Thursday, December 31, 2015

Top 40 Most Popular Posts on Genea-Musings In 2015


Like many other genea-bloggers, I'm curious about which posts on Genea-Musings are "popular" - and why they might be.

Here are the Top 40 Genea-Musings blog posts from 2015 that had the most page views in 2015 (from View Count statistics on the Google Blogger Posts page). 


1)  Tuesday's Tip: FamilySearch Has Added New York City Records (posted 24 March 2015) -- 5,627 views

2)  Why Aren't Researchers Using the FamilySearch Family Tree? (posted 6 January 2015) -- 5,390 views

3)  Tuesday's Tip - A Digital Newspaper Archive Database - UPDATED (12 May 2015) -- 4,429 views

4)   Ancestry.com Announces Retirement of Family Tree Maker Software (posted 8 December 2015) -- 3,342 views

5)  Lesson Learned Again: Don't Trust Online Family Trees (posted 31 July 2015) - 3,219 views

6)  MooseRoots Is a New Genealogy Research Engine (posted 26 February 2015) -- 2,641 views

7)  Other Genealogy Software Options to Replace Family Tree Maker - UPDATED (posted 9 December 2015) -- 2,501 views

8)  What Do Family Tree Maker Users Do Now? (posted 9 December 2015) -- 2,432 views


9)  Ancestry.com Hides Record Image Breadcrumb Trails (posted 6 August 2015) -- 2,412 views

10) More on Ancestry.com About Family Tree Maker 2014 Web Merge Problem (posted 19 August 2015) -- 2,342 views

11) Yes, Janet, Internet Genealogy is Progress! (posted 10 August 2015) -- 2,196 views

12) My Genealogy Digital File Folder Organization (posted 22 January 2015) -- 2,173 views

13) Printing Pages From the "New" Ancestry.com Member Trees (posted 20 August 2015) -- 2,125 views

14) Where Did 567 Databases on Ancestry.com Go? (posted 18 September 2015) -- 1,911 views


15) Tuesday's Tip: Use the Family History Guide to Learn Family History Techniques (posted 4 August 2015) -- 1,873 views)

16) RootsTech 2015 and FGS 2015 Conference Blog Post Compendium (posted 15 February 2015) -- 1,808 views

17) New Ancestry.com Database: U.S. Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 (posted 23 July 2015) -- 1,667 views

18) Mining the Ancestry Probate Records Collection - Post 1: Pennsylvania (posted 8 September 2015) -- 1,623 views

19) What Family Tree Program Do You Use for Your Genealogy Research? (posted 25 March 2015) - 1,615 views

20) Many Features Added to the New Ancestry.com Site (posted 4 August 2015) -- 1,599 views

21) Where Did 567 Databases on Ancestry.com Go? An Answer. UPDATED! (posted 7 October 2015) -- 1,589 views

22) NGS 2015 Conference Blog Compendium - UPDATED (posted 24 May 2015) -- 1,522 views

23) Tuesday's Tip - Search Ancestry.com Hints by Record Collection (posted 27 January 2015) -- 1,517 views

24) Twile Converts Family Tree Data into Visual Timelines - Post 2: Photo and Document Upload (posted 19 August 2015) -- 1,491 views

25) Ancestry.com Subscription Rates - Are They Changing? UPDATED (posted 17 June 2015) -- 1,462 views

26) Genealogy Gophers Website is Launched - Free Genealogy Books (posted 3 March 2015) -- 1,390 views

27) Dear Randy: What is the Most Important Skill for Finding Digital Records Online? (posted 24 August 2015) -- 1,364 views

28) My Top 10 Genealogy Family Tree Resources (posted 25 February 2015) -- 1,359 views

29) The "New Ancestry Experience" is Active for USA Users (posted 2 June 2015) -- 1,262 views

30) How Did I Miss This Before? Ancestry.com Shows Others Researching a Person (posted 29 October 2015) -- 1,255 views

31)  CGSSD Meeting on Saturday, 15 August Features "Digital Microfilm" (posted 12 August 2015) -- 1,250 views

32) More Information About MooseRoots.com (posted 27 February 2015) -- 1,242 views

33) Tuesday's Tip - Check Out Scribd Genealogy Books and Documents (posted 11 August 2015) -- 1,238 views

34) Happy Thanksgiving! Findmypast 12 Month Subscription for 75% Off (posted 23 November 2015) -- 1,223 views

35) First Look at Virtual Pedigree - a FamilySearch Web App (posted 12 June 2015) -- 1,195 views

36) How Can I Find What Paper or Microform Information is Kept in a Particular Area? (posted 27 August 2015) -- 1,183 views

37) Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Who is Your "Bad Behavior" Relative? (posted 15 August 2015) -- 1,110 views


38)  Checking Out Ancestry.com Beta Source Citations in Ancestry Member Trees (posted 4 May 2015) -- 1,062 views

39)  WikiTree Provides More DNA Information About Relatives (posted 27 January 2015) -- 1,047 views

40)  "Old Ancestry" Goes Away on 15 December (posted 18 November 2015) -- 1,046 views

The five most popular Genea-Musings posts since 2007 are:

1)  Microfilm Scanning at the FHL and FHC (posted 22 July 2009) - 76,912 views.

2)  1940 Census Enumeration District Maps Online at NARA Website (posted 18 July 2011) - 63,189 views.

3)  Genealogy Presentations on Slideshare.net (posted 28 January 2010) - 25,936 views.

4)  Merry Christmas to All! (posted 25 December 2011) - 14,852 views.

5)  World records for number of children (posted 21 July 2006) - 11,300 views.

Of course, all of my blog posts are viewed by many more readers than those that go to the web page for the post - those who read them on the Genea-Musings home page, those that read them in an RSS reader, or on a mobile device, and those that receive them via email.

Another measure of popularity or readership might be in the number of comments generated by each post.  I don't think that is a reliable measure of popularity because of the proliferation of RSS reader usage, email usage, and mobile device usage, each of which require one or more click throughs to get to the comment box.

It certainly seems like readers search for Ancestry.com, source citations, and genealogy software topics, and find my blog posts.

Previous "most popular" posts on Genea-Musings are:


I wondered what the least popular Genea-Musings post was in 2015.  I know that Surname Saturday, Treasure Chest Thursday, Wordless Wednesday, and Amanuensis Monday posts are not that popular.  Best of the Genea-Blogs and Saturday Night Genealogy Fun are usually popular, often with the highest number of views each week.  I found that Visiting the Finnish Olympic Shopping Team in 1999 -- Post 381 of (Not So) Wordless Wednesday (posted 7 October 2015) had only 70 views.  


Copyright (c) 2015, Randall J. Seaver

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