One of the ways I want to explore my ancestors as I try to dig deeper into their lives (learning more about my ancestors, rather than learning about more ancestors) is to put their lives in social context. I’d like to learn more about how they lived and what life was like for them.
At RootsTech, I learned about a new service, HistoryLines, that helps me do just that. I think it’s pretty exciting. You enter in an ancestor name or link a Family Search tree or upload a GEDCOM and you’re presented with a timeline of information about what was going on around your ancestor at the time he or she lived.
The service is in Beta now, but I signed up as a Beta user (as can you) and have had a good time exploring it.
Here’s a video they debuted at RootsTech.
The timeline that HistoryLines produces includes historical events that may have had an impact on the ancestor’s life, as well as more personal information, like how childbirth might have been for the ancestor’s mother, and what education, hygiene, clothing, medicine and entertainment were like at the time. (That’s just the tip of the iceberg of available information.) There’s also an interactive map, so that you can see their migration patterns. You can edit the timeline, which allows you to quite easily create a meaningful story to share with others.
My ancestors are all from the U.S. and the U.S.-related information on HistoryLines is plentiful. They also have information from Germany and Denmark and data for Canada and France are in process. I’m sure they will be adding data from more countries.
Timelines can be a great organizing aid. Adding social to the context makes this a really fun, and potentially very meaningful, tool.
Janine,
I have been a beta test member at HistoryLines for the past two months. I have used the program successfully to craft interesting stories about the lives of several of my 19th century American ancestors. Using a combination of selected historical data from the site plus individual facts gained about each ancestor from my research has enabled me to create some very interesting stories. The program draft story appears to include events which might have occurred over the whole lifespan of the individual so you have to check the dates of each event to know where, of if, to insert it in your story. Some important events also are omited, such any reference to “the year without a summer” – 1816, the development of the railroads and the great depression of 1837 for the livespan of an ancestor born in 1816 and dying in 1867. The site is not a substitute for a good working knowledge of the national and local history of the jurisdicti on on which your research is focussed.
All that said, I still consider it an excellent program which is of great value in crafting the stories of our ancestors. The addition of the capacity to upload a gedcom makes the program even more valuable.
Thanks for weighing in, Jack! I think HistoryLines can provide a nice starting point for researching what happened in the national and local history of our ancestors. I’m glad you like it too!
I, too, have been a beta tester for a couple of months and I can see sharing the individual stories with my family and them enjoying it very much. It has great potential and something that I want to really use in the coming months!
Judy, we agree on the potential of this tool! I, too, look forward to using it more.
Janine,
I want to let you know that your blog post is listed in today’s Fab Finds post at http://janasgenealogyandfamilyhistory.blogspot.com/2015/03/follow-friday-fab-finds-for-march-20.html
Have a great weekend!
Thanks so much, Jana! I hope you have a great weekend too.
Thank you so much for sharing this post. I’ve been taking a few short (and free) mini-classes that the local Family Search Library offers and one thing I asked them to offer is how to more easily do this very thing. I’m checking out “History Lines” today!
I hope you like it, Blue Jeans and Chocolate! Have fun with your family history.