{"id":111057,"date":"2026-10-12T08:08:27","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T12:08:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/?p=111057"},"modified":"2026-10-12T08:08:27","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T12:08:27","slug":"family-history-month-week-2-create-a-timeline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/family-history-month-week-2-create-a-timeline.html","title":{"rendered":"Family History Month, Week 2: Create a Timeline"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction:<\/em><\/strong> In this article \u2013 to celebrate Family History Month in October \u2013 Gena Philibert-Ortega describes how she created and used a timeline for her paternal grandfather. Gena is a genealogist and author of the book \u201cFrom the Family Kitchen.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Week 2 of my Family History Month schedule focuses on creating a timeline. Last week I conducted a four-generation genealogy audit<\/a> and identified what I was missing. This week I want to choose at least one person from my four generations to create a timeline for.<\/p>\n

As I mentioned in my Family History Month introduction<\/a>, a timeline is an important genealogy tool that too few of us use. A timeline can help you keep track of what you know about an ancestor, what you are missing, and historical events they lived through. Later, a timeline can be used to help you identify documents to find during a research trip and to write a story about that ancestor\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

Timelines<\/strong><\/p>\n

Timelines are one of those flexible tools that can be created in whatever way works best for you. The way I do it might not be what makes sense to you, so take some time to identify what tools you want to use and then stick to it.<\/p>\n

You can make a timeline via:<\/p>\n