to already-submitted content remains as it stood when you submitted, except that you may, at any time, ask us to apply newer, more protective terms.

13. Contact

To withdraw, correct, or remove a Submission, or to ask any question about these Submission Terms, email info@honoredancestors.com.

A note on this document: these Submission Terms are written in plain language and intended to be fair to submitters. They are not legal advice and we recommend qualified-counsel review before scaling the platform.