Always The Wanderer!

In keeping with my great grandfather, David Fenton Marshall, I created a chronological timeline. Most of my ancestors tended to stay in one place - not David. He was a travelling salesman in the pharmaceutical business, so he moved around a lot.

Just a little side note to emphasize how important it is to look at all possible scenarios. It got confusing tracking David in 1901 using the census reports. When I first started looking at the census reports back in May of last year, I found two David Marshalls, one listed as "David Marshall" in Dundee living with a wife named Christina, and another as "David F. Marshall" (married) living in Montrose. The birth year and birth place on both census reports coincided with what I already knew about him from his birth record that I already had. However, since the census taken in Montrose specified David with his middle initial (and at this point I assumed (!) that he was still married to his wife, Rachel), I knew that this had to be my David and not the one in Dundee. Boy was I wrong - sort of!

I found David's death record and lo and behold it mentions that he had two wives (hopefully not at the same time!) - 1st wife - Rachel, 2nd wife - Christina. Apparently what happend with the census reports is this: when the census was taken, David was physically in Montrose on business. Back in Dundee, although not physically there, Christina did list him on the census as being the head of the household. Did this happen because Christina filled out the census report herself or did the census taker ask "who lived at that address" and Christina misunderstood assuming the person didn't necessarily have to physically be there? Guess I'll never the answer to that.

Just another quick note: I've lost track of David's 1st wife, and mother of my grandfather, after my grandfather's birth in 1871. I can't find any record at the moment of her anywhere. Needless to say, she is a brickwall that needs further research.

Back to the main point of this post. Using Legacy's Chronology feature, I created a timeline from David's birth to his death. Because of all his travells it's three pages! This is the first time I've used this feature in Legacy and I'm quite impressed (with Legacy and myself!). Below is a screen shot of the first page. This is definately a feature that I am going to make regular use of in the future.