Do you have a family timeline?

[Chris]

Do you have a family timeline? I have one that goes right back to 1957 when I was married. It's pretty loose and most events and activities of my family are broken up into the different countries we've lived. 1957 dh and I moved from London to live in Hawaii until 1962, then on to Wash DC, Md, where we had our daughters. We lived in Turkey, Japan, and so on. I have births, wedding dates, vacations all in a Word document on my iMac dock.

If you haven't started one, I'd encourage you to. I realize it's easier today with your scrapbooks and dated photos, but I've found having one right at my fingertips is so handy and helpful. As you grow older your photos and books collection will become larger and more difficult to find info, and the memory DOES wear thin.

My timeline has followed me from a written journal page, to a number of word processing programs and now it's on my iMac. I need to update mine, but I'm so glad I started it years ago.

Just a thought...........

[DonnaNJ]

I have a psuedo timeline it's by no means complete. I started it when I became the keeper of all the old family photos several years back.. While trying to put the photos in some order I started calling and emailing people asking questions... When did you get married? When was so and so born? When did you move to...? Then at family events I would sit with the elderly relatives and show them some of the old photos and ask if they remembered anything about it so I got answers like... Oh I remember this it was right after we got back from the war and we were....... as family members unearth more and more photos it's become a valuable resource for dating the photos. DonnaNJ

[tdavenport]

That is a fabulous idea!

[digigrandma]

Chris, I need to do that. I am often trying to remember what year certain things happened. Thanks for the great idea.

[MIDA78466]

I so need to do this. Such a great idea!

[mugsbigsis]

You know, I just figured when I was old that I would remember events by years because that's how my grandparents always talked about thing. . . "back in 1937. . . " Maybe I should do this time line thing and not take any chances. :O|

[KerryMac]

Great idea

[Denise Gormish]

This is a great idea. I wonder if Katie or someone could come up with something to make this project a lot easier.

[LisaD]

That is a fab idea. My remember is WAY broke. this would help.

[Blossom]

Sounds like a wonderful idea - but I have never heard about a timeline before and how do you set it up ?

[Aino]

Originally Posted by Blossom

Sounds like a wonderful idea - but I have never heard about a timeline before and how do you set it up ?

I was wondering the same! I like the concept!

[DonnaNJ]

Chris (who posted this originally) probably has a better method but I just have mine in an Excel spreadsheet that looks like this (names are not real):

Lastname(married name), Firstname, Year, Mo/DA, Event,Remarks

Smith/Johnson,Mary,1925,0522, Born
Smith/Johnson,Mary,1947,0819,Married,Tom Johnson
Johnson,Tom,1947,0819,Married,Mary Smith
Johnson,Tom,1923,0322,Born
Johnson,John,1950,0520,Born,Mary & Tom Johnson
Johnson,John,1955-1956,First Grade
Johnson,John,1956-1957,First Grade
Johnson,Mary & Tom,1961,Moved CGO
etc, etc

Excel enables me to sort the info however I need to.. I can sort by name/date to see all the events in that persons life.. or by year to see all the events in a year, by remarks to see all the children that a couple had.......

BTW in Excel this looks nice and neat in columns but I couldn't get it to work here. Also lots of times the Mo/Da is blank and if I don't know the exact year I just but a 'c' after the year. If it's a span of years I put 1960 - 1964. It still sorts correctly.

Like I said in my earlier post I started doing this to be able to date photos so it works well for me. HTH. DonnaNJ

[Serenoa]

I just spent the past 6 months doing this exact process for the family book I was creating about my parents lives. Same as Donna, I had boxes of old photos that I was trying to make sense of and put into some kind of order. Actually, identifying and dating the old photos and then scanning them and adjusting them in PS took WAY-Y-Y more time than creating the layouts for the book.

My sister and I emailed each other many times with photos and the caption "Who is this?" or "When did they live here?". A timeline just developed on its own as part of this process.

I also included addresses, companies worked for, places lived, etc. along with all the vital statistics. It really helped in putting the pictures in order and it was very interesting to watch my parents grow from little children to teenagers, young married couple, and older.

