					Sun Nov 28 09:06:16 PST 1993

This is a collection of programs and datafiles to create timelines for 
genealogical use. The idea is to view ones ancestors in prospective with
their contempory world -- a timeline of ones ancestors merged with that of
famous persons and contempory events.

[The data files contained herein contain a good chuck of the data from the
TODAY program. These datafiles are still usable by that program, and the
output of the LifeLines report program can also be used by TODAY, should
that functionality be desired. The TODAY data is used without permission of
the author of TODAY.]

This directory contains the following files:

timelin4      - LifeLines report program for generating YOUR ancestor data
tl.c          - source code for timeline program (see below for building)
tlb-artist    - TimeLine birth data for "Artists"
tlb-invent    - TimeLine birth data for "Inventors"
tlb-ushist    - TimeLine birth data for persons of US Historical significance
tlb-world     - TimeLine birth data for persons of non-US significance
tlb-local     - TimeLine birth data for persons of local significance
tlb-other     - TimeLine birth data for misc. other persons
tls-ancient   - TimeLine special events data from A.D.   64 to A.D.   79
tls-early     - TimeLine special events data from A.D. 1000 to A.D. 1493
tls-unsorted  - TimeLine special events data from A.D. 1513 to A.D. 2012


To use this program, first you need to build the tl executable:

	cc -o tl tl.c

You can use whatever C compiler you wish.

Next, run the timelin4 report with LifeLines, selecting the second output
format, the "Chart", to produce your timeline data. (In these examples,
assume I have saved the output of the timelin4 report in the file "myline".)

Now for the postprocessing with "tl". The basic usage is:

	cat DATAFILE | tl > outputfile

Now YOU get to choose which DATAFILE's you want to use. You can produce a
timeline of just your family by giving only out timelin4 output:

	cat myline | tl > outputfile

This will give something like:

      ... stuff deleted...
      |        1971
      | 06 Jul 1972 Birth of Jesse James Patton JONES
      | 23 Jul 1973 Death of Mary Lillian BIBB
      | 13 Jun 1974 Marriage of Finch B STIDHAM to Velma Cleo AUSTIN
      |        1975 
      |        1976 
      |        1977 
      | 10 May 1978 Death of Loula Bell ROBINSON
      |        1979 
      |        1980 
      |        1981 


Or you can merge additional data from the above named timeline datafiles into
your timeline. You get to choose how much or how little, and wether you want
significant people or significant events.

For example, to merge my data with that of "US Historical figures":

	cat myline tlb-ushist | tl > outputfile

Which would produce a nice chart, like the following excerpt shows:

      | 01 Oct 1924 Birth of Jimmy Carter, 39th President (1976-1980)
      | 19 May 1925 Birth of Robert Clark PHIPPEN
      |        1926
      | 23 Feb 1927 Death of John Christopher BROWN
      | 09 Aug 1928 Death of Joel Thomas MORRISON Jr
      | 15 Jan 1929 Birth of Martin Luther King, Jr.
      | 05 Aug 1930 Birth of Neil Armstrong, 1st Moonwalker
      | 13 Oct 1930 Death of Charles H WILDE
      | 06 Jan 1931 Marriage of Arvel Fred JONES Sr. to Gay Nell REAVES
      | 12 May 1931 Death of Nancy Elizabeth BLAKE


You can even create a timeline of all world history by combining all the data
file and your file. This would be especially interesting if you you selected
everyone from your genealogy database as well:

	cat myline tlb-* tls-* | tl > outputfile

Of course you don't have to include your data, but that was sortof the
purpose of this exercise.


Please forward your comments to:

	James P Jones
	jjones@nas.nasa.gov
