Speakers

Talks and workshops will be presented by international, national and Canterbury experts in many different fields of family history research and social history. The programme will be headlined by international genealogist Mia Bennett. Mia has been researching her family history for over 25 years and is now a professional genealogist specialising in using DNA to solve family history mysteries. She is based in Gloucestershire, England and has recently finished a 6 year term as a trustee at the Society of Genealogists. She loves using her analysis skills to investigate the fascinating world of her own, as well as others', relatives.

Jason Reeve is originally from Adelaide, and is currently the Content Manager for Ancestry. He is a passionate advocate for all things history. He works with a range of archives, registries, historical and genealogical societies to uncover new collections and share them with the Ancestry community. He is a regular speaker at events on Ancestry and AncestryDNA genetic testing.

Daniel Horowitz has been Dedicated to genealogy since 1986. Daniel was the teacher and the study guide editor of the family history project "Searching for My Roots" in Venezuela for 15 years. He was a board member of The International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS) for 10 years, now is involved in several crowdsource digitization and transcription projects, and holds a board-level position at The Israel Genealogy Research Association (IGRA). Since 2006 Daniel has been working at MyHeritage liaising with genealogy societies, bloggers, and media, as well as lecturing, and attending conferences around the world.

Michael Higgins looks after FamilySearch’s New Zealand and Pacific operations, including training volunteers, creating relationships with government officials and archive leaders in an effort to preserve significant genealogical records sets, and enjoying pleasant tours like this where he gets to engage with others who love this work. He recently graduated with a masters’ degree in business.

Shauna Hicks has been tracing her own family history since 1977 and is a fellow of the Queensland Family History Society. She has worked for over 35 years in libraries and archives, including the State Library of Queensland and the National Archives of Australia in Canberra. She is currently Director of her own part time research and consultancy business.

Fiona Brooker has served as both President and Treasurer of the New Zealand Society of Genealogists (NZSG) and convened the 2008 and 2018 national conferences. She holds a Higher Certificate in Genealogy from the Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies and began Memories in Time to help others trace their family history. She is a co-founder of Talking Family History  and a member of the Christchurch Family History organising group.

Jo Bailey is a Christchurch based author, editor and publisher. She won the 2020 Brockenhurst Scholarship from the Christchurch Memorial RSA (NZ) and Christchurch Sister Cities Association (UK) and is looking forward to being able to travel to research her scholarship project about a WWI nurse who served at the New Zealand No 1 General Hospital at Brockenhurst, Hampshire, UK.

Margaret Copland is a professional storyteller with international experience. Her stories are original, strongly grounded in local history and genealogical research and presented as a dramatic monologue. She brings a woman’s perspective to aspects of New Zealand history. In 2020 she received a medal from the Polish Government recognising her contribution to Polish culture.

Gail Cook is a Resource Description and Access Librarian with Christchurch City Libraries. She is one of the team describing and enhancing access to digitised photographs, negatives, manuscripts, maps, plans, publications, audio, video and other items preserved in the Library's digital heritage repository, Canterbury Stories.

Simon Daisley is a Community Stories Liaison at Christchurch City Libraries. This role develops and maintains community relationships to enable communities to collect, manage and promote their local histories and stories in the Christchurch City Library’s digital heritage repository, Canterbury Stories.

Maggie Gaffney is a professional genealogist based in Wellington.  A fourth-generation New Zealander, she has traced her family lines back to England, Scotland, and Ireland, visiting repositories and archives across New Zealand,  the UK and Ireland.  Maggie holds a Diploma in Genealogy from the Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies, and an Advanced Diploma in Local History (with Merit) from the University of Oxford.

Seonaid (Shona) Harvey has been senior research librarian, family history specialist based at Research Central, in the Central Auckland Library, for more than 12 years, assisting customers with their research queries. Seonaid has been researching her own family history for over 25 years and has personal research interests in England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales and Newfoundland.

Sarah Hewitt is currently President of the New Zealand Society of Genealogists.

Fiona Lees is a keen family historian and experienced working with computers, helping others to use computer skills for their genealogy research.  Fiona is the current convenor for the Canterbury Genealogy Society. She was involved in organising the 2018 NZSG Conference and is a member of the organising group for the Christchurch Family History Expo.

Simon Moody is the Research Curator at the Air Force Museum of New Zealand at Wigram, Christchurch. He has worked in the GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums) sector for 20 years, specialising in curating archives and providing research services. He has a specialist interest and knowledge of military history and military aviation across a number of periods. 

Michelle Patient is a scientist and genealogist, past President of the NZSG and current NZ representative of the Guild of One Name Studies (GOONS). She has spoken in New Zealand, Australia, and England, and has an interest in education, surname research, adoptions, methodology, and technology. She set up the New Zealand DNA Users Group and is a co-founder of Talking Family History.

Dr John Richardson recently completed his PhD thesis in 19th century British military reforms in sanitation and how they affected public health in India. He has presented on his research in several countries including England, Scotland and the Czech Republic and was the winner of the James Hight Memorial Prize in History for his Master's Thesis. He has been associated with Freemasonry in Christchurch for some years and will bring his historical insights into the beginnings of the movement in Canterbury to this presentation.

Alison Rodgers is a Local History Librarian at Christchurch City Libraries and has a particular interest in helping people researching the Christchurch branches of their family trees to uncover more about their ancestors’ neighbourhood.

Kathleen Stringer has been tracing her family tree for almost forty years (She started very young!). She has also been involved the museums and heritage sector for many years, being an objects curator as well as archivist, with a special interest in textiles, paper based objects and archives as well as photographs.

Jane Teal is the Archivist for the Anglican Diocese of Christchurch and Christ’s College.  One of Jane’s interests is Food History. She has contributed to conferences and publications in this field.

Emerson Vandy is the Digital Services Manager at the National Library of New Zealand.

Annette Williams is a Family History Librarian at Christchurch City Libraries. She has been researching the life and death of Selina Russell for some years, and is constantly finding new twists and turns to the story.

Rae Wilson has been a member of the Canterbury Branch of the NZSG for nearly forty years. She took on the task of Membership Secretary in the 1980's as well as transcribing church records for the Branch. She has also been part of the team transcribing probates as well as other old registers at Archives N.Z. She has worked at NZ Methodist Archives for many years and has a good knowledge of Canterbury and Westland place names. She delights in the ‘hunt’ and finds it satisfying finding results for researchers.

Christine Whybrew is currently Manager Heritage Assets South for Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga.  Following her early career in New Zealand museums she graduated from the University of Otago in 2010 with her PhD on the Burton Brothers photographic studio. She enjoys discovering and sharing the stories of historic places and finds this no less exciting after a decade of work in this field.

Jenny Lowe has an extensive background in administration, and brings these skills to family history and in particular to sharing family history via publications. She has been involved in organising the 2018 NZSG Conference and is a member of the organising group for the Christchurch Family History Expo.

Members of the Ngā Ratonga Māori and Multicultural Services Team are proactive in encouraging library customers and others to explore their Whakapapa. This workshop will be delivered by Julia Keogh-Cope (Ngāti Porou) and Ngapiu Tainui-Maclure (Ngāi Tahu, Te Rarawa), Pou Kohikohinga Māori for Christchurch City Libraries.

The Tuakiri Team at Christchurch City Libraries is supporting the 2022 Christchurch Family History Expo with several sessions. They bring their enthusiasm and experience for family history research with a twist of local history insight to these sessions. The members of the team regularly deliver programming workshops and talks to library customers wanting to begin their family or local history journey.