Time Line

Edna Walchli Stratford

The Time Line is great but for someone who was born and lived in Switzerland until her death four years after coming to the United States in 1888, it would be interesting to have Swiss historical facts instead of American.

dontiknowyou

Is this about Ancestors.familysearch.org?

Perhaps it is time to add a separate category here for the Ancestors experience.

Sanra

Hi Edna,

Thank you for posting in the Community about the Timeline historical facts. We hope you able to view birth, and other information locations on the map.

Unfortunately the Timeline historical facts are chosen randomly by the program. The article link below is about the Timeline.

https://www.familysearch.org/help/helpcenter/article/what-is-the-timeline-or-map-in-family-tree

bathompson

Hello @Edna Walchli Stratford,

The Time Line in FamilySearch that you can view from the link on the Person Page does not automatically show historical facts unless they are entered under Custom Events.

"Click Time Line to see the person's life events on a time line. You have options to view the events on a map and to add historical events to the person's time line."

https://www.familysearch.org/help/helpcenter/article/what-is-included-on-the-person-page-in-family-tree

Best Wishes!

Mike357

@Edna Walchli Stratford, Let me just add a couple of things that respond to your question. @bathompson talked about viewing events that you can add by adding a Custom Event. This could include a local history item that may have affected one of your ancestors, or an event not captured in the Vitals section of the individual's person page. There are, however, generic historical events, such as "1863 - Jean Henru Dunant founded the Red Cross in Geneva" that may be added by the system.

@Sanra referred to a FamilySearch Blog article, See Historical Events Your Ancestors Lived Through and More—FamilySearch Update, and to the specific statement here, "Last year, FamilySearch updated the time line feature to help you make discoveries about your ancestors’ life events. With a more recent update, you can also see up to eight historical events on the time line. The historical events are randomly selected, but they give additional insights into what your ancestors might have experienced."

I also have Swiss ancestors, and have found that when all events (e.g., birth, death, and everything in between) are limited to the single country (e.g., Switzerland) that the historical events are for that country; so, although the actual historical events are random, they do seem to focus on the country when possible. You might try going back another generation of ancestors in Switzerland to see that the historical records are for that county.

Also a note regarding the number of historical events shown. This number, "up to eight" seems to apply to the generic historical events that are added by the system. I have instances of up to 15 events in my timeline ("historical events" and events that I have added via the person page).

Hope this helps. Let me know if you have other questions.