Terms of Service

Last Updated: August 30, 2026

1. Agreement to Terms

By accessing or using Chronicle Makers ("the Service"), you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service. The Service is operated by PA Ancestors LLC ("we," "us," or "our") and includes all services provided through: chroniclemakers.com, the Skool community platform, the Chronicle Makers Tools, our Substack newsletter, and email communications. If you do not agree to these terms, please do not use the Service.

2. About Our Services

Chronicle Makers provides educational content, community, research analysis and writing tools, and frameworks to help family historians research their family history and write finished family history using AI-powered tools.

2.1 No Guarantees on Genealogy Results

We provide educational content, tools, and frameworks. We cannot guarantee any specific results. Genealogy research outcomes depend on many factors beyond our control, including historical record availability, accuracy of source materials, and how you apply the techniques and tools. You are responsible for verifying all genealogical information and research results. It is assumed you will use the tools and techniques as described in our materials.

2.2 Appropriate Use of AI Tools

Our content teaches responsible use of AI for genealogy research and family history writing. We cannot endorse or support uses of AI tools that differ from what we teach. We are not responsible for how you choose to apply AI tools beyond our educational guidelines. You are responsible for ensuring your use of third-party AI tools complies with those tools' terms of service.

2.3 Educational Service Only

Chronicle Makers provides educational content, methodologies, and research analysis and writing tools. We are not: professional genealogists providing research services; certified genetic genealogists; legal advisors; writing or book publishers; archivists or official record repositories.

2.4 Your Work Is Yours — No Endorsement, No Certification

Chronicle Makers provides standards and frameworks you can measure your own work against. What you produce with them is yours, and so are the decisions that make it finished:

We do not review, approve, or certify member work before publication. You decide when your work is done, whether it meets the standards, and how and when to publish or share it.
You may not represent your work as approved, endorsed, certified by, or produced under the supervision of Chronicle Makers, PA Ancestors LLC, or Denyse Allen. Saying you used Chronicle Makers methods or tools is welcome, with attribution; claiming we vouch for the result is not.
We are not a certification board. Course completion does not confer a certificate, credential, or designation, and nothing in the Service may be presented as one.
Responsibility for published work is the author's. If your work departs from our materials and standards, that departure is yours. Criticism your published work receives attaches to your choices as its author, not to Chronicle Makers.

2.5 How Support Works

Chronicle Makers is a community aimed at finishing work, supported through community surfaces — courses, tool outputs, community threads, live sessions, and published guides. Membership does not include individual consulting, private research help, personal tutoring, or one-to-one technical support from Denyse Allen or PA Ancestors LLC. Questions are answered in community spaces, usually by pointing to the material that covers them. Response to any individual post, message, or question is discretionary, except where a program explicitly states otherwise.

3. Membership Tiers and Access

Chronicle Makers courses, tools, and community access are provided through our Skool community platform. Current membership tiers, pricing, and benefits are detailed on our Skool community page.

3.1 Platform Terms — When you purchase access through Skool, you are also subject to Skool's terms of service, payment and refund policies, and community guidelines.

3.2 Trial Period and Refund Policy

Trials:

We may offer a trial period at times. Trials are not a permanent feature of any tier; whether a trial is offered, its length, and what it includes are set at the current offer and may change or end at any time. The terms below apply whenever a trial is offered.
Payment details are required at signup; no charge is made during the trial. Your card is charged when the trial ends unless you cancel first. Cancel anytime during the trial through your Skool settings; cancel before the trial ends and you are not charged.
A trial provides limited access, not full membership access. What a trial includes is stated at the current offer. Full access to materials, courses, and the Chronicle Makers Tools unlocks at whatever level you pay for — tool access begins with the first paid charge, never during a trial. Materials accessed during a trial remain subject to Section 6.
A trial cancelled before the end of the trial may be closed the same day.

Community visibility: Chronicle Makers is a community with a trial door. Content posted in general community spaces may be visible to trial members and to members at other tiers. Course-protected spaces are limited to the members with access to that course. Post accordingly; Section 5.2's protections on member-shared content apply to everyone, including trial members.

