The Genealogy Timeline
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The Easiest Way to Merge Historical Events with the Personal Events of Your Ancestors!
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When you open the Timeline, you will record information that describes a particular event such as a birth, death, land purchase, or military record about your ancestors; or of an historical event such as wars, inventions, or county boundary changes. Each event is categorized by answering the questions – who, what, when and where - and each event is considered a separate "Record".
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Record – Your screen will display one record at a time. Consider a record like a page in a book. You can page forward and page back. At the bottom of your screen is a record indicator that tells you which record you are on and how many total records you have. |
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Most of the fields will accept more information than what you can view within the field’s size. In addition, any field may be left blank, although that is not recommended for the Source field or the Year field. A description of each field’s characteristics are listed below.
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Lists – Much of the information you enter into the Timeline is selected from Lists. This eliminates re-keying information and reduces the amount of time it takes to record your information. This is especially appreciated when a Source Title is extremely long! And - you do not need to worry about typographical errors. By selecting your information from a List, everything is spelled the same way each and every time. As you enter a field that has a drop down arrow, the List will automatically open. As you type, the List will move to select the entry that corresponds with your typing. And, if you should enter something in a field that is not on that field’s List, a Message Box will appear and you will automatically go to where you can add information to your List. |
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| Field Descriptions |
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Source Entries for the Source field are selected from the List of Sources. The List of Sources is generated from information entered in the Library Log. The Source field can be left blank, however this is not recommended, as it is important to cite your sources when researching a family history.
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Page # Entries are typed in the Page # field. You can enter several pages (i.e.: 27-30, 54, 67); a film number and page reference; or a Web Page address.
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Month, Day Entries are typed in the Month and Day fields and entered as a two-digit number.
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Year Entries are typed in the Year field. This field has seven (7) spaces and you can enter both numbers and text. This allows you to enter years as: 1775 or 1775abt or 177? or 1775-77. This field can be left blank, although that is not recommended when creating a timeline.
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Relationship Entries for the Relationship field are selected from the List of Relationships. This is where you would identify the family line (remember, you can track more than one family in the Timeline) or if this is an historical event. You can even identify the type of historical event if you wish - such as Military History, Bible History, or Scientific History.
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Country, State, County Entries for these fields are selected from their drop-down lists. The List of States (included) is alphabetical by the State's abbreviation; however, the list does display the State’s long name for your convenience. This list includes all 50 States plus the District of Columbia.
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City, Township/District Entries are typed in these fields and you can also use the Township/District field for other designations such as parish, ward, or neighborhood.
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Type Event and What These two fields – "Type Event" and "What" – are very important fields that work together to sort out and classify the events in your Timeline. The "Type Event" field is the primary classification and the "What" field is the secondary classification. Each of these fields are completely customizable.
As you select a Type Event, the Timeline changes the List of What to the specific list for the Type Event you have chosen. For example:
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| Type Event | What |
| Vital Statistics | Birth |
| Vital Statistics | Death |
| Vital Statistics | Marriage |
| Land Records | Adjacent Property |
| Land Records | Bought Property |
| Land Records | Sold Property |
| Military Service | Civil War (1861-1865) |
| Military Service | Revolutionary War (1775-1783) |
| Military Service | Seminole Indian War - 1st (1817-1818) |
| Military Service | Seminole Indian War - 2nd (1835-1842) |
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Categorizing events with a primary and secondary field allows you to select Reports in a variety of ways. You can select a Report that contains all Vital Statistics or just the marriage records. Or select a Report for all Military Service records; or all Seminole Wars; or just the 1st Seminole War. How you set these two fields will determine how you can extract information on your Reports.
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Who These two fields contain the exact same information. What you enter in one will show up in the other. Therefore, why have two fields?
Your cursor will Tab to the first Who field. Here you type the person’s name, then Tab to the Memo field. But, if you use the naming convections recommended in the User's Guide, the amount of names in your Timeline will grow over time. For example, most families have several William's, John's, Sarah's and Elizabeth's and we need to distinguish between each of these individuals.
This second Who field uses a drop down List that contains each individual name you have entered in the Timeline. You can open the List and select the correct individual from the List.
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Memo The Memo field is where you will describe the event. You can add as much or as little information as you want. You can summarize the information or copy it verbatim from your source. The field will hold over a page of typed information, so do not think you will run out of room.
When your cursor enters the Memo field, a scroll bar will appear. You can use your mouse to move up and down the field to view its contents.
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The Genealogy Timeline is easy to use and completely customizable. And, all of the information you enter in the Timeline is searchable - so that you can find just the record you want! The program comes with a Users' Guide that is written for the non-computer user. While the program itself is easy to use, it is also intended to help you organize vast amounts of information. The organizational concepts described in the Users' Guide are intended to assist you in attaining this goal. |
