Frequently Asked Questions

Three differences. Paid obituaries appear in newspaper archives that paywall search and rarely preserve photos or media; we are built for permanent public access, free at the base tier, with every memorial pinned on a public IPFS gateway with a verifiable content identifier. Genealogy platforms like Ancestry.com and FamilySearch focus on records, dates, and family trees; we focus on stories — the songs, sayings, and small details that turn a name into a person. And our Guiding Principles forbid us from selling personal data or running advertising on the public archive — most commercial genealogy platforms make their money exactly that way.

Yes. The African American heritage is full of ancestors whose names were stolen, buried, or never recorded — people enslaved under given names, families ruptured by the Middle Passage, lives erased from archives. We accept submissions for these ancestors when you can write a meaningful remembrance: a place, a time, a connection, the closest detail you have. The story can take the form "the woman who raised my great-grandmother in [place]" with whatever you do know. Email info@honoredancestors.net if you would like guidance before submitting.

With honesty and editorial care. Guiding Principle 2 — Truth told plainly — means we do not sanitize what really happened. A story that includes slavery, abuse, addiction, or violence can be told in a way that honors the person being remembered without exploiting the pain. Our editorial team will work with you on framing if you are unsure. We will not publish content whose primary purpose is to defame, ridicule, or attack any person, living or deceased.

You must be at least 18 years old (per our Terms) and have the right to share what you submit. That generally means a family member, close associate, or community member with the family's blessing. The Heritage Submission Authority Pledge spells out the standard.

A real life, told plainly. A specific detail — a song, a meal, a saying — often carries more weight than a long biography. The free Memorial tier supports stories up to 1,500 words; Legacy and Family tiers have no word limit.

Most submissions are reviewed within a few business days. Complex submissions, those requiring family verification, or stories that prompt editorial questions may take longer. Every submission is read by a human — we do not use automated approval (Guiding Principle 6). You will receive an email when your story is published.

Yes. Free Memorial includes one portrait. Legacy supports up to 20 photos plus audio and video. To add to an already-published memorial, email info@honoredancestors.net — we will handle it without a new submission.

We publish stories without photos. Many ancestors — especially those born before 1900 — have no surviving photograph. The story itself is the memorial. The dignity of the remembrance does not depend on whether a photograph exists.

Absolutely. Call 1-443-233-8521 or visit /request-advisor — a real person will help you over the phone or by email. No form needed.

A human on our editorial team reads every submission. Guiding Principle 6 separates assistance from authorship: AI tools may help us draft, transcribe, or de-duplicate, but humans make every editorial decision. We may write back with a small note before publishing if anything needs clarification.

Rarely. Story Submission Terms Section 7 documents the categories we will not publish: pieces that defame or attack a person; submissions disclosing intimate medical, financial, or sexual information about a living person without consent; content with unredacted SSNs, full dates of birth of living people, or financial account numbers; political campaigning; advertising; or content that is clearly fabricated. We aim to write back with guidance rather than reject silently.

Two specific commitments. First, every approved memorial is pinned on IPFS — the InterPlanetary File System — with a public Content Identifier (CID) anyone can verify on any IPFS gateway. We pin from a self-hosted node we operate. This is Guiding Principle 4: we only make permanence claims we can prove. Second, the operating LLC (Abilities Finance, LLC) is set up as a steward, not an owner, and an advisory circle is being recruited so the archive's continuity does not rest on a single steward.

Every featured memorial — including free-tier memorials — is pinned on IPFS with a public Content Identifier (CID) that anyone can independently verify on any public IPFS gateway, today and decades from now. We pin from our own self-hosted node, not a third-party service that could shut down. This is Guiding Principle 4. If you do not see a CID published next to a memorial yet, email us — we are actively closing the gap between the commitment and the implementation.

Guiding Principle 8 is Outlive the founder. Every system, every key, every relationship is built so the archive continues if any single person steps away. The recovery runbook is the contract between us and the future. Backups exist independently of the live website, and the IPFS pinning means even the live site going down does not erase the memorials.

