Family Tree Charts: See How Easily You can Complete Your Family Tree Chart When You Use Timelines

We see timelines everywhere

We see timelines everywhere. Stock market analysts use them to track the changes in stock values, for instance. Historians use them to give a graphical illustration of historical events. Similarly, genealogists use them to trace a family history. The biggest difference between genealogical timelines and family tree templates that the timelines include information that will not be included in the family tree.

Obituaries: A Good Source of History for Your Family Tree Template One of the best ways to get timeline information is through obituaries. Obituaries provide a wealth of detail about a deceased person. The information in obituaries is likely to be both factual and anecdotal. For example, if a newspaper provides an article that accompanies the factual data about a death, the article will be respectful and only include the more flattering details of a person's life. The birth, marriage and death information as well as employment and other important data will be factual.

Vertical or Horizontal Timelines Timelines are either written vertically or horizontally. For the purposes of a family history, the vertical format is the better choice because you won't have space limitations as you compile it. You don't need any special templates or software programs with a vertical template. Simply open up your word processing application and begin at the top of the page. Make your first entry a simple introduction, such as "Jones/Baker Family: 1830-1900," where "Jones" is the husband's surname and "Baker" is the wife's maiden name. On the next line, you will type in the husband's full name and date of birth. On the following line, type the wife's full maiden name and birthday. The line after that will be the date they were married.

Using Bullet Points on Your Timeline As you continue to build your timeline, the facts will become more detailed. Using bullet points makes it easy to follow each entry, especially if one entry contains enough information to spill over onto a second line, as it will for significant events or achievements in the person's life. In our hypothetical example, five years after they were married, Mr. and Mrs. Jones moved from England to Boston aboard the Steamship Name, which sailed on such and such a date and arrived in Boston on another date. You will want to enter all of this information in your timeline in one entry, for later reference.

The last two entries in your timeline will probably be the dates of death of the husband and wife, unless a significant event occurred late in life for one or the other of them after the death of the spouse. Between their births and deaths, your vertical timeline will contain many entries, even if you limit it to those events listed in the obituary column.

Depending on which one of the many family tree charts you have chosen, only a small amount of the timeline information will fit on the tree. However, just by referring to significant dates on the tree, you can easily find further facts on the timeline. The beauty of them is that they are not only a good way to begin to build your family tree, but are also an excellent adjunct to it after it is finished.

Family Tree Charts: See How Easily You can Complete Your Family Tree Chart When You Use Timelines

By: Melanie Walters

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