Bryan Cole
Bryan is an ex-English teacher at all secondary levels, and for Adult Literacy and English as an Additional Language. Bryan has been researching family history for many years and is currently writing some historical fiction. He is keen to assist others on their writing journey.
Rachel M. Croucher
Rachel M. Croucher is a highly credentialled genealogist and record agent with 20 years’ experience in the practice of history. She is also a certified editor and has been widely published in genealogy-related journals and publications. Rachel currently serves as Vice President of the Australasian Association of Genealogists and Record Agents (AAGRA) and as Group Lead of the Indian and South Asian Research Group at the Society of Australian Genealogists (SAG), amongst other roles. She is undertaking postgraduate legal studies and aims to be admitted as a legal practitioner by 2027.
Chris Finch
Chris Finch (she/her) is one of the coordinators for the course. She is a former English and English as an Additional Language teacher and public servant. While researching her family’s history she is also exploring ways to share the family stories in writing, with family near and far.
Dr Elizabeth Hartnell-Young
Elizabeth was formerly a teacher and researcher in the learning sciences, and has published frequently in journals, and in her blog ‘the hartnell-young files’. Having worked towards gender equality for many years, she co-founded Honour a Woman in 2017, and celebrates and recognises women’s contributions through her writing.
A keen learner, she has also designed, presented and supported professional learning for adults for more than 20 years. She is an Honorary Fellow in the Faculty of Education at the University of Melbourne.
Anne Prince
Dr Anne Prince worked at Monash, RMIT and Swinburne universities teaching English and research writing, working individually with research students. She has an MA in Applied Linguistics and a doctorate in Australian history based on the stories of five generations of women in her own family. She has published in Ancestor and on her grandmother’s life. She is interested in working with new writers on their family histories.
Carole McCulloch
Carole has preserved her own family history, created a thriving online academy, published books and ebooks, and revolutionised genealogy education through artificial intelligence. She continues to expand her impact globally with articles written for publications such as Family Tree Magazine Uk and the London Gazette.
Her writing spans multiple genres, from fantasy fiction to memoir to family history narratives, and now includes groundbreaking educational content on AI integration in genealogical research. She has also presented on her favourite topic of writing AI-enhanced ancestral stories for several Australian and international societies of genealogists, including the GSV.
Angela Rutherford
In her professional life as a GP, Angela supported patients to explore and shape their life stories. She has written for science and medical journals and an environmental conservation group. Her family history writing has been published in Ancestor, and is held in the State Library of Victoria. In all these fields, the guidance of mentors has been invaluable. It is a privilege in this course to mentor new writers and new stories, and help get these stories to readers.
Professor Peter Sherlock
Professor Peter Sherlock (Charles Sturt University) is a widely published historian. His most recent book is The Monuments of Westminster Abbey: Power and Memory in Early Modern Britain (Routledge, 2025). Family history is his first love: he has been a member of the GSV for over forty years and in 1991 co-founded the Hungerford and Associated Families Society. He is currently writing a book about his ancestor Tom White Melville Winder, part of a larger project asking how family history might contribute to reconciliation and truth-telling in this beautiful and ancient land.
Jill Watson
Jill Watson worked as an English and French teacher, and later, supporting hard-of-hearing children. Her interest in genealogy dates back to her teens, and decades of research have led to long and detailed histories which have been shared with family, and fellow researchers. She has also written short family history articles for publication in Ancestor and elsewhere. Since retiring, she has travelled extensively around Australia, Britain and Norfolk Island, visiting ancestral sites, furthering her quest to learn the “how” and “why” of the people in these histories.