In my last post on searching for a family for Simona, I needed to interview my dad to gain more information on some of the questions that my last research endeavor left me with. However, before I could set an appointment with my Dad, I felt that I needed a better grip on my research as I was starting to feel confused with the amount and content of my research results.
The solution? A timeline. I prepared a timeline for my Grandfather Tiburcio. This timeline is just a listing of all of the events that happened in my Grandfathers life. Right now it just includes personal events, but later I will be adding some world events that would have had an impact on my Grandfather's life. This timeline helped to but my grandfather's life in perspective and helped me to understand a bit better.
I have included all of the births of his children, his three marriages, his immigration/naturalization paperwork and when they were filed, his required WWI Draft Registration, the census records and showed where he lived during those years. This helped me focus to the task of interviewing my Dad again. I found that my grandfather first married at 25 and had his first child at 27. I also found that he had my father when he was 49 years old and was 52 when his last child, my uncle was born. He worked most of his life until he decided to retire at 73 and at 74 applied for his Naturalization to be a citizen of the United States. He then died at 90. In his long life, he had 13 children, numerous grandchildren, and 3 wives with marrying his last wife when he was 64 and she was 46. He had a long, well lived, life. I pray that I am as lucky as he was. :-)
So when your researching your family tree and find yourself a bit overwhelmed, put things in perspective and try using a timeline. Happy Ancestor Hunting!!!!
