Getting Started with Time Machine

Workspace Overview #

At the top of your dashboard, you will find navigation links to each of the sub-areas of your Time Machine workspace. Much of the management can be done from the dashboard itself, but you can also jump into a sub-area if you need a deeper dive or a larger space to work in:

• Inbox
• People
• Places
• Events
• Library

Dashboard #

The dashboard includes views of each of your key areas:

Sticky Notes #

Quickly capture notes, tasks, or information snippets onto your sticky note wall, just as you would jot something down onto a piece of paper. Organize sticky notes by tag. Archive notes that are no longer needed.

Sticky notes are collapsed by default to conserve dashboard real estate. Click the toggle arrow to show sticky notes.

People by Country #

People are grouped together by locations using a Kanban board. See how people clump together in certain locations and observe migrations. When you relate a person to a location they will appear grouped with others at that location on the People by Country view.

The People by Country board is collapsed by default to conserve dashboard real estate. Click the toggle arrow to show the board.

Timeline #

See who was alive during different eras of history using the Timeline view! The timeline has already been built out in 100 year blocks (eras). Select the era to view and use the forward and backward arrows < and > to quickly jump back or forward in time. People born during that era will display on the timeline. Note: 10 people at a time will display. Click “Load more” to see more people, or “Open as page” to view in full screen mode.

The Timeline is collapsed by default to conserve dashboard real estate. Click the toggle arrow to show the timeline.

People #

Select from multiple views to see people in your family tree. Several starter views have been pre-built for you:

• All (list and gallery views)
• Notable Figures
• Male
• Female
• Maternal Side
• Paternal Side

Places #

Select from multiple views to see notable places in your family history. Several starter views have been pre-built for you:

• Places (gallery)
• Castles, Palaces + Abbeys
• Map Links
• Coordinates

Library #

By default, the Library view on your dashboard will include the 25 most recent documents (that are not places). Select from additional views to drill down to specific document types, for example, Biographies, Birth Records, Census Records, Photographs, or Wills.

Getting Started #

Data Entry Strategies #

Create people records several at a time for smaller family groups. Once you have people entered, then go back and add the connections to relate them together.

The most efficient way to populate your People database is by working your way “up” in layers. While it is possible to make people connections by adding children to parents, it is simpler, quicker, and fewer clicks to add parents to children and continue working up (backward in time) from there.

Adding your first person #

The best place to start building your family tree is by adding you!

1. Navigate to the People area of your dashboard
2. Confirm that the “All (List)” view is selected
3. Click the blue “New” button

In the window that appears you’ll see there are many different properties to hold information about this person. Some of these you will enter data into; others will calculate automatically. Enter as much information as you have for this individual:

• The primary field is for the person’s name. Enter in the format of Last Name, First Name. If you want to display the name as “First Name Last Name”, enter it as such in the “Display Name” property.

• If there are alternative names or spellings for this person, enter them into the “Alt Names / Spellings” property, each separated by a comma.

• Enter the gender of the person.

• Enter the birth and death dates (if they are known) for the person. Both birth and death dates are stored in this single property. Within the date property, enable the “End Date” toggle to enter the death date for the person. If the person is still living, do not enter an end date.

• Tick the “Dates Approx.” checkbox if the dates are approximate or not confirmed.

• Enter the date of marriage, if known.

Formulas will automatically calculate the person’s current age (if still living), age at death (if deceased), age at marriage, and a display summary of information about this person.

Optionally, choose an icon for this person’s page (for example, I like to use the country flag to represent the person’s nationality of birth:

1. Click the “Add Icon” link at the top of the page
2. Select the icon
3. Choose an emoji, an icon, a custom image to upload or link to an image from the web

Optionally, upload an image to represent this person:

1. Click the “Add Cover” link at the top of the page
2. Select “Upload” -> “Upload file”
3. Choose a file to upload (must be an image file, like a .JPG or .PNG)

Networking People to People #

Once you have a group of related individuals added to the People database, you can start building their familial relationships.

1. Open a person record
2. In the “Parents” property, search for and enter each parent (Note: you will not have to also add this person as a child to the parents. This connection will add the person automatically as the child)
3. Optionally, search for and enter siblings for the person in the “Siblings” property (Note: the “Siblings (Rollup)” will automatically display children of this person’s parents, so you may not wish to manually add sibling connections)
4. Search for and enter the spouse of the person in the “Spouse” property
5. You may also relate people to other people who are not family using the “Associated With” property. For example, persons in your family history may relate to other notable figures of history that you want to note

Networking People to Places #

Start by adding some places to the Library database. From the “Places” area of your dashboard:

1. Click the down arrow next to the blue “New” button and select the “New Place” database template (if you have already set this as the default template you can simply click the “New” button)
2. The primary field is for the place name. Enter the place name
3. Optionally, add a summary of the place
4. Optionally, add a map link for the place in the URL property. You may also embed a map in the body of the page
5. Select the Country, State, or Region for the place. If the option isn’t already available in the drop-down list, you may add it to the list
6. Optionally, add the coordinates for the place in the Longitude and Latitude properties

Note: adding coordinates will make it possible to add a 3rd party map integration that will display pins for your locations on a map that can be embedded into Notion. To explore one integration possibility, check out notionmaps.com which allows users to create one free map. Register a free account to create your own map.

Optionally, add an image to represent the location that will display in the gallery view:

1. Click the “Add Cover” link at the top of the page
2. Select “Upload” -> “Upload file”
3. Choose a file to upload (must be an image file, like a .JPG or .PNG)

Connections to people can be made from the Place record or from the People record. If the place can be linked to multiple people, I recommend making connections from the Place record, as multiple people can be connected at the same time.

1. Open the place record
2. In the “Related to People” property, search for and enter the people who are related to this place. This location might be a place of birth, residence, notable event, or death for a person

Networking People to Events #

Start by adding an event to the Library database. From the “Library” area of your dashboard:

1. Click the down arrow next to the blue “New” button and select the “New Event” database template
2. The primary field is for the event name. Enter the event name
3. Optionally, add a summary of the event
4. Add dates for the event, if known
5. Optionally, you can use the body of the page to tell the story of the event or specify additional details
6. In the “Related to People” property, search for and enter the people who are related to this event

Networking People to Documents #

Start by adding documents to the Library database. From the “Library” area of your dashboard:

1. Click the down arrow next to the blue “New” button and select the template for the type of document that you wish to add
2. The primary field is for the document name. Enter the document name
3. Optionally, add a summary for the document
4. Add dates for the document, if applicable
5. Link to the URL for a source page on the internet using the “URL” property
6. Upload photos or other files directly to the library card using the “Attachments” property
7. Optionally, you can use the body of the page to capture additional details
8. In the “Related to People” property, search for and enter the people who are related to this document

Pro tip: use the Notion Web Clipper to clip information from Wikipedia, WikiTree, or other online sources. Process this information into your Library from the Inbox.

Managing Your Inbox #

Save information from the web while web surfing using the Notion Web Clipper. Choose the “Library” database when clipping information from the web. Clipped information will land in your Inbox until it has been consumed and processed.

From your Inbox:

1. Click an information card to open it
2. Choose a document type
3. Populate additional information, as needed (dates, location information, summary, notes, tags)
4. In the “Related to People” property, search for and select the people associated with this information
5. Change the status to “Done”

Once processed, the information card will drop out of your Inbox.