Genealogy Timeline Shows Ancestor's Life Events
Family History Exercise Helps Research Ancestry
Aug 8, 2009
When genealogists have researched all the obvious sources for information, such as vital records, census records, and national and state archives, creating a timeline can be a valuable exercise to help find ancestry.
What is a Genealogy Timeline?
A timeline, for genealogy purposes, is a chart or list of events in an ancestor's life. It may include:
- Vital record information: dates and places of birth, marriage and death.
- When and where their children were born.
- Where the ancestor lived during census years.
- Immigration dates and ports of departure and arrival.
- Any known military service.
- Any information on occupations held at various times.
- When and where they bought or sold land.
- When and where they witnessed or were mentioned in legal documents.
Add Outside Events to the Timeline
With the ancestor's life documented on a timeline, add pertinent historical events from the town, county, state, country and world. The events will obviously vary with different times and places, but include such things as:
- A war that might have affected the family.
- Economic events, such as a depression or bank failure.
- Natural events, such as the 1816 "Year Without a Summer" or the Irish Potato Famine.
- Social and legal trends in the area, such as enclosures and clearances in the British Isles, or the opening of the Ohio Territory for land grants.
- Religious events, such as widespread revivals or particular religious schisms and persecution.
Click on the illustrations below to see examples of genealogy timelines.
Ask Questions to Extend the Family Tree
With a timeline that includes both the ancestor's life and the local and world events surrounding him, it's time to ask questions.
- Do other local or state censuses exist for the times they lived in that place?
- Was a male ancestor between the ages of 15 and 60 during a war? Even if military service is unknown thus far, men and boys (who may have lied about their age) may have been involved, and it's worth checking out.
- Is there a special census related to their occupation? A business or trade organization?
- Do town or city directories exist for the time an ancestor lived in a particular place?
- Was there a local newspaper at that time?
- What religion were they? What local church might they have attended? In what archive might those records be found?
- Did they ever own their home or farm? Look for land and tax records.
- If immigrants, what was happening in their homeland before or during the time they left? Could that have been a factor in their emigrating? Did others from the family emigrate earlier?
Timelines are good for triggering creative thinking, leading to questions and possible avenues of research to extend your direct ancestry line and fill in other branches of your family tree. The added bonus is that while searching for avenues that will lead to additional "hard" information, you'll find out more details about how your ancestor lived and how local and world events affected him or her.
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