Orphan timeline (time)

An orphan timeline is a timeline that has lost it's origin point (that is, the consecutive chain of events that led up to it's occurance) and has become an orphan as a result, becoming separated from it's original chain.

Definition
An orphan timeline could be more easily thought of as a file shortcut on a desktop that points to another folder full of more shortcuts (or the main program).

When a timeline is orphaned, the shortcut can no longer find the original folder or file it was pointing to (as if all the events leading up to it were suddenly changed).

How an orphan timeline occurs isn't entirely clear, but a prime example of individuals from orphan timelines are those who experience the Nelson Mandela effect and recall him dying in prison (despite in this timeline he died of old age in his home ). These individuals are, in-effect, orphaned from their original timeline where he died in prison.

Orphan timeline preservation
How an orphan timeline is preserved is unknown, in that, if time was deemed a logical series of sequential events, then changing one event would change them all. Using Einstein's theory of special relativity and time-space distortions, time is seen as a physical property that can be distorted, and thus may operate more akin to water mass, in that pockets of water may operate at different temperatures or environments (like salt and fresh water), despite operating in a similar ecosystem.

Or to put differently, two people may travel at slightly different speeds, and thus slightly different timelines, enabling one to preserve their memories long enough to re-store the event in the cross-over between timelines (so a person in timeline A can transfer memories during a time/space distortion into timeline B).

Consequences for individuals from orphan timelines
Individuals who have 'transferred over' from another timeline, or have experienced and recalled a timeline shift or time/space distortion, actually suffer possible negative social impacts in that they will likely be one of few who remember the or their original timeline, with everyone else either part of or accepting the status quo.

As a result, individuals orphaned from their own timeline may be alienated from their peer group who may remember different things. A more extreme result is temporal psychosis in that the individual begins to feel their sanity slip as events they previously did experience are no longer part of the original time continuum and thus they are the only ones to experience them. People who do frequent temporal hopping are more likely to experience temporal psychosis as they become further and further alienated from their original timeline and thus unable to relate to any of their peer group who will not have experienced the same time/space distortions as them.