Pasts

Of Poul Anderson's four main series characters (see here), Everard features in the Time Patrol series whereas van Rijn, Falkayn and Flandry feature in the History of Technic Civilization.

Nearly every narrative assumes a past, a "what has gone before." Possible exceptions? Narratives about:

a universe beginning with a quantum fluctuation?
a creation with a transtemporal creator?

In the latter case, the creator precedes his creation ontologically even if not temporally.

The past of the Technic History is world history culminating in the Chaos of the twentieth and early twenty first centuries.

Manse Everard's personal past before joining the Patrol is his early life in the Midwest, World War II and the succeeding decade. However, many other events occurred before in a causal if not also a temporal sense:

the discovery of time travel in 19352 A.D.;
the intervention of the Danellians from further in the future;
the founding of the Time Patrol;
the establishment of the 1850-2000 milieu with its three headquarters in 1890-1910 and smaller offices, like the one that recruits Everard, in later decades.

Everard's recruitment is caused by events in both his past and his future. Wells' Time Traveler merely set off into the future whereas Everard's future reaches back to recruit him.