Grid for breaking down what you know about a person (residence, occupation &c)?

[mosmi]

Hello,

This might be a bit abstract, apologies: I saw a video on YouTube a little while back which discussed what I thought was a really useful way to write down an overview of an individual person's life in a grid, with time across the top and key areas (such as location and their occupation) on each row. It is a way of highlighting things you do know, and where there are gaps.

Unfortunately I can't seem to find the video - it's similar in concept to the Timeline Grid outlined here, but it focussed on one person and various sources, instead of a family and census returns:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kc1qA0IKBo

I've tried looking back through my watch history for the past six months or so, but haven't managed to find the video in question. I've tried Googling the concept, but keep coming back to variants of the Timeline Grid mentioned above.

I tried to illustrate the kind of thing I mean below, as well as a screenshot of a timeline program that does something similar. Has anyone encountered the sort of thing that I'm referring to, in a video or otherwise?!

Code: [Select]

+-----------------+---------------------------+---------------------------+----------------------------+
|        -        |           1890            |           1891            |            1892            |
+-----------------+---------------------------+---------------------------+----------------------------+
| Life milestones | Born in Surrey 02/04/1890 | Baptised in parish church |                            |
| Residence       | 2 Railway Cuttings        | -                         | Family moves to Wandsworth |
| Occupation      | Baby                      | -                         | Still doing baby things    |
+-----------------+---------------------------+---------------------------+----------------------------+


[Janelle]

Interesting.
I have done similar on A4 paper, landscape orientation, of the UK census, a narrow column for each decade, for my families to map the generations so I could track them, and sort out the blanks.

Old school to use paper 😂

[aghadowey]

I do something similar in a Word document (pre-computer easily done with paper and pencil) making a timeline of not just what I have found but showing what seems to be missing so I know what to look for.
Here's an example I posted on a thread here-
https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=874873.msg7466137#msg7466137

[oldfashionedgirl]

That’s an interesting tool, I hope you find it again as I would be interested in it too.
Up until now I have used post it notes stuck to the wall so I can move them around while I’m working on a particular person.

[Janelle]

This might be a bit abstract, apologies: I saw a video on YouTube
what I thought was a really useful way to write down an overview of an individual person's life in a grid …

Unfortunately I can't seem to find the video …

Mosmi,

If you Google …
gantt chart for family history timeline youtube video

Will that bring up your video ?

Your Poirot example is a like Gantt chart.

Janelle

[phil57]

A lot of Family History software does this automatically. Family Historian certainly does, and the results can be shown and retrieved in various ways. It's one of the reasons that I use FH in preference to keeping an online tree as my main repository of research.

[Biggles50]

Why reinvent the wheel when there is software to do it for you.

An online tree on Ancestry or Find My Past has a Timeline listing “Facts” section when can be customised with “Facts” of your own choosing.

With the right software your online tree and software tree can be sync’d with each other.

[Andrew Tarr]

I created a simple report in Family Historian listing tree members in birth-date order, with a column for each census year, 1841 to 1921, plus 1939.  In each column I simply enter the age from any record I find.  This highlights missing entries, and also deviations as people start to forget their true age ...