Refunds:

Annual memberships are not refundable after the first charge. The 7-day trial is the period in which to decide.
No prorated or partial refunds — no refunds of unused membership time, cohorts not attended, or the remainder of a membership year, for any reason including cancellation, non-use, schedule conflict, or change of interest.
Cohorts and courses: no refunds once begun (a cohort is begun when its first day's materials are released to you).
Monthly memberships: cancel anytime; access continues to the end of the paid period; no partial-month refunds.
One-time purchases, including additional tool runs (Section 8A.4) and legacy VIP Founding Member access (closed June 30, 2026; original founding members retain grandfathered access under their original terms): not refundable. Discretionary refunds create no precedent.
Approved refunds are processed within 7–10 business days; access ends when a refund is issued.
Termination for violation forfeits fees — see Section 11.3.

3.3 Included Benefits — Bundled benefits are non-transferable and have no separate cash value.

3.4 Professional and Commercial Use

Chronicle Makers membership, materials, and tools are for personal family history practice only, at every tier. Sharing your finished work with your own family is always permitted.

Use of Chronicle Makers materials, frameworks, methodologies, or tool outputs in any of the following is reserved for a separate written license, which is not currently offered:

Client-facing genealogy work — research, consultation, or report preparation for others, whether paid, unpaid, pro bono, or volunteer.
Teaching, coaching, workshops, or presentations based on or referencing Chronicle Makers methodology — paid or unpaid — including presentations to genealogical societies, conferences, libraries, classes, webinars, podcasts, livestreams, YouTube or other video content, social media content, and community groups, in person or online, and any other public or group setting. (The one exception: materials Chronicle Makers explicitly designates for member presentation use, used as provided and unmodified.)
Commercial publications, courses, or products that incorporate Chronicle Makers frameworks.

Use of Chronicle Makers materials or tool outputs in credentialing portfolios, accreditation submissions, or competitive entries is not permitted and is not available under any license.

Membership is not open to individuals currently working as, or actively preparing to work as, credentialed or for-hire genealogists — including AG®, CG®, professional researchers, paid speakers, and paid teachers. No membership tier grants any of the rights described in this section.

3.5 Course Access and Prerequisites

Membership grants access to the community and to courses, cohorts, and programs as they are structured. Some courses and programs carry prerequisites, including demonstrated completed work (for example, work posted to the community's finished-work spaces), enrollment windows, cohort schedules, or application steps. Prerequisites are part of program design — they exist because the work builds on itself — and meeting them is how access to gated programs is earned. Membership at any tier does not entitle you to bypass prerequisites, enrollment windows, or program structure, and program structure may change per Section 9.

4. Payment Terms

4.1 Billing — Monthly subscriptions renew automatically each month; annual subscriptions renew after 12 months. You are responsible for maintaining current payment information. Price changes are communicated 30 days in advance for existing members.

4.2 Failed Payments — Access suspended after failed payment; reactivated on successful update; account may be terminated immediately after non-payment. Tool credentials are suspended while payment has failed.

5. User Responsibilities

5.1 Account Security — You are responsible for account confidentiality; notify us immediately of unauthorized access; one account per person; sharing accounts violates these terms.

5.2 Acceptable Use

Personal Use. Chronicle Makers courses, materials, prompts, templates, tools, and community access are licensed for your personal, non-commercial use: researching and writing your own family history. Course materials and tool outputs may not be resold, redistributed, republished, or used to deliver instruction or client services, whether paid or unpaid. Client or commercial work product may not be posted, reviewed, or workshopped in Chronicle Makers communities, courses, or live sessions.

You also agree NOT to:

Share, reproduce, or distribute course materials without permission
Use the Service for any illegal purpose
Harass, threaten, or abuse other members, staff, or the operator of the Service
Post spam, malware, or malicious content
Impersonate others or create false identities, including joining under a false identity to obtain access
Scrape, copy, or perform automated extraction of content
Share login credentials or tool credentials with others
Use AI tools to recreate or reproduce our proprietary content
Use Chronicle Makers content, frameworks, methodology, or tool outputs in client-facing genealogy work, teaching, or presentations — paid or unpaid
Misrepresent professional status or intent when joining, including answering membership questions falsely (including failure to disclose current or planned professional, volunteer-researcher, or presenter activity)
Use member-shared content (case studies, family stories, research examples) in any commercial, educational, or professional context outside Chronicle Makers without explicit written permission from the originating member
Represent your work as approved, certified, or endorsed by Chronicle Makers (Section 2.4)

5.3 Community Guidelines — Respectful communication; discussions focused on family history and chronicle writing; respect members' intellectual property; follow moderator guidance.

