Chapter 5: Showing historical context with timelines

[5.1]

You can display the events in the life of your ancestors in the context of historical timelines.

A timeline is a collection of historical events that follow a specific theme. This example shows the changes to Tennessee county boundaries during the lifetime of Frank Alexander.

[5.2]

This type of integrated historical information can provide valuable new insight into your data.

This example shows the same timeline interspersed with the events of John Alexander. (The timeline color has been changed with a configuration option.)

Here we see that John's son, Samuel, was born in 1836 in Carter County, Tennessee. But we see from the timeline that Johnson County was formed from parts of Carter County in that same year. That could explain why you haven't found a record of Samuel's birth in Carter County. The records may now be in the Johnson County courthouse!

That's an important clue which might have escaped you without Family Tree SuperTools.

[5.3]

The timeline shown above was created by a user with an external utility and was distributed by permission with Family Tree SuperTools.

A long list of other timelines are also available, including selected county, state, and country histories. They are listed in the Timeline Manager which is accessible from the Tools menu.

This screen shot shows that the Tennessee County timeline is selected (as indicated by a check mark). More than one timeline may be selected at the same time.

The Item Tip shows a description of another timeline by the same author.

[5.4]

The timeline feature can be turned on and off with a right-click menu option on the Person View.