Build a timeline of a loved one’s life.

A timeline starts with a title, a short description and a cover photo. Then you add events. Each one needs a title and a date and can start with a photo or a video. Open an event later and you can add more photos and videos, from your device or your family Library, along with comments and voice notes.

Begin with the events that are on paper, because they give the timeline its shape:

• births, christenings and naming days
• schools, first jobs and changes of career
• moves, with the addresses if you have them
• engagements, weddings and anniversaries
• children and grandchildren
• retirement and later life

Then add the moments only the family knows: the holiday everyone still talks about, the day the dog arrived, the job that nearly happened. Events appear in date order along a horizontal timeline you can zoom and pan, with month markers once you zoom in far enough.

Every event needs a full date, because that is how the timeline puts things in order. When you only know the year, pick a stand-in day such as 1 January and say so in the title, for example “Moved to Bristol (about 1962)”. The PDF prints each event’s full date, so flagging a guess stops it turning into a fact.

To narrow a date down:

• Work from fixed points. “The winter after the wedding” or “just before your brother was born” can be pinned to dates you already have.
• Ask more than one relative. People remember different details, and where their memories overlap you are on firmer ground. The questions in our guide to asking your parents about their life are a good way in.
• Check the paperwork and the records. Certificates, letters and public records can settle a date for good. The next section covers where to look.

Yes. Everyone you invite to your family space can add events to a timeline, add photos and videos to an event, leave comments and record voice notes. This is where the gaps get filled: you add the date of the wedding, your aunt remembers the band, and your grandmother records two minutes on how they met.

Voice notes can be recorded in the browser or uploaded as audio files, and new recordings are converted to M4A automatically so they play on any phone. Only the person who created a timeline can delete it or remove anything from it.

You can also tag the people a timeline is about from their Loved Ones profiles, so it shows on each person’s profile alongside their dates and life story. The Free plan includes one Loved Ones profile; Premium has no limit.

Yes. Choose Preserve My Legacy to preview the timeline as a PDF, then download it. The PDF keeps your layout and colours, shows one image per event and carries an Ancestorii watermark. It is an easy way to share a parent’s timeline with relatives who aren’t in your family space, or to print a copy at home.

For something to hang on the wall or keep on a shelf, the canvas and Memory Book editors take their photos from your family Library. The Heritage canvas, 24 by 72 inches, has a landscape Timeline layout for six photos and costs £169.99 plus delivery, with UK delivery only. A Memory Book starts at £44.99 plus delivery for 24 printed pages.

A screen at least 1024 pixels wide, such as a laptop, a desktop computer or a large tablet turned sideways. On anything narrower, including phones and most tablets held upright, the website shows a “Bigger screen needed” message instead of the builder, because a horizontal timeline needs the room.

On a phone, use the free Ancestorii app for iPhone and Android, which lets your family capture and view timelines along with memories, albums, voice notes and family profiles. Upgrades and print orders happen on the website, with the same email and password.

Ancestorii is a private place for a family’s memories, and a timeline is one way of seeing them in order. It sits alongside albums, the family Library, time capsules and Loved Ones profiles, in a family space that only the people you invite can see.

It isn’t a genealogy service. It doesn’t search records or build family trees, and its terms describe it as a memory-keeping and storytelling service rather than a research one. It helps with what comes after the research: putting the dates beside the photos, the stories and the voices of the people who were there.

If you’re stuck, Story Assistance, the optional writing help, can suggest questions to help you remember what happened and prompts for describing an event. You decide what to keep. Timelines are unlimited on the Free plan, and Premium adds more storage for £3.99 a month per family.