Build the Timeline Before the Fog Sets In

The fifty-year fog

Family stories drift. The wedding "on a warm July afternoon" becomes June, then May, then just "springtime." Anchor them early. Five data points lock a story in place: year, season, place, who was there, what happened next.

The capture template

Open a shared note. One row per event. Columns: year / approximate season / city / cast of characters / what came right after. Don't chase precision — "around 1967, autumn-ish, Chicago, my mother's sisters, the year before Grandpa's first heart attack" is already a durable record.

The backfill session

Do this quarterly, across a shared call. Trade rows. Someone else's half-memory triggers yours. Within three sessions you'll have 100+ anchored events — the skeleton that every later project hangs off.