Beginner Training Lesson 2 -The Timeline

Capture History One Year at a Time

The next most important document to fill out is a TIMELINE.  A timeline is a glimpse of someone's life.  After completing a family group record for you and your immediate family, next do a timeline for each individual.  The image below is just an example of what one might look like.

You start with the year they were born (age would be 0) then have a line for every year up until the present day.  You will need more than one page or (as I did) make up a spreadsheet on your computer.  A timeline will need at least the birth year and the years up to the present or if the ancestor died to their death date.  Then you would need a column of their age in that year.  Then you would need an "Event" column.  This says what the event was. The next thing-you don't necessarily need, but it is definitely helpful-is to put down a "Documented Proof" or "Sources" column.  This column shows a brief source cited. 

Here is an example of a Timeline:

What I love about timelines is seeing where the "missing pieces" are.  Look at all the blanks.  Was there anything significant that happened in thier lives in those blanks that I am missing?  Also, for the ones I do have, what documented proofs are there out there for that event?  Did you know that you can also do a timeline for the history of the U.S. or the World or any other specific country to see what was going on in your ancestor's life during that time.  Or perhaps what was even going on during your lifetime.  Isn't this fascinating?  

HOMEWORK:

Make a timeline for you and your immediate family members.  Try to fill up the years.  Don't worry about Documented proof until after you have filled in the years.  Then you can look at what kind of searchable, documented proof is out there to prove it. 

If you get a chance, check out this website that let's you enter in the parameters of a birth date and death date and will tell you what was going on during that period of time in the U.S. or the world.  Go HERE to see.  They can do from 1000 AD to current.  You can also specify what types of facts you want shown on you timeline too.  Also, if the fact is underlined it means there are links to more information about the event.  Cool right?