Sessions
Browse sessions by stream (AI or Migration), search by keyword, or open a talk to read the description, key takeaways, and audience level.
Conference opening ceremony
Your Ancestors Took the Boat… MyHeritage AI Takes You the Rest of the Way
Fri, 7:00 – 8:00 p.m. ET
From handwritten passenger lists to cutting-edge algorithms, genealogy has come a long way. In this lecture, we’ll explore how immigration and migration records — from ships’ manifests to naturalization documents — reveal the journeys of our ancestors. Then, we’ll fast-forward to today’s technology and discover how MyHeritage uses AI to unlock those records like never before. Learn how advanced tools can find hidden connections, overcome language barriers, and surface records you might otherwise miss. Whether your family arrived by steamship or plane, discover how AI can transform your research and bring your ancestors’ journeys vividly to life.
Daniel Horowitz
Sun, 1:30 PM ET
Discover how generative AI can transform historical records such as family letters, diaries, newspaper clippings, and military records into engaging games, gifts, and creative projects that bring generations together.
Janice Nickerson
Session Sponsor: Toronto Branch
Sun, 2:45 PM ET
A closing session that ties the conference’s two themes together, showing how AI tools are transforming how we find, read, and understand immigration records
Mark Thompson, Steven Little
Session Sponsor: Ottawa Branch
Sat, 9:00 AM ET
What if you could hand AI a tough research problem and let it do the legwork for you?
Mark Thompson
Session Sponsor: Wellington Branch
All Aboard the Great Migration Express! How Canada’s Railways Transformed Family Histories, 1880–1930
Sat, 11:30 AM ET
This journey follows the tracks of immigrants lured by glossy railway ads, homesteaders packed into colonist cars, and Chinese and European workers who built the lines.
Kathryn Padhye
Session Sponsor: Leeds & Grenville Branch
MyHeritage Afternoon Special Sessions
Fri, 12:30-4:30PM ET
From handwritten passenger lists to cutting-edge algorithms, genealogy has come a long way. In this lecture, we’ll explore how immigration and migration records — from ships’ manifests to naturalization documents — reveal the journeys of our ancestors.
Daniel Horowitz
Sat, 2:45 PM ET
This session applies Elizabeth Shown Mills’s Evidence Analysis Process Map to four Ontario record types — a death registration, an inquest, a marriage record, and a delayed birth registration — demonstrating how AI can support, but not replace, human reasoning in classifying sources, assessing information, and forming conclusions.
Drew von Hasselbach
Session Sponsor: Toronto Branch
Sat, 9:00 AM ET
The taking of the oath of allegiance in our province has evolved over the years, and has left behind valuable documentation for genealogists.
Linda Corupe
Session Sponsor: Oxford Branch
Coach, Batteaux, or Boat: Transportation Modes in Upper & Lower Canada, 1780 to 1841
Sun, 1:30 PM ET
How did loyalists get to Upper Canada during and after the War of the Rebellion/American Revolutionary War?
Pamela Vittorio
Session Sponsor: Toronto Branch
Sun, 10:15 AM ET
In this visually-rich program, you’ll learn how artificial intelligence can help genealogists interpret and date old images by recognizing period fashions, hairstyles, architectural details, and military uniforms.
Robert Weir
From Steamships to Skylines: A Wong Family Migration Story
Sat, 1:30 PM ET
This talk traces the migration story of one family and one association through the changing modes of transportation that carried generations of Chinese immigrants to Canada.
Henry Wong
Session Sponsor: Halton Peel Branch
Sat, 10:15 AM ET
This webinar will show how to use AI tools to translate, summarize, and extract the details that matter most for your research.
Natalie Webb
Session Sponsor: Eastern European SIG
Sat, 11:30 AM ET
Artificial intelligence is transforming genealogical research, but its greatest advantage occurs when paired with solid methodology and context, especially in Canadian research, where records span multiple languages, jurisdictions, and archival systems.
Kathryn Lake Hogan
Session Sponsor: Essex Branch
Sun, 9:00 AM ET
Understanding immigration involves more than just reviewing passenger lists; it requires understanding the policies that determined who could enter Canada at different times.
Kathryn Lake Hogan
Session Sponsor: Wellington Branch
Sun, 11:30 AM ET
Steamboats had an integral place in the heartbreaking memoire Esther Chantler left her children of her journey in 1832 from Montreal to Toronto during a cholera epidemic that claimed both her parents.
Wendy Cameron
Session Sponsor: Irish-Palatine SIG
Sun, 2:45 PM ET
In this two part presentation, Steven Brock offers a brief history of Jewish Immigration to Canada, from the earliest days of New France up until the 1980s.
Steven Brock
Session Sponsor: Toronto Branch
Sun, 11:30 AM ET
The application of AI driven handwriting recognition technology in FamilySearch's search has opened up the records to genealogy and family history researchers in ways we couldn't have imagined just a few years ago.
Ken McKinlay
Session Sponsor: Irish-Palatine SIG
Sun, 10:15 AM ET
Attendees will gain a greater understanding of the history of how these two areas are tied together, particular connection points, and key immigration movements, as well as ways to research ancestors who moved between Canada and Michigan.
Janelle Asselin
Sun, 9:00 AM ET
The latest sandboxed AI tools that keep your files local and private.
Steve Little
Sat, 2:45 PM ET
This presentation will discuss a project I have been working on for two years to collect the names of these vessels and the names of passengers that travelled on them from Scotland, England and Ireland to Canada.
Karen Prytula
Session Sponsor: Quinte Branch
Sat, 1:30 PM ET
Genealogy records help us trace the journey. AI can help us draft it. But sometimes the result sounds a little...well...AI written. Flat, broad, and missing the personality that makes ancestor stories worth telling.
Lynn Palermo
Session Sponsor: Halton Peel Branch
Sat, 10:15 AM ET
Annette has been researching the Canadian First World War Brides since 2005. Her fascination began when she inherited a letter written in 1919 by her grandmother, who was a war bride from this era. The 68-page letter chronicles her grandmother’s maiden voyage across the Atlantic…
Annette Fulford
