Family Timelines

The St. Louis Genealogical Society had a presentation yesterday on linking historical events to your family history. The presenter, Pat Stamm, used Samuel Clemons in her illustration of how events in history probably shaped Clemons' life in terms of where he moved and what he wrote about. It was a very interesting discussion, and one I hope to put into use as I write my dad's story during WWII. I had gone to the meeting thinking about how to use timelines in writing family history, and how talking about historical events could add another dimension to it. But during the Q. & A. a woman mentioned how she was going to take what she learned and create a timeline of her father-in-law's life for an 80th birthday party. Which got me thinking about the senior all night graduation party I have been working on with the other parents. Wouldn't it be fun to create a timeline from 1990 to 2009 and have it on a board for the kids to look at? A lot has happened in the world and the country in the last 19 years. Being in charge of memorabilia, it would fit right into what I am working on. I already have created a list of the number one songs for each of those years (with the exception of 2009, of course), and we'll have photographs from years past on boards for the kids to look at. A timeline will be a nice addition to all that, I think. We'll see what pops up.