Speaking Topics
Beyond the Paper Trail: Digital Workflows for Family History Explores how digital technology, including artificial intelligence, is reshaping the way family historians research, organise and interpret their evidence. Moving beyond simple digitisation, this session focuses on modern research workflows and the thoughtul use of AI to support analysis while keeping the researcher firmly in control.
From Grant to Grid Reference: Following an 1822 Paper Trail into the Digital Landscape
This session follows a single early NSW land grant from its original documentary trail into modern digital tools, including maps, overlays, digitised records, and spatial analysis, to explore how technology can deepen, rather than replace, traditional research. The session reflects on what paper records tell us, what they conceal, and how combining documentary evidence with digital context can transform our understanding of people, place, and land.
From Paper to Patriarchs: Using
Y-DNA to Rebuild Lost Lineages
How can you make the connections to other family lines and build your tree back to earlier times when the documentary evidence is sparse or non-existent?
This session will use a series of recent case studies to explore the uses of Y-DNA to connect the dots beyond the paper trail – from the 1900s to the 1600s and even back to the 1400s!
How DNA evidence can restart the search when the paper trail runs cold.
With a focus on Ancestry DNA tools, it draws on two case studies from my own second great-grandparents—an English convict and an Irish Famine orphan girl—to show how DNA can guide researchers toward new lines of enquiry and back to the records that matter. While no prior experience is required, participants who have tested with Ancestry DNA and explored their match list will gain the most from the session. It is designed to support those building confidence in working with DNA matches, while also offering insights and approaches of interest to more experienced users.
The legal paper trail and beyond: finding family on both sides of the law Family histories aren’t always respectable. This session will discuss how to trace ancestors who upheld the law − and those who crossed it − using court records, police gazettes, prison and gaol registers, newspapers and online resources. Learn how combining traditional paper trails with online databases reveals richer, more complex stories from both sides of the law.
Danielle Lautrec
Plan Smarter, Not Harder: Using Notion for Strategic Genealogy Research Notion is a flexible digital tool that allows you to bring research planning, task lists and notes together in one connected workspace. In this session, Danielle demonstrates how genealogists can use it to plan strategically across their entire family history, rather than creating isolated plans for each family group. Using a real case study from her own family history, this presentation shows how strategic planning supports better organisation, clearer thinking and more focused research.
Fiona Brooker
The Five DNA Research Steps
DNA testing is just the starting point, what matters is how you use the results. This presentation introduces a clear, practical five-step research process: Review, Cluster, Build,
Analyse, and Contact. Designed for family historians at all levels, it shows how to move from confusion to confident, structured DNA research.
Jill Ball
Using social media to help trace your family history.
How do blogs help with researching your family history?
What is hidden in social media and how to find it.
Jill Williams
Irish Genalogical Research Society
The Irish Schools Collection – a vastly Underused Resource. Ireland has a long and strong oral tradition. In the late 1930s school children from more than 5000 schools in Ireland were tasked with collecting folklore and local tradition from the old people in their area. More than ¼ million pages collected are now digitised and freely available online. Jill will introduce this collection, show you how to access it, and give you a flavour of some of the gems to be found in the Irish Schools Collection.
Fiona Brooker
Slow Down
Learn how to bring focus and direction to your family history research. This practical workshop shows you how to move beyond random searching by creating a clear research plan, helping you work more efficiently, stay organised, and make meaningful progress.
Fiona Brooker
The Time Travelling Genealogist
We are creating a historical record every day, but much of modern life is surprisingly fragile. This presentation explores what future historians may, and may not, be able to find about us. Fiona offers a practical framework for thinking about digital records, personal archives, and the stories we leave behind.
John Grenham
Mapping Ireland's Records Explore ways in which digital maps of the locations of households of particular surnames in Catholic records, valuations, census records and records of births, marriages and deaths can help with genealogy and local history, providing vivid examples of just how local some names are and how impossibly widespread others can be. All the records covered are free online and form part the basis of almost all nineteenth-century Irish research. In addition, some of the focus will be on maps of the geographic areas used to collect the records.
Jeff Madsen
Land Records Impact the Family Narrative
Land records and a documented paper trail alter the commonly understood story of a family's history.
Louise Briffa
Director Operations and Service Delivery
NSW Registry of Births Deaths and Marriages
From paper to pixels: the long journey of Registry records
This year is the Registry’s 170th anniversary. I will talk about the history of the Registry’s repository of family history records and provide some answers to common questions we get asked e.g. why can’t I get a record corrected, why is there no record, why are there duplicate indexes, what does PDF available mean and why do we use it?
Martyn Killion
Museums of History NSW, Executive Director, Records, Archives & Collections.
When the Paper Trail runs dry – alternative sources for births, deaths and marriages in NSW Family history research relies so heavily on birth, death and marriage certificates. However, what happens when there is no certificate to be found or the information on a certificate is missing or incomplete? This session explores the strategies and sources you can use to determine BDM details and rediscover the paper trail!
Shari-Lei McLean
Ryerson Index
RYERSON – Ten Million and Beyond
Ryerson is seriously impacted by the loss of the paper trail – ie the closure or reduction in publishing frequency of many newspapers. This talk covers the steps we are taking to address those impacts using digital means, followed by a demonstration of some of the lesser-known features of the Index
Shauna Hicks, OAM
Finding your way on digital trails in the archives
It's easy to get lost in the archives. Do you know how to look or even where to look? A lot depends on what you are looking for, but there are some search strategies to follow for best results. This presentation examines a standard approach to any online archive catalogue and will include examples for archives in Australia, England, Ireland and Scotland.
Robyn Denley
FamilySearch - Join your generations
FamilySearch is a free family history program. FamilySearch maintains a collection of records, resources, and services designed to help people learn more about their family history.
Tony Wales
German Brick Walls and Digital Joy This presentation explores how to use German Catholic and Lutheran Church Book records via MATRICULA and ARCHION websites. The first part will follow the family of Franz Schweider from arrival in 1852 and trace his ancestors back to the early 1600's. The second part will investigate using the MATRICULA records to trace your german family lineage.