Terms and conditions

Further down: withdrawal information and model withdrawal form.

§ 1 Scope and provider

1. These terms apply to all contracts for services of Foreborn (foreborn.com). The provider and your contracting party is Valtsuri, owner Valentin Sattinger, Mustarinne 11, 02770 Espoo, Finland, Business ID (Y-tunnus) 3617800-3 (“we”). Foreborn and Ahnenfaden (ahnenfaden.de) are brands of Valtsuri.
2. A consumer is anyone who concludes a contract for purposes that lie predominantly outside their trade, business or profession.
3. Different terms of businesses apply only if we expressly agree to them.

§ 2 Services

1. We research family history in original sources, for example in church books, civil registers, archive holdings and newspapers. What belongs to an offer is described on foreborn.com and in your offer.
2. The Roots Check is free and without obligation. It is an assessment of what can be found. It does not create a contract.
3. We owe careful research by the method described and the results in the agreed form, such as a report and a presentation. We do not owe a particular result, because which sources survive and can be accessed is out of our hands. If sources are missing or end earlier, we record which books and years we checked. Our money-back promise (§ 4a) applies regardless.
4. We use AI to read handwriting, to search holdings and for drafts. We check every key statement against the original and support it with its reference. What is not reliably supported, we mark as such.

§ 3 Conclusion of the contract

1. The offers on the website are not yet a binding offer.
2. After the Roots Check we send you an offer with the scope, the price and the date by which we will have performed the service at the latest. It is in your account on foreborn.com; we send you the link to log in by e-mail.
3. You accept the offer in your account by clicking “Order with obligation to pay”. This concludes the contract. Payment through Stripe follows. With the order you ask us to start right away. Your right of withdrawal expires when we have fully performed the service; if you withdraw before that, you pay for the part we have performed up to then (see the withdrawal information). We confirm the contract by e-mail and send you these terms and the withdrawal information with it.
4. The contract language is English. We store the text of the contract. You receive it with the confirmation.

§ 4 Prices and payment

1. The fixed prices stated on foreborn.com for each offer apply. Your offer states the same price unless we agree a different scope with you. All prices are final prices in euros. As a small business under Finnish law, we charge no VAT.
2. You pay when you order, through our payment provider Stripe, in euros. If your card or account is in another currency, your bank converts the amount; fees it charges for this are not part of our price.
3. Fees that archives, registry offices or other offices charge for certificates or information are not included in the price. We tell you about them beforehand, order only with your approval and charge them without a markup.
4. We credit the full price of One Question if you then order One Person about a person from your question or One Line for that person's line. We credit the full price of a Party Card Lookup if you then order One Person about the same person.

§ 4a Money-back promise

1. Because we check in the Roots Check beforehand what survives, we promise you: you get the price back
   • for One Question, if we find no original entry that answers the question stated in your offer,
   • for the Party Card Lookup, if no card for the person is found in the surviving membership card file of the NSDAP (the Nazi Party),
   • for One Person, if we find no entry on your question that you did not already know when you ordered; if you ask about living relatives, if we find no living relative from the family searched for (anyone who declines contact counts as found),
   • for One Line, if we do not confirm at least two generations beyond the oldest ancestor you named to us for this line when you ordered.
   For the Family Chronicle you get a quarter of the price back for each of the four lines where we do not manage this.
2. A generation is confirmed when at least one original entry names the person and their connection to the next generation.
3. If a step depends on documents that an archive releases only to you or against your power of attorney (§ 5(2)), and you do not make the request or do not give the power of attorney, that step does not count against us.
4. Fees of archives and other offices that you approved (§ 4(3)) are excluded from the refund because we passed them on.
5. We refund when the order is completed, through the means of payment you used. Your right of withdrawal and your statutory rights are not affected.

§ 5 Your cooperation

1. You give us the information and documents you have, as complete and correct as you can. We start from your information and check it against the sources.
2. Some archives and registry offices release certificates only to descendants or against a power of attorney. Then we ask you for a power of attorney or to make the request yourself. If you do not want to, we note the open point in the report.
3. You send us documents as a photo, scan or copy. We do not need originals.

