Tracing your family back through the years is both fun and interesting. However, some people are not satisfied with the type of data that are typically found in many genealogy records. Names, dates, places, and events are all well and good but there are some folks who really just want to know “why”.
I am one of those “why” people. It is a good thing that my parents are patient and kind people, because I was that kid – you know, the one whose every other word is “why”. I am sure that I will receive payback for this in some form. My son is twenty seven months old, and while he does not actually use the word “why” very often he is very inquisitive and notices everything. I sense that the days of “Mommy, why?” are in the not too distant future.
Anyways, when it comes to genealogy research, I really do want to know why my ancestors did what they did. For genealogists like me who want to know why, there is a tool that we can use to (possibly) satisfy (some) of our curiosity. We can build a timeline of the events that took place in the life of one of our ancestors and look at it in the context of historical events that were going on in the world and in their local area at the times of those events. Creating timelines for all of your ancestors would be very time consuming, but if there are certain ones that you wonder about you may want to see whether you can use a timeline to find clues about why they did what they did. Your timeline may even point you in the direction of other records that can add depth and even more information to your family history research.
Photo by mconnors on morguefile.com.