Timelines are one of the most overlooked genealogical tools. I love them because they put the events in order and allow me to identify gaps where information is missing, and they let me quickly tell if a record is a match. I started writing timelines out by hand on blank printer paper but quickly realized this was incredibly inefficient because it was easy to run out of space during a certain timeframe (especially if the family was frequently on the move) and thus have to rewrite all the information. For the past three or so years I have been using Excel. I love how easy it is to add information by inserting rows, and how easy it is to customize the way that the information is displayed. My timeline is not a conventional line but rather a chronological table of events. I colour code the cells of major life events to help me visually breakup the information. I have included below the blank template that I use to create my timelines.
On the left hand side I have a summary of the family unit. At the top is the parents, complete with the mother's maiden name. Underneath I have the children listed in birth order. Normally I indicate my direct ancestor by colouring their cells in cyan (as indicated by the legend). To the left of the table I have a column titled 'mo. age' which lists the mother's age when each of the children were born. I added this column rather recently and have found it to be helpful to rationalize the age gaps between children. When the mother is older it is much more likely for there to be a large gap where as if the mother is younger there is a chance that some children are missing. Obviously this is not a steadfast rule and therefore should not be treated as such. When I have multiple children with the same name, I distinguish the child that died in infancy/ was born first with an '*' at the end of their name. I have seen other people use numbers after the chid's name, but I find this adds confusion when done in families that have set naming patterns as a number is already attached to the name.
In the middle I have the main table which serves as the timeline. The headings I am currently using are: date, place, event, father's (name) occupation, reference record (source). I only use the occupation column when I know the individual has had multiple occupation or when I know their occupation is referred to using different terms (ie. fishmonger, hawker, fish seller, etc.).
Notice on the right hand side that I have a legend identifying all the colours I use in my timelines. Aside from the children's BMD events, I colour code everything in the table. The reason why I do this is to prevent the entire table from being coloured. I personally like having some white space, however you could colour the BMD information for the children if you wanted to. If you look closer at the legend you will see that some colours have a note in the corner, where I have defined the event in detail.
Descendant - Cyan - This is the individual from the family that I directly descend from
Institution - Light Orange - Includes all forms of government institutions (workhouse, prison, asylum, etc.) with the exception of schools
Petty Crime - Orange - This includes minor criminal offences where a fine was issued as an alternative to a prison sentence
When I want to add an event to the timeline that I am unsure of how it fits I make the text red. This lets me know when I revisit the timeline later on that the event should not be treated as a fact and that it needs to be further investigated.
I sometimes add notes to events when there are more details than are needed to be displayed on the timeline. For example I have found military records where a physical description of the soldier has been provided. This information may be important for locating them in other military records, however it is not going to provide me with further insight into the family unit.
To prevent my timelines from becoming too long, I begin it when the couple has their first child or when they get married (whatever comes first), and end it when the last of the biological parents dies. The reason I have chosen to do this is because I am using the timelines to help me understand the life of that particular couple and not to understand the entire life of each of their children. If I am interested in the entire life of one of their children I will display that in a separate timeline. There are rare occasions when I will include the parents birth and years leading up to when they met. Usually this is when at least one of the parents was born in another country or when there are children that are potentially from a past relationship.
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