#genchat 🦣Q3 #genchat Have you thought about using timelines to visualize your ancestor’s life to make it more interesting? @[email protected]
Craig Sturgeon 🪶🇨🇦🇬🇧@genchat @[email protected] can you post some examples. I’m trying to work out useful approaches and timeline formats. I can select multiple individuals for a timeline and/or ability to write a query that returns events that are all merged together into single timeline. The problem is it is not colour coded. Or, would it be better if the timelines were side by side instead one linear line?
@clsturgeon @[email protected] that’s one way of doing it. One person last night mentioned that she used Excel. Maybe you could put each person in a different column?
AnneTheWriter@genchat @clsturgeon @[email protected]
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I've used a few #timeline formats, myself. Each has its advantages.
One of my longest-maintained timeline files is for my #surname #Freligh. I have a #BrickWall in that line.
There are a LOT more folks named John/Johann, George/Jürgens, Henry/Heinrich, and William/Wilhelm Freligh than you would expect, between 1750-1880 in the USA, and many of them hung out in the NY state area.
I know most (if not all) are connected. But to make sense of what data is for which John/George/Henry/William etc., I maintain a timeline of all my discoveries.
Some match my people, many don't. But they keep me from repeating the same investigations & help sort everything out. One example page is below.
It has two columns. The right column is for historical events, which might have impacted my ancestors' lives. The left column is a listing of various discoveries for people named Freligh, during that year.
@genchat @clsturgeon @[email protected]
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The footer automatically updates to reflect which date is was last printed out, so I know which printout is more up-to-date.
One mistake I made with this file for many years, was not citing where I found the information. Later, when I found conflicting or confusing information, I had to repeat my searches to see why there was disagreement. But I could not always locate & verify some information again. I highly recommend including even basic citations in any timeline you create, for later verification.
@genchat @clsturgeon @[email protected]
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For the other #timeline files: one is just a simple #Word / #GoogleDocs list, sorted by date.
Another is a #Trello Board with FileCards, also sorted by date. The #Trello columns are each for a different first name-- a column for all the Henrys, another for all the Williams, etc. Each of those columns is sorted by date. The last column is for misc first names.
The Trello cards can be placed in multiple columns, & updates to one can be automatic to everywhere else that information appears.
[Trello as an app that allows you to create a kind of electronic corkboard, where you can put electronic filecards. (I think some people call it a #Kanban board?) The cards hold almost as much data and text as you like, and you can attach images of documents, photos, etc to each card. You can have as many columns as you like. The example here is just a screenshot of some of them in my file.]
#Genealogy #FamilyHistory #Research #Genealogists #genchat #Timelines
Ben Virgilio@AnneTheWriter1 @genchat @clsturgeon @[email protected] This is super neat! I've never thought to use a kanban board like this, great idea. Thanks for sharing!