When writing about my ancestors, I try to think of them in context to what was going on in the world around them at the time. Everyone would draw up a different list of crucial things which have happened over the last two hundred odd years, but I have chosen some which are most relevant to the modern day genealogist :
When we talk about our grandfather or great grandfather we have a time frame in mind when he was alive. What we sometimes don't appreciate is that everyone's family history time frame will be different.
I thought it would be interesting to have a look on my trees to see what time periods, on average, my ancestors would have lived in. I analysed both the tree from my adopted parents and then, separately, that of my birth parents. Both show a surprisingly different average time period when they were alive :
I thought it would be interesting to have a look on my trees to see what time periods, on average, my ancestors would have lived in. I analysed both the tree from my adopted parents and then, separately, that of my birth parents. Both show a surprisingly different average time period when they were alive :
The more family history I do, the more interesting it becomes to research what is going on in the background of these ancestors. They have names, dates of birth, marriage and death, even details of their occupation and places they lived, but unless you put their lives into the context of what is going on around them you only have part of their story.