Timeline: the study of records to establish the dates of past events ordered and displayed on a time scale

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1 Helen V Smith HVSresearch@bigpond.com Unlock the Past 5 th Cruise Timeline Timeline: the study of records to establish the dates of past events ordered and displayed on a time scale Chronology: a listing of the events in someone s life Why a timeline? Timelines help us get a grasp on who is doing what, where, and when A timeline permits us to better place our ancestor in an historical context and gives us a time ordered view of their life Good for people who visualise Why do a timeline/chronology? Summarize a person s life Find the gaps See how lives overlap See what historical events are occurring at same time What outside influences were there? Distinguish between two people? Which John Smith? Historical Context Local community Town County State Region National International Social Collect One of the great advantages of doing a timeline You find all the bits of information You review all the bits of information 1

2 What was happening? Illnesses Railway coming to town Wars Census Disasters Electricity being switched on World War One Aug : Britain declared war on Germany (so if someone joined up 29 September 1914 it was very early in the war) September 1914: Australians saw action in German New Guinea April : Allied troops landed at Gallipoli December : Evacuation started of Gallipoli (So if an ancestor joined in Jan 1916 they were not at Gallipoli contrary to family story) Do a Google search for historical timelines for major events Local Events May have to make your own timeline When did the local school open? The churches? Suburbs change their name? Floods? Cyclones? Other natural disasters? Brisbane Timeline: From Captain Cook to CityCat htm Requires a purchase Website access (one user) and manual $25 Great investment if you have ancestors in the Greater Brisbane area Those areas include Moreton Bay, Caboolture, Ipswich, Logan, Pine Rivers, Redcliffe and Redlands, and to a lesser extent the Gold and Sunshine coasts 2

3 Geographically Queensland became a colony 1859 Prior to that it was New South Wales UK county border changes Europe country border changes! Records Change in marriage registers Civil registration Census dates Married Women s Act Writing a Timeline What is the purpose? This defines: Who is included? What events are included? What question are you trying to answer What will I get? What should I know when I m done developing an genealogy timeline with history included? The Story who, what, when, where, how.why Historical Context before, during, after Historical Significance How does this affect the story? How did it affect our ancestors? Where to find primary sources Further research topics Think about Date of event What is the event? Where is the event? Source of information? Citation Age of person Can use Word or Excel Flexible Can add further information Can add pictures 3

4 Chronologies Very useful when getting ready to write article or book You can see missing data If in UK Have you go all the census information possible? Have you checked military information if person was alive at time? Have you checked all electoral rolls? Table Timelines in Excel Easy to do Each cell a date Use text formatting to rotate text description Disadvantage of not year proportional 4

5 X-Y Scatter Diagrams Stacked Bar Graphs Family Search Learning Centre YouTube: search genealogical timelines Excel Microsoft Has some downloadable Excel timeline templates More downloadable templates 5

6 Disadvantages Information not linked to FH program Need to re-enter information?have already entered into Family History program Most programs give a timeline Family history programs Most programs show a chronology Amount of detail is what you have inputted Some programs also have historical events Most are macro events Generally we are interested in micro locality events When the church was built When a school opened When gold was found in the town The big flood Bigger picture What was happening: locally City State Country World This gives a historical context and also gives ideas as to where to find records Programs Most FH programs have global history files which can be added Legacy Has add-on Genelineswhich can be used to create a number of interesting charts direct from data 6

7 Legacy Genelines FG chart Genelines Program used to create a variety of timelines Works directly with Legacy data Can import GedComsfrom other programs (maybe some issues withteh tags in GedCom if your program has specialised tags different to those in Legacy) About $30 or so Genelines Can be used with any program that creates a GedCom Can import the GedComvery easily Then choose the person and the timeline comparisons you want Big adavantage when using with Legacy is for each chart you make with this program you have an associated data file that prints 7

8 Family Tree Maker Online Timeline Creators Time Toast: 8

9 OurTimeLines MyHistro: MyHistro Timelines on maps with geocoding Convert to pdf Combine with Google Earth Embed in website or blog App available now Tiki-Toki Nice but can only create one timeline on a free account Timelines/Chronologies Very good for non-genies to visualise family history Graphics tend to be better for people for interest Lots of ways to do them Enjoy your data! 9

10 Thank you 10