Timeline sites

[Pam Downes]

When writing up family histories, unless we were very good at history (though I don't suppose that many of us have got back to the Wars of the Roses yet) we probably don't have a clue what was happening in the year of an ancestor's birth marriage or death.
I'd already found one timeline site
http://www.chronology.org.uk/
and whilst googling for something completely different, I've just found this one
http://home.clara.net/tirbach/HelpPagepearls6.html
which contains lots more info under the 'not everyone knows this' heading at the top. The author confesses towards a Welsh bias, but there is a wealth of general information.
The 'chronology' site looks a bit off-putting with the main title on the opening page, but click on 'the chronology' or 'look it up' and you will very soon change your mind.
Addictive stuff.

Pam Downes

[Jo Simpsons]

I'm going to have a play about with them, Pam.
There is another one,
http://www.ourtimelines.com/
It seems to be more American but interesting still.
Jo

[Lynda Cunningham]

Thank you Pam

May I offer another I found for West Ham, E. London (formerly Essex) and the surrounding area. As you say, addictive stuff.
http://www.lalamy.demon.co.uk/timeline.htm

best wishes
Lynda

[Chasing Caseys]

Hello Pam

Since coming into possesion of letters from the late 1880,s with dates on i wanted to find out what was going on in the world at those times to try and get more of an understanding of what they may have been thinking and going through and also to verify dates of historic moments the letters mention. I have found this site useful
http://century.guardian.co.uk/

[Anwen]

Pam, I tried your link http://www.chronology.org.uk/ and it takes me to the "History of the National Health Service". Is this the right site?

Thanks -

[Sue Mackay]

I'm an old fashioned girl at heart. While appreciating the value of good websites, there is nothing quite like a really good book that you can have on the shelf next to your desk and refer to over and over again without having to lose your place in another website or document.

Some years ago when I was in a paperback bookclub I chose as part of my introductory offer a really BIG paperback (A4 size and three inches thick) called The Timetables of History by Bernard Grun. Mine is the New Third Revised Edition and goes up to 1990, but it was originally written much earlier. It goes from 5000BC to virtually the present day, with dates down the left hand side and columns for History/Politics, Literarture, Religion/Philosophy/Learning, Visual Arts, Music, Science and Technology and Daily Life. Invaluable for seeing what was going on at significat points in one's ancestors' lives.

I have just had a look on abebooks uk site and they have a dozen or so copies ranging in price from an unbelievable 67p to about £5. An absolute steal!

[Pam Downes]

Pam, I tried your link http://www.chronology.org.uk/ and it takes me to the "History of the National Health Service". Is this the right site?

Thanks -

Anwen,
Thanks for the heads-up re the new link.
Fortunately there is a wonderful thing called the Wayback Machine through which you can usually access old sites.
Type in www.chronology.org.uk after the http://
You then get a list of dates. I selected October 5 2006
and got the original home page I described.
Click on 'chronology' and you get a selection of dates. A lot of it is to do with health issues and standards, but you also get snippets such as population estimates, and the year steamships were introduced between Dover and Calais.
Pam