You do. Story Submission Terms Section 3: you retain all copyright and other ownership rights in your submission. The license you grant us (Section 4) is for hosting, formatting, and displaying — not for selling, syndicating, or licensing to third parties for commercial profit. If we ever pursue a commercial use case (such as a printed book of remembrances), we will seek your separate, explicit permission first.

No. We do not train AI on your submissions, and we do not sell or share your content with third parties for that purpose. Guiding Principle 6 is specific: AI may help us with editorial work — drafting suggestions, transcription, de-duplication — but every published word is reviewed by a human, and submitted memorials are not used as training data for any AI system, internal or external. The only third parties our platform talks to are Stripe (paid tier payments) and Let's Encrypt (HTTPS certificates).

Yes, with two paths. Legacy and Family tier memorials include a printable PDF certificate as part of the upgrade. For the free Memorial tier, your story remains accessible at its public URL and via its IPFS Content Identifier — the IPFS CID itself is a permanent, verifiable copy of the file that does not depend on our website. An explicit PDF download for free-tier memorials is on the roadmap; for now, email info@honoredancestors.net if you need a copy.

Yes. The full process is on the Takedown & Corrections page. Email info@honoredancestors.net with subject "Takedown or Correction Request" and the URL of the page. We aim to respond to good-faith requests within 5 business days, and most are handled faster. The original submitter and documented next-of-kin family always have removal rights.

Documented next of kin always carry weight in editorial decisions about a memorial — even when the original submitter disagrees. Guiding Principle 3: Family wins. We will reach out to the original submitter when reasonable, but the family's wishes about the public memory of their relative will weigh heavily. Heritage Submission Authority Pledge Section 6 reserves our right to remove, edit, or transfer control of any submission to a verified family member.

Never. Your email address, IP address, browser data, and any private notes are never published, regardless of which privacy preference you choose. The story itself, with the honoree's name, is published per your selected preference: public with submitter credit, public submitter anonymous, or review-with-me before publishing. We do not run third-party tracking, advertising, or analytics cookies (Privacy Policy Section 2; Guiding Principle 5).

Honored Ancestors is operated by Abilities Finance, LLC, a Wyoming limited liability company that serves as the platform's legal steward. The founder is Czar J. Kijana. The brand and the entity are the same operation under two names. Read more about the founder at /founder.

Yes — raising a memorial is free: up to 1,500 words with one portrait, published to the public archive and anchored on IPFS, the same pinning every tier receives. To keep more, the ladder is one path: Remembrance preserves any moment — a photo, video, or note — for $1 a Seal ($10 minimum), pinned across IPFS and Filecoin, paid once. Honored ($49 once) gathers a complete memorial with generous media, unlimited story, and a private/family option. The heirloom tier — the Muhuri — is in production. See /how-it-works/ for the full ladder.

Raising the memorial is genuinely free and archival — IPFS-pinned with a public CID, editorial review, a public page, the same dignity every memorial receives. Paying is about scale and durability: Remembrance and Honored add capacity (more photos, audio, video, unlimited story, a private/family option) and a second permanent network, Filecoin — paid once, with a 14-day refund window. The choice is never about whether your ancestor is truly preserved; every memorial gets that.

No — it is one offering with two doors in. Raising a Memorial honors someone who has passed; Living Legacy keeps your own life for those who come after. Both climb the same four tiers — Capture (free), Remembrance ($1 a Seal, $10 minimum), Honored ($49), and the heirloom Muhuri (in production) — and both use the same Seals purse. You capture freely and seal your own life a dollar a moment, pinned to the open network with a proof you can verify. See /living-legacy/ and /how-it-works/.

Honored Ancestors began in African American and Pan-African heritage — elders, ancestors, and community figures whose lives are part of the long story of Black memory — and now opens to all humanity, for Africa is the cradle of humankind and these are, in the deepest sense, everyone’s ancestors. Guiding Principle 1 ("Names first") is universal, and the same dignity is extended to every lineage. The African American archive remains our founding heart and deepest focus, even as the doors stand open to all peoples.

For questions, family requests, or general correspondence: info@honoredancestors.net. For phone help: 1-443-233-8521. The full Contact page lists every channel.

Our Featured Remembrance is on the homepage. A full archive browse experience is in development — we will announce it on the Archive page when it goes live.