The Timeline is a visual representation of one individual from your family tree, that you select, and his or her direct ancestors. The lifespans of these individuals (from year of birth to year of death) are mapped on the same axis to allow you to see them in relation to each other, which can provide refreshing insights into your family history.
The Timeline is a bright and attractive display, with each branch of the family displayed in a different color. The Timeline shows the ages of your ancestors at various points in their lives: how old they were when they had children, how long they lived, and how their lifespans overlapped with those of other family members or major world events. The Timeline can be downloaded and shared easily with your family and friends.
For example, it’s easy to visualize with the Timeline which of your 4 grandparents was born first, how old you were when each of them passed away, and so on.
Accessing the Timeline
If your site has multiple trees, the Timeline will default to the family tree that you are associated with, but a drop-down menu will appear on the top left of the Timeline, allowing you to select one of your other family trees.
To select a different main individual for the Timeline, simply enter a new name into the selector box on the top left.
Timeline bars
Individuals who are deceased will have bars that are rounded on the right, with their age of death listed next to a gravestone icon, like this:
Living individuals will be shown with bars that are squared on the right, with their current age displayed next to a person icon, like this:
When the date of death is unknown, the bar is faded on the right, and it is positioned at an approximation of when they probably died. If an individual’s birth date is not known, the bar appears faded on the left, and is positioned at an approximation of when they were likely born.
Each parent is connected to their child with an arrow, going from the parent to the child. If the age of the parent when their child was born is known, it will be indicated next to the arrow. Hovering over the age will open a tooltip with more details.
In the example below, Tammy Barnett’s mother Esther was 18 years old when Tammy was born, and her father Jonathan was 20. The tooltip explains that Jonathan had Tammy in 1881, at the age of 20.
The Timeline background
Each decade is marked with a vertical line. The few tall diagonal hatched rectangles in the background represent important periods, such as world wars. Hover over the vertical lines to open a tooltip with more information about these time periods.
More options
When you hover over a bar, three dots will appear on the right. You can click this to open a menu displaying the person’s name, photo, and relationship to you along with a number of options: from here, you can edit their profile, view their family tree, view their profile page, or research them in MyHeritage’s historical record database.
If you click “Edit profile”, this will bring up a window overlay where you can edit the basic profile details directly from the Timeline. The other options will open in new tabs.
Pinpointing and correcting chronological consistency issues
The Timeline also helps identify and correct chronological inconsistencies in your tree. A red dot appears when an issue is detected—such as a parent dying before a child’s birth, being born after the child, or being unusually young at the time of birth. Hover over the dot for details.
Additional options and settings
By default, the Timeline displays 4 generations (from the main individual to great-grandparents), but you can choose to show between 3 and 9. Click the generations selector at the top right to choose your preferred number.
Next to the generations selector, you can download the Timeline as a PDF—ideal for sharing, printing, or displaying. The share button lets you post to Facebook, Twitter, or WhatsApp, or copy a shareable link.
Click the cogwheel icon at the top right to open the Settings panel and adjust display options to your preferences.
“Show large bars with lifespans” enlarges the bars and displays birth and death years inside them. By default, the Timeline shows individuals’ birth years, ages at death (or current age), and hatched rectangles for key historical periods—all of which can be disabled in this panel.
“Show age at death” and “Show age at birth of child” are enabled by default. If unchecked, then the ages at these events won’t be displayed in the Timeline.
“Show historical periods” is checked by default. Unchecking it will remove the shaded lines denoting historical events from the Timeline background.