Historical timeline feedback and suggested edits

LegacyUser

Christopher Padgett said: Love family search, just wanted to share some feedback on the historical timeline...I received an email indicating a timeline had been created for my great grandmother. Thank you, I found this extremely insightful. There were two facts displayed on it that I thought someone may want to examine a bit more closely. The first is the Cuban Missile Crisis. That event happened between October 16-28, 1962. It showed up on my great grandmother's timeline even though she died in July that year (so she would have not experienced it). I just think it would provide clarity if the dates were added to the event. The second event was listed as Mammoth Cave is Discovered in 1926. This fact is completely inaccurate. White pioneers first discovered Mammoth Cave in the late 1790s. The cave was mined during the War of 1812 by enslaved people. One of the first guides was Stephen Bishop, an enslaved man who was owned by Franklin Gorin. I just wanted to provide this feedback as most people familiar with the history of Mammoth Cave would likely see this fact on a timeline and realize it is inaccurate the way it is presented to the user. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen...

LegacyUser

Tom Huber said: Some good comments, Christopher, especially about the death of great grandmother occurring before the Cuban Missile Crisis. I was in the military at the time and so the broadcast by President Kennedy was particularly scary.

As far as Mammoth Cave goes, it is obvious that no one at FamilySearch did any research about the history of the cave and its discovery. According to the Wikipedia article on Mammoth Cave National Park

The land containing [the] historic entrance was first surveyed and registered in 1798 under the name of Valentine Simons. Simons began exploiting Mammoth Cave for its saltpeter reserves.
--https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mammoth...

The article did not mention when Simons started exploring the cave, but in that article, the cave played, as you noted, an important part in the war of 1812.

The National Park Movement for Mammoth Cave started in 1926, not its discovery.

Family Search really needs to do better research for these things.

LegacyUser

m said: Where is this Historical Timeline?

LegacyUser

Tom Huber said: Go to a person's timeline and click on "Show"

LegacyUser

m said: I clicked on Timeline and it did have a historical event, way at the bottom of the page if you scrolled down. I didn't know historical events had been added. Interesting!

But one of the historical events was for 1659 and he was b abt 1547, and it says he would have been "age 112."

LegacyUser

Tom Huber said: You aren't alone in knowing about the historical events option on the timeline. Until another very recent discussion, I was unaware of the feature. Maybe I should take time to read the blog, but I do not know if it was part of any blog entry.