AI for Genealogy SIG

Aims

Smart tools, stronger stories. Family history has always been detective work, and AI is the research assistant that can read a faded page, sift a thousand search results or sketch a timeline in seconds — while you stay firmly in charge of what’s true.

We’re a friendly, evidence-focused group for family historians who are curious about what these tools can and can’t do. We meet online every couple of months to explore practical, responsible and creative ways to put AI to work on real research, and to look honestly at where it falls down. Whether you’re a confident experimenter or have never typed a word into a chatbot, you’ll come away with something to try.

Along the way we explore:

• planning research and finding records — sharper questions, search strategies, and working out where to look next
• reading old handwriting and transcribing documents that defeat ordinary OCR
• making sense of what you find — timelines, translations, comparing evidence and spotting the gaps
• organising a research problem in an AI “workspace”, so the tool understands your question instead of starting cold each time
• restoring and dating old family photographs, in our hands-on workshops
• and the part that matters most — the limits: hallucinations, invented sources, privacy, and the discipline of checking everything against the original record.

Our guiding principle is simple. AI helps us think more clearly; it doesn’t do the thinking for us, and every result is checked against the original records. Privacy, sound evidence and honest attribution stay at the centre of everything we try.

AI in Genealogy 2026 Program

Meeting Time

7.30 pm to 9.30 pm, third Monday of even-numbered months.

Australian Eastern Time (AET)

Meeting Place

Zoom only.

Who May Attend?

Everyone is welcome, from curious beginners to confident experimenters. Come for a single session that takes your interest, or follow the whole year’s program.

SIG meetings are free for FHACT members. Non-members and visitors from other societies are welcome for a small fee, shown on each event — or join Family History ACT to take part in this and every other group.

Members can find recordings and resources from past sessions on the members’ page.

Contact

Questions? Contact AI for Genealogy SIG