World History the Backdrop of Family History

Over the course of the next several months, one area I’ll investigage will focus on a range of historical themes and topics with the goal of providing a backdrop for my parallel family history research and provide context in that way. I’ll begin by covering World History and provide a summary of the historical events and civilizations that shaped our understanding of the modern world.

The World History series will begin with the Ancient World, and will trace how humans evolved from hunter gatherer groups and farming communities to the most advanced industrial societies of the modern world. The World History series will cover the Ancient World, the Classical World, the Early Middle Ages, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Colonial Age, the Age of Revolution and Independence, the Industrial Revolution, the First and Second World Wars and the Modern Era.

With context on historical events, comes an understanding of where our ancestors came from and how they were shaped by world events in the pursuit of their dreams and goals. Where we are born and the circumstances from which we enter this world are completely out of our control. We’re each dealt certain cards at birth: race, nationality, geographic location, and arrive at some level of social-economic status. What we do with the cards we are dealt is a matter of luck, opportunity, experience, intelligence and knowledge. To complement the articles on world history, I’ll also look for data sets which might provide more context to the life and times of a particular era and explore different cultural aspects of that time.

You’ll notice some random facts on the header (Inventions in History), and quotes on the right side (Insightful Quotes), and Events, Births, and Deaths from On This Day in History on the home page and other landing pages. I surface them throughout the website to assist me in coming up with new article ideas whenever necessary.

[1] Image: Steampunk clockwork – https://pixabay.com/illustrations/steampunk-clock-clockwork-time-1636156/