Trace Your Family Tree
Where to start, what’s free, and how to break through the brick walls — your family’s story, found and kept.
Included in Morning Post membership — $79 a year · Cancel anytime
Everyone means to ask the questions while they still can. This class turns curiosity into method: start with what the family already knows, work the free Australian records — the BDM indexes, Trove, the National Archives — use the subscription sites cleverly, and organise what you find so it survives you.
It’s for anyone who’s inherited a shoebox of photos with no names on the back.
The eight lessons
1Start With What You KnowThe shoebox audit, rule one — and the ten questions that unlock the living memories first.2Names, Dates & the Family Tree HabitThe one-page pedigree chart, honest blanks — and why every fact needs a source.3Births, Deaths & MarriagesThe free state indexes, what a certificate adds — and the ladder up a generation.4The Free Goldmine: Trove & the LibrariesA century of digitised newspapers, free — and the tricks that find your family in them.5Ships, Wars & the Records of a LifeShipping lists, service files and electoral rolls — how your people arrived, served and settled.6Subscription Sites, Used CleverlyWhat the big sites actually add, the free-at-the-library trick — and why hints are clues, not facts.7Brick Walls & How to Break ThemThe sideways search — siblings, witnesses, neighbours — and the spelling drift that hides people.8Keeping It & Passing It OnLabel the photos, tell the stories, host the afternoon — and become the ancestor who wrote it down.The backbone of your research, one page per lesson: the interview sheet with the ten questions, the pedigree chart with its honest blanks, the certificate ladder, the Trove hunt and disguise list, the records-of-a-life checklist, the sprint planner, the brick-wall page, the passing-it-on checklist — and the running source log that keeps the whole tree trustworthy. Print it, fill it in pencil, and tell two people where it lives.
How to get it
Morning Post membership
This class and the other 17 — plus both Morning Post workbooks, all four mysteries, and everything we build next. Covers your household.
Become a member — $79 a yearNo password — we email you a link · Any phone, tablet or computer · Cancel anytime
Pairs well with Write Your Life Story and Your Brain After 60.
Questions worth asking
Do I need an Ancestry subscription?
No — the class starts with Australia’s free records, and lesson 6 shows the library trick that gets you the big sites without paying. A short subscription sprint is an option, never a requirement.
I know almost nothing about my family.
That’s the normal starting point — lesson 1 begins with the shoebox and the living relatives, and the tree grows from there.
Is it Australian?
Yes — built around the state BDM registries, Trove and the National Archives, with the sideways skills that work on overseas trails too.
Morning Post Classes — friendly general guidance for your own kitchen, garden and family. Registry rules, fees and privacy windows differ between states and change over time — your state registry’s website has the specifics. Narration and illustrations are AI-assisted under human editorial review — editorial policy.