About

Danielle Lautrec –
Family History Research Expert & Genealogy Educator

I’m here to help you enjoy family history research more, by making it easier. I can also help you make your family history more accurate, so that you find your ancestors, not someone else’s.

I do this by sharing the knowledge and techniques I’ve learned over decades of researching, problem solving and analysis. This comes from years working in research and policy analysis roles, where you learn to build a case from incomplete or conflicting evidence and defend it under scrutiny, which turns out to be exactly what good genealogy requires. That’s layered on top of four university degrees, in archaeology, environmental studies, environmental planning, and history and family history. I’ve also put this thinking to work as an education officer and archives officer at a genealogy society, and as a professional genealogist.

Split image showing two black-and-white portraits of young men. Left: man with short dark hair in a dark collared shirt. Right: man with wavy hair in a light shirt.
My father on the right and his biological father on the left, found through a combination of DNA and documentary evidence.

My focus is research method: the concepts, systematic processes, analytical techniques and tools we use, because good genealogy is about more than typing a name into a website search bar.

Honestly, the reason I do this is I got tired of hearing academic historians say that all family history is mythology. It doesn’t have to be. Sure, we interpret the past, but so do all historians. The main difference is that most genealogists don’t go to university to learn how to do it. And you shouldn’t have to. But you should learn. So, that’s why I teach and share my knowledge through this website.

Everything I write or talk about has been applied and tested, in my own research and in the research of my students.

My mission is to help you be a good genealogist. That’s the idea behind my book of (almost) the same name, too.

These days I teach and write full-time, primarily with the Society of Australian Genealogists, where I am a Fellow of the Society and a member of their education faculty. I’ve taught for the Society for about ten years. When I’m not teaching, I’m researching or writing about researching. In 2022, I published The Good Genealogist (new edition out soon!), and I publish articles on the blog of this website.

I’m Australian, and my own family history includes English, Scottish, Irish, German, Swiss, French, Jamaican and Chinese ancestry. If you want to read about my family history and my journey discovering my ancestors’ stories, my other website is: Rustenivy – A History of an Australian family.

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