Here are details of some of our speakers!
The schedule for the Congress is being put together. In the meantime, here are some of the speakers and presentations that you can enjoy when you attend the Congress. Registrations will open on 14 August.
Our theme for the 18th Congress is:
Our sub-themes are:
- Voyages
- Finding women’s stories
- Uncovering First Nations’ stories
- DNA, AI, technology
Introducing our Keynote Speaker – Jonny Perl
Jonny Perl is a genealogist, DNA enthusiast and web developer based in Swansea, Wales. He is the creator and founder of dnapainter.com, an award-winning web application for family historians working with DNA that helps people around the world interpret the results of their autosomal DNA tests.
In addition to his presentations during the Congress, Jonny will be running masterclasses on his tool WATO and chromosome painting. Numbers for masterclasses are limited so book early!
Other events include
Finding your female ancestors
We also welcome Catherine Bishop, Julia Bradshaw and Charlotte Macdonald. In addition to presentation on their areas of expertise, they will be coming together to do a panel session on finding female ancestors.
Celebrating Family History Organisations
As this is the 50th Anniversary of Congress and our hosts the New Zealand Society of Genealogists are turning 60, we will be celebrating the work done by family history organisations around Australasia.
Other presentations include
Seán Brosnahan, Toitu Otago Settlers Museum
To Dunedin via Melbourne: step-wise migration for Otago’s Irish, Chinese and Lebanese pioneers
Migration via Australia was key to some minority groups establishing their first footholds in New Zealand. Pioneer Otago, one of the most exclusive of the Wakefield-inspired colonies, screened out unwelcome groups like Irish Catholics for almost a decade. It was Irish from Victoria who first breached the cordon. The same was true for the first Cantonese gold seekers in the 1860s, and Lebanese hawkers in the 1880s. This paper will examine these foundation stories for three of Otago’s most distinctive ethnic minorities and the key role of Australian connections in their New Zealand beginnings.
Dr Kate Bagnall, University of Tasmania
Understanding Australian and New Zealand naturalisation records
Naturalisation records are a valuable source for researching ancestors who migrated from outside the British Empire – from continental Europe, China, the United States and beyond. In this presentation, you will be introduced to the history of naturalisation in Australia and New Zealand, and learn about relevant records in state and national archives. The presentation will be illustrated with examples from a range of jurisdictions in Australia and New Zealand from the early nineteenth century to the mid twentieth century.
Michelle Patient
Gold Connections
The strong call of riches and opportunity drew many to migrate out to our British Colonies. Join Michelle as she traces gold rush driven migrations within and between our colonies, and in some cases there and back again.
Luke Howison
Too Broke to Fail: Digitising History on a Shoestring
When government archives are highly constrained, can amateur volunteers step in to fill the gap? Yes, we can!
The Intention to Marry Project has digitised tens of thousands of pages of marriage registers covering almost 70 years, using cheap smartphones, home-grown software and free models to transcribe each page using AI handwriting recognition. Corrections are made by a team of online volunteers, and it’s all freely available online.
Fiona Brooker
What I Got Wrong: When the Story Didn’t Match the Evidence
Family historians do not always begin with inherited stories. Often, we build our own narrative from the records we find. But what happens when new evidence challenges those earlier conclusions? This presentation explores a real case study, following the research over time as new records emerged and assumptions were revisited. Through this evolving example, you will see how interpretation influences the stories we construct and learn how to separate evidence from narrative, enabling you to approach your research with greater clarity, flexibility, and confidence.
Fiona will also be presenting two masterclasses on Artificial Intelligence with Andrew Redfern.
Andrew Redfern
The Intelligent Genealogist: Rethinking How We Research in the Age of AI
Most family historians have heard of AI and many have experimented with it. But there is a significant difference between dabbling and genuinely rethinking how you research. This session explores what it means to work alongside AI as a confident, critical researcher rather than simply using it as a shortcut. Andrew combines conceptual frameworks with live demonstrations to show how AI can assist with everything from transcription and analysis to research planning and storytelling. Suitable for all experience levels, this session will challenge you to think differently about your research habits and leave you better equipped for the future.
Helen Smith
Hidden Hands: Women and the Invisible Labour Force in the Early 19-20th Century
We’ll explore the often-overlooked economic contributions of women revealing how their labour underpinned households, industries, and communities despite being frequently unrecorded or undervalued in official sources which often suggest limited female participation in the workforce. A deeper genealogical and social-historical analysis tells a very different story. We examine the wide spectrum of women’s work—paid and unpaid—including domestic service, home-based industries (such as sewing, laundering, and piecework), agricultural labour, family businesses, and informal economies, including married women’s contributions often hidden under their husband’s occupation, and to widows and single women who navigated economic survival through a patchwork of employments.
Dr Kristy Love
Deep Connections in Data: Using Technology to find Trans-Tasman Chinese Journeys
Chinese people are notoriously difficult to locate within Australian and New Zealand archives. Issues of Chinese naming conventions frequently butt up against Western recording systems, which make it particularly challenging to determine if you’re researching the right person. Additionally, indexing projects may not record the nationality of Chinese individuals, even when the original data is available. Finding Chinese women presents additional challenges.
This talk outlines how technology has been used to overcome some of these research problems and discover deep connections within Trans-Tasman data sets.
Jennifer Joyce
From Sail to Steam: The Changing Voyage from Britain to the Antipodes
Migrants have been coming to Australia from Britain since the 18th century, and to New Zealand since the 19th century. Until the middle of the 20th century most of them came by sea. During that period the conditions, ships, length of journey and route taken changed enormously. So, what was it like at different periods, and what conditions did your ancestors experience?
Tarryn Ryan
Unknown histories of wāhine Tahu
In 2026 I spent time gathering oral histories from my father and his four remaining siblings, around
time they have spent at Horomamae – our moutere tītī, our muttonbird island.
Our whānau has traditionally gathered tītī for as long as our people have been in Aotearoa. During
this process, I spoke with my dad’s two sisters, aged 95, and learned more of their somewhat
extraordinary lives.
This presentation will recount some of those stories and talk about the importance of gathering
the unknown stories.