Thursday, January 1, 2015

My Genealogy Database Statistics Update - 1 January 2015

I last updated my Genea-Musings readers on the "numbers" in my genealogy database in Genealogy Database Statistics Update - 1 January 2014 (and before that 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 is the database summary on 1 January 2015:



Here are the "numbers" from 1 January 2015 in my RootsMagic database (with increases from 2014):

* 43,986 persons (+ 1,411)
* 17,572 families  (+ 562)
* 136,426 events  (+ 9,035)
* 7,837 places (+ 951)  
* 1,135 sources (+ 150)
* 57,783 citations (+ 9,657)
*  1,071 Multi-media Items (+ 454)

*  2,888 Multimedia links (+1,066)


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 25 events and 26 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, although vacations and the holidays intervene.  Consequently, I've  managed to improve my  citations/person from 113.04% to 131.37%, and my Citations/Events from 37.78% to 42.35%.  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 13 more years!  

I added over 1,400 persons to my database in 2013, some 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, vital records, etc.) using MyHeritage Record Matches, and Ancestry.com Hints.  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. 

Doing the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge in 2014, along with deciding to start with my great-grandparents and doing it by ancestor chart numbers, has greatly improved the events, source citationsd and notes for the ancestors I wrote about.  i'm almost finished with the third great-grandparents (up to #63) and I will continue the weekly challenge with the 4th great-grandparents.  


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 2014 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!). 


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/2015/01/my-genealogy-database-statistics-update.html

Copyright (c) 2014, Randall J. Seaver



1 comment:

Diane Gould Hall said...

Randy. I did the same thing this year, just like we did last year. My numbers didn't go up as much as yours, but they did go up. I referenced your blog in my post. Here is a link to the post. http://www.michiganfamilytrails.com/2015/01/how-much-progress-have-i-made-in-one.html