Terms of use

Who we are

vdw300.com is run by Tiguri GmbH, Riesbachstrasse 61, 8008 Zürich, Switzerland, in association with the Van der Walt-Familiebond. See the company details.

Joining

• Taking your place is free, and always will be.
• You must be 16 or older to join yourself. A parent or guardian can add a younger child.
• Join as yourself, once, with details you believe are true. Do not claim to be someone else.
• Keep your sign-in links to yourself. Anyone with your email can sign in as you.
• You can take your place straight away. It counts as confirmed once relatives who know you vouch for you, or a keeper checks it. Only confirmed members can vouch for others or use the Guild.
• Vouch only for people you know. Vouching for someone you do not know, or for yourself, is a serious breach of these terms.

The tree is our best effort

The One Tree is built from records up to 300 years old, and from what family members tell us. Records disagree and people misremember. We check carefully and mark what is uncertain, but the tree will contain mistakes.

Your place on the tree is a family record, not legal proof of descent. Do not rely on it for inheritance, citizenship, legal or medical decisions.

What you share

What you write and add stays yours. You give us a free, non-exclusive permission to store it, show it to the family as you choose, and tidy it for the family record, such as fixing a spelling or placing a relative. You can withdraw that at any time, as the privacy notice explains.

Please share only what is true to the best of your knowledge and yours to share. Do not add private details about living relatives without their agreement, and do not upload anything you do not have the right to use.

How we treat each other

This is a family. Please do not:

• insult, threaten or harass anyone, here or because of something you saw here;
• use the site to advertise, sell, recruit or campaign, unless a part of the site is made for that;
• copy names, contact details or other data from the site in bulk, by hand or by machine;
• try to break, overload or get around the security of the site.

Keepers

Keepers are family volunteers who check claims and look after the tree. They may confirm, correct, move, merge, hide or remove entries, or withdraw a confirmation. They do so in good faith. If you disagree with a decision, write to us and someone else will look at it again.

Leaving, and being asked to leave

You can leave at any time by writing to info@tiguri.ch. We will remove your details as the privacy notice explains. If someone seriously or repeatedly breaks these terms, we may pause or close their account and remove what they added.

Buying from us

Joining and using the site is free. Some things are for sale, such as the Founding Edition pin. Tiguri GmbH sells them under our terms of sale, which you agree to before you pay.

The book and the film

Of the Forest is historical fiction. It follows the records where they exist, and imagines the rest: conversations, thoughts and many small events are invented. The film is a dramatised telling of the same story, illustrated with paintings and made with the help of computer tools.

Other websites

Where we link to another website, we do not control it and are not responsible for it.

Our responsibility

The site is free and provided as it is. We work hard to keep it accurate, safe and available, but we cannot promise it will always be so. As far as the law allows, we are not liable for loss that comes from using the site or relying on the tree. Nothing here limits any liability that the law does not allow us to limit, such as for deliberate wrongdoing or gross negligence, or any rights you have as a consumer.

Changes

We may update these terms. We will change the version and date above, and tell members if a change matters to them.

Law and language

These terms are governed by Swiss law, and the courts of Zürich decide any dispute. If you use the site as a consumer, you also keep the protection of the law where you live. The English text of these terms is the one that counts.

Contact

For anything on this page, write to info@tiguri.ch.