Timeline of events at Slater House
March 22, 2023|Genealogy research tips, Slater House, Storytelling with genealogy
I’ve been using Airtable* to gather data and keep it organized. I love being able to annotate files in a grid like this. The image below contains mostly City Directory listings, and already the file has hundreds of rows. I’m in the process of integrating the newspaper clippings to the timeline, so I can have a clearer picture of the ever-changing role of this home in the lives of my ancestors and others
This is a different kind of research because Instead of a family tree, this lot has a house tree. So many residents of this home were related in the early 1900’s that I decided to build a tree solely of residents of the house, in order to untangle their relationships. We had Maggies and Jennies with the same last names, born only months apart. In order to discover which one was my grandmother, I had to track all of them. I’m so grateful to have made that decision because it helped me understand the Macdonalds better too.
I’m working all of their stories into a cohesive narrative. I’m hoping once I dig into some photos from the construction of the highway I might be able to find a picture of the house. Ideally, I would also love to meet a descendant who has photos of John S and Elizabeth and their daughter (Helen) Nellie Macdonald Brown Farnon, my great great grandmother.
*I get referral credit if you use my link to get a free Airtable account. If you love data and spreadsheets and categorizing information you’ll love it.
Video below shows just some of the entries I’ve made to that database. Here, they are grouped by the “year” column, see how lovely and clean that is! I love being able to generate a timeline from information I gathered out of order and from a variety of sources. This has helped me get a feel for the town as well as the people and their lives at 114 Slater Street