Who We Are
The Ancestral Mirror is a reflective, educational space created by April Heath Pastis. Our website address is: https://ancestralmirror.com.
This site exists to support readers, lineage explorers, and anyone engaging with the tools, prompts, and resources connected to The Ancestral Mirror.
We honor privacy, consent, and personal boundaries — both in lineage work and in digital spaces.
Comments
When visitors leave comments on the site, we collect the information shown in the comment form, along with the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string. This helps us detect and prevent spam.
An anonymized string created from your email address (a hash) may be sent to the Gravatar service to check whether you use it. You can read Gravatar’s privacy policy here: https://automattic.com/privacy/.
After your comment is approved, your profile image (if you have one) becomes visible to the public alongside your comment.
Media
If you upload images to the website, please avoid uploading images that contain embedded location data (EXIF GPS). Visitors to the site may be able to download and extract location data from images.
Cookies
If you leave a comment, you may choose to save your name, email address, and website in cookies. This is for your convenience so you don’t have to re‑enter your information when leaving another comment. These cookies last for one year.
If you visit our login page, we set a temporary cookie to check whether your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.
When you log in, we set several cookies to save your login information and your display preferences. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for one year. If you select “Remember Me,” your login will persist for two weeks. Logging out removes these cookies.
If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be stored in your browser. This cookie contains no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you edited. It expires after one day.
Embedded Content From Other Websites
Articles or pages on this site may include embedded content (such as videos, images, or articles). Embedded content behaves exactly as if you visited the originating website.
These external sites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed third‑party tracking, and monitor your interaction with their content — including tracking your interaction if you have an account and are logged in to that service.
Who We Share Your Data With
If you request a password reset, your IP address will be included in the reset email for security purposes.
We do not sell or share your personal information with outside companies for marketing. Any data collected is used solely to support your experience on this site.
How Long We Retain Your Data
If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are stored indefinitely. This allows us to recognize and approve follow‑up comments automatically rather than holding them for moderation.
If users create accounts on the site (if enabled in the future), we store the personal information provided in their user profile. Users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except for their username). Site administrators can also view and edit that information.
Your Rights Over Your Data
If you have an account on this site or have left comments, you may request an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any information you’ve provided. You may also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you.
This does not include data we are required to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.
Where Your Data Is Sent
Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.