Wednesday, January 1, 2014

My Genealogy Database Statistics Update - 1 January 2014

I last updated my Genea-Musings readers on the "numbers" in my genealogy database in Genealogy Database Statistics Update - 1 January 2013. I was curious to see how much progress I had made in the last 12 months.

Here are the "numbers" from 1 January 2013 in my RootsMagic database:

* 41,498 persons 
* 16,539 families  
* 117,599 events  
* 6,030 places  
* 832 sources
* 35,222 citations 

*  371 Multi-media Items 

*  1,199 Multimedia links


Here are the "numbers" as of 1 January 2014 in my RootsMagic database (with increases from 1 January 2013):




* 42,575 persons (+ 1,077)
* 17,013 families  (+ 474)
* 127,391 events  (+ 9,792)
* 6,886 places  (+ 856)
* 985 sources (+ 153)
* 48,126 citations (+ 12,904)

*  617 Multi-media Items (+ 246)

*  1,822 Multimedia links (+ 623)


In the past 12 months, I've averaged adding 27 events and 35 source citations a day.  I've been trying to work at least an hour in the evening (since baseball season ended) adding sources to the database.  Consequently, I've  managed to improve my citations/person from 84.87% to 113.04%, and my Citations/Events from 29.95% to 37.78%.  Obviously, I don't have a citation for every event, and in some cases I have more than one citation for an event.  At that rate, to reach 100% in citations/events will take about eight more years!  

I added over 1,000 persons to my database in 2013, mainly in my son-in-law's Lincoln and Lowell lines, and also from further research on my ancestral families.  Some additions are the result of systematically "mining" online databases (notably Find-a-Grave, the Social Security Death Index, census records, etc.) using MyHeritage Record Matches.  I also mine 
new Ancestry and FamilySearch databases for my one-name study surnames.  I am intentionally finding additional information (dates, places) for persons in the database in the U.S. census records and American Ancestors databases.  I have deleted many persons in peripheral lines for whom I have no data - most of them living persons gleaned from GEDCOMs received from distant cousins long ago. I have also corrected some relationship errors found while working on the database. 

I still have my pile of "information to be entered" for entry to the database, and have made little progress on reducing that pile in the past 12 months, but there is lots more there to add in terms of events and source citations. 

I last updated my ancestral Ancestry Member Tree (AMT) on Ancestry.com in August 2012 with the latest tree information, and will update it again in the near future.  I do not attach "shaky leaf Hints" 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 (after I GEDCOM it into Family Tree Maker and sync that to a new AMT).  

There are only so many hours in my genealogy day - usually 10 to 12 hours, but often only 6 to 8 hours.  I spend one to two hours each day reading blog posts and answering emails, one to three hours writing blog posts, an hour or two doing online research, one to three hours adding content/sources to the database, and the balance doing society support tasks, creating presentations, watching Hangouts and webinars, or working on other projects.  My genealogy life is varied, and definitely not boring (I gave up doing boring genealogy things like extended client research, or going  often to libraries and archives - with some exceptions, etc.). 


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/2014/01/genealogy-database-statistics-update-1.html

Copyright (c) 2014, Randall J. Seaver



1 comment:

Michigan Girl said...

Randy. I love this idea. I will definitely take a count in my database later today. It's not baseball season for me, but hockey season that distracts and today it is the Winter Classic with my team the Detroit Red Wings playing.
Plan on viewing my statistics on my blog by later this evening at www.michiganfamilytrails.com
As always, I thoroughly enjoy your blog.
Til later,
Diane