2026 North Star Pre-Conference Schedule

8:30am Registration

9:00 – 10:15am Welcome and first session

Introduction to AI for Genealogists
Curious about artificial intelligence but not sure where to start? You're not alone, and the good news is that today's AI tools are more accessible and useful for genealogists than ever before. In this beginner-friendly session, Mark will orient you to the landscape of AI assistants available to family historians, demonstrating how they can summarize documents, extract key details from complex records, and organize your research more efficiently. You'll build a solid foundation for the sessions that follow and gain the confidence to start exploring these tools on your own.

10:15 – 10:30am Morning BREAK

10:30 – 11:40am Second session

Researching Family Documents and Letters with AI
Do you have old family letters, diaries, or documents tucked away in a box, full of stories waiting to be discovered? This session focuses on unlocking the history hidden in your family's personal archives. You'll learn how AI can quickly summarize lengthy documents, identify key names and relationships, and help you make sense of unfamiliar terms, handwriting, and historical language. Whether you have a single treasured letter or an entire collection of family papers, you'll leave with practical techniques for turning your documents into rich, usable research.

11:40 – 12:40pm LUNCH

12:40 – 1:50pm Third session

Analyzing Family Photographs with AI
Who are the people in your old family photographs? When and where were these images taken? In this session, discover how AI can transform your approach to family photo research. Mark will show you how to identify unknown faces, estimate when a photograph was taken, and decode visual clues such as clothing styles, architectural details, military insignia, and studio backdrops that place your ancestors in their proper time and place. You'll also see how AI can help restore faded images, organize growing photo collections, and even generate visual recreations of places and scenes described in your family records.

1:50 – 2:10pm Afternoon BREAK

2:10 – 3:20pm Fourth session

AI-Enhanced Genealogy Research
What if you could analyze dozens of records in minutes, get instant summaries of complex documents, and generate detailed research reports, all with a tool that never gets tired? This session brings everything together, showing you how to integrate AI into your broader research workflow. Mark will demonstrate how to produce in-depth reports that connect the dots across multiple sources and share real-world examples of challenging brick-wall research made possible with AI assistance. You'll leave with a clear plan for putting these tools to work on your own projects.

3:20 – 3:30pm Pre-conference wrap up