Timelines: The Key to Source Analysis

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A timeline gets you where you want to go!


We've discussed timelines many times here on the blog. Here is one 2-year-old example: The Timeline: Your Guide Through the Twists and Turns of Research. In the latest SKCGS Study Group, working our way through "Research Like A Pro," by Diana Elder, AG with Nicole Dyer. The second chapter is all about how to use a timeline to analyze sources and likely evidence found in those sources.  

But how exactly do you create one? And is one way better than another? Elder advocates for a spreadsheet or relational database. While most of us have not yet tried Airtable, the relational database she uses now, I tried creating the spreadsheet from the information I had been collecting in a timeline using Google Sheets. While it was useful as a place to collect the direct links to record images and a good prompt to create source citations, I didn't find it useful to reason out what was happening behind the records. 

Here is a snippet of that spreadsheet analyzing evidence about William McBee's date and place of birth.



So why is this not entirely useful to me?

Writing is a way to reason through a puzzle, in my experience. This is one reason I love Google Sheets as a place to carry through an entire project, from creating research questions, distilling those into a research objective, conducting a survey of known facts and records, finding the gaps, noting the fruitless record searches right along with record not yet consulted, writing as I research. I love how easy it is to put in tables, insert images, create footnotes for source citations (Control Alt F) and many other features, including the option share the document, collaborate, and to import and export to other forms, such as Microsoft Word.

Here's a sample of that for the same person, William McBee, in a Google Doc:


To be clear, I love spreadsheets for a lot of things. In fact, the table above came directly from a Google Sheet I created of the 1850 Greene County, Illinois census from the Ancestry index, corrected. That was a lot of work, and was well worth it because now it is quick and easy to find others in that census. Who came with the McBees from Tennessee? Where were the people whom William's siblings married? Answers in seconds. And I easily shared it with other McBee researchers.

The above table was just pasted in directly from that Google Sheet! So I'm not arguing against spreadsheets.

I hope every reader here tries timelines in spreadsheets. Does that work for you? Does it help you analyze what you have found, pinpoint what you need to search out next? Does it help you judge the value of competing sources? Does it help you extract the evidence and create a case which accomplishes your objective? 

If instead you want a timeline in text, interspersed with your discoveries, connections and reasoning, use that. Or try out Airtable - I'm thinking of trying it for a research log and linked fan club database. 

Or try Google Slides, which is similar to PowerPoint but has some pre-made diagrams that can be used for timelines, grids, family trees and progress reports. You will find Slides in your Google Drive right with Sheets and Docs. Like those other products, Slides can be shared and worked on collaboratively.


Courtesy MaryLynn Strickland


A note about Google Sheets, Slides and Documents -- this is not an ad for them, but that's what I use. If you are more comfortable using Word, PowerPoint and Excel, or the Mac equivalent, use them. The point is to focus your research and keep track (and writing) as you go!


Valorie Zimmerman


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