6. Intellectual Property

6.1 Our Content

All content provided through Chronicle Makers is copyrighted by PA Ancestors LLC and Denys(e) Allen. Trademarks of PA Ancestors LLC: Chronicle Makers™, the STORI Method™, Ancestor Research Inventory™, the Full Pantry Problem™, and the AIM Framework™. These may not be used in any commercial, professional, or educational context without a separate written license.

Copyrighted materials include but are not limited to: course curriculum and course materials; video lessons; written guides and frameworks; AI prompts and templates; the Chronicle Makers Tools and their methods, orchestration, and output formats — including the Ancestor Research Inventory (ARI) format, the Research Quality Check, and the Soundness Standard; worksheets and downloadables; community resources; articles; images; and site design. The ARI format is openly documented at chroniclemakers.com/ancestor-research-inventory; the documentation there states what may be used freely.

You receive a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to access and use materials for personal, non-commercial use only.

6.2 What You Can Do — Link to our content. Quote brief excerpts with attribution and a link. Learn and apply what you learn to your own family history work.

6.3 What You Cannot Do — Copy and redistribute our content; sell it; present it as your own; or create derivative works — courses, books, articles, workshops, presentations, coaching programs, client deliverables, or other products incorporating or substantially based on Chronicle Makers content, frameworks, or methodology — without a separate written license. Personal use in writing your own family's chronicles is always permitted.

6.4 Your Content — You retain ownership of content you create and post, and of the documents you submit to the Chronicle Makers Tools and the outputs generated for you (subject to the personal-use license in Sections 3.4 and 8A). By posting in the community, you grant Chronicle Makers a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to use, display, and distribute your posted content for promotional and educational purposes.

6.5 Testimonials — By sharing success stories or participating in member spotlights, you grant permission for us to use your name, story, and results in marketing materials unless you explicitly opt out.

7. Third-Party Services

Chronicle Makers is delivered using third-party platforms and service providers — community and payments, email delivery, AI model and infrastructure providers, hosting, video, forms, and scheduling. The current list is maintained at chroniclemakers.com/subprocessors and is updated when providers change. Your use of third-party platforms (such as Skool, Substack, and YouTube) is subject to their terms and privacy policies. We are not responsible for third-party practices or technical issues.

8. AI Tools and Content

8.1 AI-Assisted Learning — We teach methods for using AI tools (Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, and others). You are responsible for verifying AI-generated content, following ethical guidelines, complying with third-party AI terms, and understanding that AI tools make errors.

8.2 No Guarantee of Results — Results vary; historical accuracy remains your responsibility; AI tools are tools, and the choices that make work sound are yours.

8A. The Chronicle Makers Research Tools

Some membership tiers include access to the Chronicle Makers Research Tools ("the Tools") — AI-assisted research analysis services that analyze genealogical documents and research information you provide and return written analysis, such as research inventories and verification reports.

8A.1 You supply the records. The Tools never access, crawl, log into, or retrieve records from any website or service. They analyze only what you upload in a given request. You are responsible for having the right to use what you upload; where you obtained a record is between you and wherever you obtained it. You represent that your use of uploaded materials for personal family research is lawful and consistent with any terms you agreed to elsewhere. Do not upload information about living people; the Tools are designed for bounded research on deceased individuals.

8A.2 Nothing is stored. Uploads and outputs are processed, returned to you, and deleted. We do not retain your documents, research, or results after your request completes, beyond short-lived operational logs (8A.5). Download and keep your own outputs — Chronicle Makers is not your archive, backup, or research log, and cannot return work to you later. The Tools will not accept family tree (GEDCOM) files or DNA data. We do not use your uploads or outputs to train any AI model.

8A.3 Personal use, per member. Tool access is part of your personal membership license (Sections 3.4, 5.2) and carries the same limits: your own family history research only — no client work, paid or unpaid; no society, class, or group use; no shared access. Access is issued to one member at one registered email address through a personal access credential. Credentials may not be shared; allowances may not be pooled or transferred.