§ 6 Process and sensitive findings

1. We keep you up to date on the state of the research, in your account on foreborn.com and by e-mail.
2. Family research can come across distressing things, especially for the years 1933 to 1945: memberships, deeds, persecution, but also children born outside marriage or adoptions. We report what the sources say, with the reference and the context. When you order, you decide whether you want to see such findings alone first, before they go into a version for the family.
3. We search for living relatives if your order includes it, for example for descendants of emigrants or for the family that stayed in Europe. We search in publicly available sources. We give you the names, the relationship and the approximate area where the people found live, and then try to establish contact: we write to them, tell them who is looking for them and ask whether they would like contact. We pass on postal address, phone number and e-mail address only with their consent, and nothing at all about minors. If someone does not want contact, we tell you and pass nothing on.
4. We may decline or stop the search for a living person if we have to assume that the person does not want to be found or that contact could harm them. We then refund the price in proportion to the part we have not performed. Otherwise we do not research living people beyond what you tell us.

§ 7 Use of the results

1. You may use the report and the presentation privately and pass them on to your family, also in print.
2. Images from archives are subject to the terms of the archive concerned. For a publication, for example in a book or online, you may need its permission. The source is given under every image.
3. We show your case to others only with your express permission.

§ 8 Vouchers

1. A voucher is valid for the offer named on it. Whoever has the code can redeem it.
2. Vouchers are valid until the end of the third year after the year in which they were bought.

§ 9 Liability

1. We are liable without limit for intent and gross negligence and for injury to life, body and health.
2. For slight negligence we are liable only if we breach an essential contractual obligation, and then limited to the foreseeable damage typical for the contract. Essential obligations are those that make the contract possible in the first place and on which you may rely.
3. Mandatory statutory liability remains unaffected.

§ 10 Right of withdrawal

As a consumer you have a right of withdrawal. The details are in the withdrawal information. You can also withdraw online through “Withdraw from contract”, with or without logging in to your account.

§ 11 Applicable law, place of jurisdiction, disputes

1. Finnish law applies. If you are a consumer, you keep the protection of the mandatory provisions of the law of the country where you have your habitual residence.
2. If you are a business, the place of jurisdiction is Valtsuri's registered office in Espoo, Finland.
3. If you have a dispute with us, you can turn to the Finnish Consumer Disputes Board, the Kuluttajariitalautakunta (kuluttajariita.fi). We are willing to take part in proceedings there.

Withdrawal information

Right of withdrawal

You have the right to withdraw from this contract within 14 days without giving any reason.

The withdrawal period will expire after 14 days from the day of the conclusion of the contract.

To exercise the right of withdrawal, you must inform us (Valtsuri, owner Valentin Sattinger, Mustarinne 11, 02770 Espoo, Finland, e-mail: [email protected]) of your decision to withdraw from this contract by an unequivocal statement (e.g. a letter sent by post or an e-mail). You may use the attached model withdrawal form, but it is not obligatory.

You can also exercise your right of withdrawal online at foreborn.com/withdraw/ (function “Withdraw from contract”). We will then send you an acknowledgement of receipt by e-mail without delay, with the content of your withdrawal and the date and time it was received.

To meet the withdrawal deadline, it is sufficient for you to send your communication concerning your exercise of the right of withdrawal before the withdrawal period has expired.

Effects of withdrawal

If you withdraw from this contract, we shall reimburse to you all payments received from you without undue delay and in any event not later than 14 days from the day on which we are informed about your decision to withdraw from this contract. We will carry out such reimbursement using the same means of payment as you used for the initial transaction, unless you have expressly agreed otherwise; in any event, you will not incur any fees as a result of such reimbursement.

If you requested to begin the performance of services during the withdrawal period, you shall pay us an amount which is in proportion to what has been provided until you have communicated to us your withdrawal from this contract, in comparison with the full coverage of the contract.

Early expiry

Your right of withdrawal expires when we have fully performed the service, if we began performance only after you gave your express consent and acknowledged that you lose your right of withdrawal once we have fully performed the contract.

Model withdrawal form

Last updated: October 2026