What this site collects.

Email signups

The signup form stores your email address, any optional first and last name, town interests and topic preferences, the atlas page or shared resource link where you started signup, signup date, and record of consent. Names and preferences are optional. Town choices describe places you want to explore; they do not identify your home address or ancestry. This information is used to plan and send future emails about Missouri’s German heritage and this project. It is not displayed to other visitors.

Heritage submissions

The submission form stores the category, title, Missouri location, details, supporting link, submission date, and any name or email you voluntarily provide. Submissions are reviewed before publication. Partnership inquiries use the same form and are reviewed privately. An email supplied with a request may be used to reply about that request; it does not enroll you in marketing. Personal names and email addresses are not published without separate permission.

Research searches

The Rhineland name-index filters run within your browser. When you use the separate collection search, your query is sent through the atlas to the Library of Congress and/or Wikimedia, according to your selection. Search results may be cached for up to 15 minutes to reduce repeated requests. Queries are not added to signup records or heritage submissions. Search requests may appear in technical service logs.

Images load from the Library of Congress or Wikimedia, which receive the network information needed to deliver them. External source links open the providers’ websites. Their own privacy and reuse terms apply. Use historical names, places, and topics rather than sensitive details about living people.

Anonymous visit counts

We count page views, signup-link, guide-download and sponsored-link clicks, form starts, form errors, and newly saved email signups. Counts are grouped by date, atlas page, action, and the page or bounded resource-link code where an action began. A shared resource code can stay on internal links during that visit; it identifies a distribution link, not a person. These codes are not stored in tracking cookies. These counters do not store names, email addresses, IP addresses, search queries, or visitor identifiers, and they cannot identify unique people. The counts begin with the September 2026 site update.

We honor browser Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control signals for these counters. You can also exclude this browser; that choice is saved in a first-party preference cookie for one year. Signing into the owner dashboard excludes that browser automatically.

Site operation

The hosting platform may process basic technical information needed to deliver and protect the website, such as request time, browser information, and network address. The atlas does not add third-party advertising trackers or sell signup or submission information.

Choices

Joining the email list and sharing material are optional. You may continue using the public atlas and download the weekend guide without either action. To request removal or a correction, use the heritage submission form, choose “Correction or source,” and include the email address concerned. Requests are reviewed by the owner. This policy was last updated September 19, 2026.