Ancestry Magazine

My third great-grandfather, Samuel Mulliner, was born in Scotland on 15 January 1809. He died in Lehi, Utah on 25 February 1891. What happened between those two dates, however, is the real story of his life.

In my quest to fill in the empty spaces on my family tree, I sometimes forget that the final sum of a life is much more than when a person was born and when a person died. Creating timelines helps me remember that other events—even the seemingly trivial ones like grade school graduation—are important, too. And, surprisingly, creating timelines also helps me with other key elements of family history—research analysis and sharing what I’ve discovered.

 

What: Picturing Life

Timelines can help you understand how two families merge into one time and place. They can help prove or disprove family stories. They can help identify migration patterns. They can even help you understand how major and minor historical events might have influenced your ancestors’ lives. Through the effective use of timelines you can learn to see holes and errors in your research that might not be obvious in any other way.

 

How to: Getting Started

There are many ways to create timelines, but two of the simplest and most effective ways are through a notes feature of a genealogy software program like Family Tree Maker, or through spreadsheet software like Microsoft Excel. Whenever you find a piece of information that connects an ancestor to a date and a place, create a source citation for that information. Then insert a brief reference to the event chronologically in your notes.

 

How to: Timelines in Action

A magazine article about Scottish immigrants stated that Samuel Mulliner settled in Toronto in 1832. Research had already shown that Samuel married his first wife in December 1830 in East Lothian, Scotland. Their daughter Jeanette was born in February 1833, but two sources conflict regarding where she was born—one says Scotland, another Canada. Using a timeline, you can quickly scan to see where previous research showed the family to be living when Jeanette was born: Canada. Armed with this information, research can be focused on proving the validity of the sources that indicate that Jeanette was born in Canada.

 

What: Living Color

Spreadsheets allow sorting, color-coding, and font changes, all while keeping data “at a glance” so that you can begin to see holes and conflicting information and identify patterns that may lead to further research opportunities.

 

How to: Experimenting with Your Life

Before jumping into creating a timeline for an ancestor, it can help to create one using your own life. Using a spreadsheet program, label the first four columns “Year,” “Date,” “Event,” and “Place.” In the first row of the column labeled “Year,” jot down the year you were born. Under “Date,” put the month and date you were born. Put “birth” under the “Event” column and your place of birth under “Place.”

 

Then consider the other events in your life that can be put into a timeline:

First day of school

Religious ceremonies

High school graduation

Starting college

Wedding

Birth of a child

Moving to a new place

Starting a new job

Birth of grandchildren

Historical events—local, national, or international—that affected you

 

How to: Sorting Through Visual Cues

Spreadsheets let you add and sort items based on conditions that you define. As you think of events to add, you can insert a row in the correct place and complete the entry. Or, you can add the event to the bottom of the list and then sort by year.

 

You can also use a single spreadsheet for multiple family members, color code the family members, and then choose to sort based on any of your categories. You end up with an easy-to-read picture of when and where lives might have intersected. Add historical events and you may even figure out why.

 

How to: Notes to Self

Use text-formatting options like italicizing to clue you into a problem like a missing source. Try highlighting a row that needs additional attention.

 

What: Presentation

Even if you don’t have many photos of an ancestor, you can create a picture of his or her life using a “line of time.” Traditionally, historical timelines are drawn with a horizontal line representing a span of time, bisected by tick marks that represent events. Using software like Genelines, you can also automatically incorporate historical events with the events of the ancestor’s life.

 

How to: Adding Pictures

Illustrate the life further using clip art or public domain images accessible via the Internet.

 

How to: Mapping

Consider other creative tools, like maps. Using information on your spreadsheet or notes, plot on a map where an ancestor spent different periods of his or her life. Use a copy of a historic map and archival adhesives (check local scrapbook stores) to adhere information. Take a less formal route and use color-coded pushpins to represent individual families or family members. Try a more modern approach through Picasa www.picasa.com or SmugMug www.smugmug.com and download photos with dates directly onto a digital map. Take either of these a step further and create a series of maps to plot how descendants spread out across the country or the world over time—even up to today.

 

How to: PowerPoint

Try a PowerPoint presentation. Create one slide for each decade of the life of an ancestor or even an entire family. Use bullet points to list the events and the dates they occurred.  Import family pictures or clip art to showcase the life.

 

Crista Cowan is the Indexing Manager for Ancestry Digital Preservation Services. When she’s not making timelines of her own ancestors’ lives, she does client research. She can be reached at Crista@SamuelMulliner.com.