Monday, July 9, 2012

Genealogy Database Statistics Update - July 2012

I last updated my Genea-Musings readers on the "numbers" in my genealogy database in Feeding and Pruning my Genealogy Database on 6 March 2012.  I was curious to see how much progress I had made in the last four months.

Here are the "numbers" for my RootsMagic 5 database from 1 March 2012:

* 41,478 persons 
* 16,479 families 
* 109,453 events 
* 5,086 places 
* 744 sources 
* 26,649 citations 


The "numbers" as of 8 July 2012 in my database are:

* 41,313 persons (-165)
* 16,442 families  (-27)
* 112,948 events  (+3,495)
* 5,477 places  (+391)
* 780 sources (+36)
* 28,890 citations (+2,241)

*  140 Multi-media Items

In the past four months, I've managed to improve my citations/person from 64.25% to 69.93%, and my Citations/Events from 24.35% to 25.58%. 

Astute readers will note that I have actually reduced the number of persons and families in my database.  This has occurred as I eliminate persons disconnected from my family tree or living persons that I have no real interest in.  The additions are the result of systematically "mining" online databases (notably Find-a-Grave, the Social Security Death Index, new Ancestry and FamilySearch databases, etc.) and intentionally finding additional information (dates, places) for persons in the database in the U.S. census records and American Ancestors database.

I still have my pile of "information to be entered" for entry to the database, and have made very little progress on reducing that pile in the past four months.  

At some point, I will replace the Ancestry Member Tree on Ancestry.com (last updated in early 2010, I think!) with the latest tree information.  I do not attach records to that Ancestry Member Tree because I know that it will be replaced eventually.  I do attach selected records to my RootsMagic database manually and those will upload to a new Ancestry Member Tree.  

My conclusion is:  I'm still actively improving my database in both quantity and quality, but still have a long way to go to have a "fully sourced and accurate" family tree.  It's better than it was, and can still be improved.  It is a lifelong task, I think!  

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/07/genealogy-database-statistics-update.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

1 comment:

Lianne said...

Ooh, I love statistics and systematic work. :) I've been doing similar work on my WikiTree profiles, trying to go through my list and improve various aspects of every profile. But I have less than 1500 people! I can't imagine doing it with over 40000!