I have done genealogy research for years and have a lot of info on long ago ancestors which only includes vital statistic type information (no details of their personal lives) only a very few facts I found and documents and deeds to use to put together their lives. But with more recent family members, once you have the timeline of basic events, you can then start adding all kinds of journaling stories, personal recollections and memories.

I have always envied those families whose ancestors kept detailed diaries of their lives - but it is not too late to start now for the benefit of future generations.

[Sierra25]

This is a wonderful idea. I think it would be very helpful to do it in either Excel or Word but then to do something artistic would be great! Thanks so much for the idea. If there are other helpful hints I would appreciate it.

[Chris]

The timeline I have at my fingertips is so simple, just a list of events in chronological order from 1957 to the present, with few details.
I keep it on a text file because that opens instantaneously, whereas Excel takes a couple of minutes, and as I said before, it's on my dock.
I have the year first because that's what I'm mostly looking for, mainly to date photos. The dashes are really spaced tabs:

Year ---- -Date ----------Country -------City ----------------Event ------------
1966 -----Sept 15 ----- England ------- London ----------Arrived w, Linda and Lauren Stayed with Mum
1966 -----Oct------------England -------London ----------Met up with Judy and Bruce
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1966 ----- Nov 16------ Turkey--------- Yalova -----------Arrived with Linda and Lauren. Waited hours for Cracker Box Bus with Howard
1967 ----- June -------- Turkey---------Karamersel-------Howard on TDY - The girls and I moved on base - Turkish movers packed away
---------------------------------------------------------------the baby food, diapers, etc. while I had to go pay local taxes, and were gone when
---------------------------------------------------------------I came back. A big mess!

I do have many database files with more detailed stuff, but this is quick and handy. I'm getting better and more ideas from all of you!

For kicks I Googled timeline and was amazed that there are programs, forms you can download, and all kinds of information out there.

[oldvwblues]

Originally Posted by LisaD

That is a fab idea. My remember is WAY broke. this would help.

Couldn't have said it better myself!

[lisa.hinrichs]

This is all such a great idea. I am off to get started. As the family defender of memories, I am going to need some help. With the holiday's coming I will have a captive audience to start the process. I foresee getting large amounts of memories, most of which are stored in plastic tubs, eek, at least if I have the timeline, I will be able to journal.

Lisa

[digigal]

Thanks, Chris, what a great idea!

[annaaspnes]

Working on it! I think it would be great to do scrapbook page on the timeline itself??

[Chris]

Howard was looking over my shoulder and let me know Karamursel (actually Karamürsel) is the correct spelling, not Karamersel! We were there two years, so that gives you a clue at how the memory falters after forty years!

In all the years I've kept a timeline, it's been on a database file, a number of word processing programs and even a spreadsheet. I have to keep changing it because of program changes. The text file is nice and simple, but a more elaborate one would be fun. I might take up Anna's suggestion for a scrapbook page!

[Scrapbird]

Fantastic idea. . . thanks, Chris.
I'd like to do this starting with the marriage of my parents to the present.
Would love to hear about software anyone is using!!!

[LisaD]

Originally Posted by lisa.hinrichs

This is all such a great idea. I am off to get started. As the family defender of memories, I am going to need some help. With the holiday's coming I will have a captive audience to start the process. I foresee getting large amounts of memories, most of which are stored in plastic tubs, eek, at least if I have the timeline, I will be able to journal.

Lisa

good idea. I think I'll try to get some information as well.

[cstaff]

As I approach 63, I have been very concerned about my inability to remember the "little" things (that are actually quite big). This is going to be a must for me this next year. thanks for starting this trigger thread. Young gals... don't wait... you'll be sorry

[maureenreynolds]

LOL...at 65 I'm saying...Now what is the subject?? no, not really that bad, yet. I think I have stopped remembering what I really don't care about. The trouble is some other people think some of my no-longer-care issues are important to them.

Chris, my xh left Turkey about the time you and yours arrived. I have many a letter of his referring to the Yalova ferry. ;-)