There are many biographical tools which are helpful for recalling when things happened in our lives. One of the first I met was the "U" Chart. Below is the first personal "U" Chart I made.
The "U" on this chart - at the very bottom - has age 21 . That year in my life was 1949 + 21 = 1970.
Up the left-hand side I have marked the years going back to 1949, the year I was born.
Up the right hand side, I have marked the years going into the future from 1970 to 1991. I see from looking at this now, I must have been age 37 or 38 when I created it because notations stop at a particular date.
The data written to the right side are dates of specific categories of events and the "date" was simply the year.
One of the helpful things about such a chart is to keep a "distant" view. Do not get lost in the detail! For example, the "Places lived category" simply reads: Texas, Colorado, etc. Not the cities! Not the addresses. "Helicopter Point Of View (POV)."
Categories:
- Relationships (such as births of children, weddings, etc.)
- Work (including schooling which is "work")
- Illnesses (change)
- Places lived
- People who were important in my life
- Trips
- Relationships
- Deaths
Such "U-Charts" can be created for others in your Memoir: father, mother, grandparents, siblings or others so you can gather basic biographical information and place it in a time context.
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