8A.4 Allowances and additional runs. Usage is metered per member. Hard limits apply. Members in good standing may purchase additional uage, priced at purchase; additional runs carry these same terms and do not roll over. Usage patterns inconsistent with one person's research may result in review, suspension, or termination.

8A.5 Logging. We log tool calls (member, tool, time, processing volume) for security, abuse prevention, capacity, and improvement. Logs are operational records and do not include retained copies of your documents.

8A.6 Assistance, not certification. Outputs show their reasoning so you can check the work; the final call on what your research proves is always yours. Outputs may contain errors; verify against original records before relying on any conclusion. Section 10's disclaimers and limits apply.

8A.7 Access ends with membership. Tool access requires membership in good standing. Tools credentials of removed members are revoked and not reissued.

9. Modifications to Services

We may modify or discontinue any part of the services, update course content, change pricing for future offerings (existing purchases honored), restructure programs and prerequisites, and add or remove features from tiers. Material changes affecting your current membership will be communicated 30 days in advance.

10. Disclaimers and Limitations

10.1 "As Is" Service — provided without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, uninterrupted operation, or accuracy of historical information.

10.2 Limitation of Liability — To the maximum extent permitted by law, we are not liable for: genealogical research results or outcomes; the quality, accuracy, or reception of work you create or publish; technical issues with third-party platforms; decisions made based on our content or tool outputs; indirect, incidental, special, or consequential damages; or losses from AI errors, historical inaccuracies, or third-party failures. Our total liability shall not exceed the amount you paid in the 12 months preceding the claim.

11. Termination

11.1 By You — Cancel anytime through Skool; access continues to the end of the paid period; no refunds beyond Section 3.2.

11.2 By Us — We may suspend or terminate your account if you: violate these Terms; engage in prohibited conduct; fail to pay; harass or abuse members, staff, or the operator; provide false or misleading information at joining (including misrepresenting professional status or intent); use materials or tools in professional, volunteer-service, or commercial contexts without a license; misuse trademarks, frameworks, or copyrighted material; or misrepresent Chronicle Makers' endorsement of your work. We will make reasonable efforts to notify you before termination unless immediate action is required.

11.3 Termination for violation forfeits fees. If your account is terminated for violation of these Terms — including intellectual property violations, misrepresentation at joining, credential sharing, professional use without a license, or abusive conduct — no refund is owed for any fees paid, including the unused portion of any membership period or unused tool allowances or purchased runs. Documentation of the violation may be provided at our discretion.

12. Changes to Terms

Updates are posted on chroniclemakers.com with a new Last Updated date, communicated by email for material changes, effective 7 days after posting for existing members and immediately for new members. Continued use constitutes acceptance.

13. Dispute Resolution

Contact us first, You agree to give us thirty days to resolve any dispute informally before starting a formal proceeding. These Terms are governed by Pennsylvania law. Disputes we can't resolve together go to binding individual arbitration, not to a class action or court, with two exceptions: either of us may use small claims court, and Chronicle Makers may go to court to protect its intellectual property and materials.

14. General Provisions

Entire agreement. These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy and any tool or license terms they reference, are the entire agreement between you and Chronicle Makers (PA Ancestors LLC). Nothing said in a community thread, live session, email, or video modifies them; only a posted update to these Terms does.

Severability. If any part of these Terms is found unenforceable, that part will be limited or removed to the minimum extent necessary, and the rest remains in full effect.

No waiver. If we don't enforce a provision in one instance, that is not a waiver — we may enforce it in any later instance, as to you or anyone else.

Assignment. Your membership and these Terms are personal to you and may not be assigned, transferred, or shared. We may assign these Terms in connection with a sale, merger, or reorganization of the business, and they will bind and benefit any successor.

Survival. Provisions that by their nature should outlive your membership — including personal-use limits, intellectual property, the license reservation, dispute resolution, and these general provisions — survive its end.

15. Contact

Chronicle Makers · PA Ancestors LLC · Email · chroniclemakers.com

By using Chronicle Makers, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agree to be bound by these Terms of Service.