I have found so many ancestors on my husband's side that when I went to the library to do research, I always got "lost" trying to figure out who should be where and when! Although it took a little time up front, I made a timeline for each "branch" of the tree and then combined all the timelines on one spreadsheet. My spreadsheet has seven columns: last name, first name, event year, place (country or state first, then county, city if known), event (marriage to..., birth to...etc), military service, and spouse. Now, depending on what I am looking up, I can sort by place, by name, or by date. Or if I'm looking up military service data, I can single out the ancestors who may have fought in a particular war. It makes it a lot easier and saves a lot of time when I'm researching a particular family, time period, or place. It also shows me which ancestors may have been acquainted.

Thanks to Laurie of Abilene, Texas, for today's Quick Tip! If you have a tip you would like to share with researchers, you can send it to ADNeditor@ancestry.com.

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