Creating a Family Timeline

Your grandparents and parents may have told you to date every picture you took and label who was in it years ago. Many of us don’t listen. We just let time and memories go by, rarely reflecting on them. This is why a timeline can be so important for your family. The good news is that even if you have not been very good at dating and labeling photos, keeping a journal or otherwise documenting life’s events for your family, you can start creating a reliable timeline. You can start today.

Why a Timeline Is Important

A timeline is a historical account of the major, and maybe even not so major, events in your family. While it documents certain elements of your family’s life, it also can create individual histories of family members and how they interacted with each other. A layered timeline, for example, can remind you when you took that trip to Disneyland in the 1980s, Billy was 9 years old and Suzie was 7. You were driving a 1983 Oldsmobile Cutlass, and it was just after Dad had accepted a new job. A timeline really documents the history of your family, even if it isn’t precisely accurate.

How You Can Start Your Timeline Today

Creating a timeline is not difficult and can actually be a lot of fun. It may inspire you to contact other family members to verify dates. You may even be able to locate dated photographs or postcards to verify events. You can even make notations of “verified” on timeline experiences.

Start with obvious, documented dates like wedding dates, birth-dates, graduation dates, when a home was purchased etc. You can then start associating other dates like vacations etc. based on some of those original verified dates. As you build your timeline, events will begin to overlap. Billy’s 16^th birthday, for example, may be shown to be a week before you moved into your second home. It may have also been near the date Aunt Marge passed away. As you build your timeline, your families memories and experiences will come to life. Timelines can be constructed to show start dates, end dates or just days that were significant in your family’s history.

One thing you will get from putting a family timeline together is just how fast time goes by, and how many events were going on simultaneously.

Yes, time flies. It is important to recognize that and appreciate what it took to get where you are at today. When family members combine their timelines, it can grow in its significance and its power.

You may begin to see why life insurance is so important. Time is perishable. Protect your family with life insurance. Contact us to discuss your needs and goals.