Greffy · About

About

Greffy was created to shorten the time it takes to find a term, guideline, or definition across the many manuals and guides genealogists rely on. Its results give the book and page where a topic is discussed, so researchers can turn to their own copy.

Greffy is a research aid that provides searchable cross-references to selected genealogy reference books. It contains only terms and their page numbers, taken from each book’s index or, for a book without an index, from its headings. It does not reproduce the text or any substantive content from the books. The terms have been digitized and combined into a new search structure that spans all of the books.

Search results identify the source and page(s) where relevant information may be found, and users should consult their own legally obtained copies of the referenced works for the actual content. The tool is intended to facilitate research and save researchers the time of searching multiple books individually.

Its use of factual reference information and creation of a transformative search tool is consistent with established copyright principles concerning facts, compilations, research, and searchable databases, including Authors Guild, Inc. v. Google Inc., 804 F.3d 202 (2d Cir. 2015), and Authors Guild, Inc. v. HathiTrust, 755 F.3d 87 (2d Cir. 2014). See also U.S. Copyright Office, Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practices § 508.2 (3d ed. 2021), regarding the scope of copyright in compilations and the treatment of uncopyrightable facts and data.

U.S. Copyright Office, “Fair Use Index,” copyright.gov/fair-use/fair-index.html.