31 Days to Better Genealogy Day 2

I didn't say I was going to work on them daily, just do the 31 activities.

So Day 2 activity is to create a time line. Can be done in any format but it is to help you find missing details. So since I am working on the Chaplin Project I decided to start with my mother, Edith. I will be needing to do this for each person in my project, but she was the easiest to start with. I am using an Excel spreadsheet.

So I started my timeline.

It was interesting to me that I found a few things that I can look up that will just fill in some blanks, not necessarily add anything new. I noticed I didn't have any New York State Census records. I know she live only in Brooklyn, Manhattan and College Point, but it would be nice to show it in records. Something I can look for. 

There is one detail I can do some research on.  

My Mother was married before she married my Dad. I am not sure for how long. I all I know was that it was when she was young, he was older and the marriage was annulled. I have that information from my parents' marriage license. 

The close up of the marriage license with the previous marriage listed. 

She was also listed on the 1940 US Census as Married, using her maiden name, and no husband listed. Listed with mother as lodgers.

So then I decided to look at every file I have on Edith and look at what I found. Yes, it has been sitting in my folder, 

for I don't know how long. 

It looks like they were married for almost 9 years. I am concluding from the 1940 Census record that they did not live together for all those years. 

I will do some research but it isn't earth shatter if I don't know all the details. It is just an example of someone I thought the research was done for and I found more details I can look for with the help of filling in a timeline. 

So new tools can add new skills. And help you find forgotten items. If I had learned to write summaries as I did my research I might have remembered I had this information. I am already finding more things to improve. 

Upward and On-Ward to better Genealogy!