Saturday, September 3, 2016

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- How Many Surnames in Your Family Tree Database?

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: 

 It's Saturday Night again - 
time for some more Genealogy Fun!!



Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music, please!):

1) 
Go into your Genealogy Management Program (GMP; either software on your computer, or an online family tree) and figure out how to Count how many surnames you have in your family tree database.

2)  Tell us which GMP you're using and how you did this task.

3)  Tell us how many surnames are in your database and, if possible, which Surname has the most entries.  If this excites you, tell us which surnames are in the top 5!  Or 10!!  Or 20!!!

4)  Write about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post, in a status or comment on Facebook, or in Google Plus Stream post.

NOTE:  If you can't figure out how to do this in your GMP (Genealogy Management Program), use the Help button in your program and search for "count surnames" then follow directions.  

Here's mine:

I'm going to use RootsMagic 7 because that's where I'm doing my current additions, deletions and editing and is my most up-to-date collection.  In RootsMagic 7, go to Reports, then Lists and scroll down to "Surname Statistics List."  I then chose "Frequency of Surnames" from the list presented.
  



That took about 30 seconds and I have a 163 page list!  I didn't count every one of them - there are 163 pages with 39 names per page.  That's a grand total of about 6,350 surnames in my database with 46,707 persons.  The top 25 are, with birth date ranges:

*  SEAVER - 5,086 persons, from 1608 to 2015

*  [unknown] - 1,457 persons, from 470 to 2013
*  BUCK - 759 persons, from 1577 to 1997

*  SMITH - 714 persons, from 1526 to 2014
* VAUX - 490 persons, from 1620 to 2013

*  FITZ RANDOLPH - 483 persons, from 1420 to 1884
*  DILL - 452 persons, from 1629 to 2014
*  SEVER - 447 persons, from 1673 to 2014
*  NEWTON - 325 persons, from 1600 to 2008
*  CHAMPLIN - 302 persons, from 1618 to 1917

*  RICHMAN - 298 persons, from 1598 to 1985
*  CULVER - 263 persons, from 1700 to 2010
*  BRESEE - 255 persons, from 1650 to 1900
*  BROWN - 240 persons, from 1580 to 2000
*  WHITE - 239 persons, 1539-2015

*  CARRINGER - 212 persons, from 1758 to 2015
*  McKNEW - 205 persons, from 1640 to 2007
*  AUBLE - 204 persons, from 1780 to 2014
*  HAWKINS - 200 persons, from 1570 to 1975
*  CLARK - 190 persons, from 1561 to 2008

*  WOOD - 186 persons, from 1530 to 2016
*  KEMP - 184 persons, from 1672 to 2012
*  SOVEREIGN - 173 persons, from 1742 to 1936
*  FLETCHER - 165 persons, from 1593 to 1947
*  HILDRETH - 163 persons, from 1605 to 2000
NOTE:  We've done this before, but I'm out of town and needed a quick post.  See  http://www.geneamusings.com/2015/09/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-how-many.html (on 26 September 2015) for the last time we did this for SNGF.  My list has changed a little since I added 1,677 persons since then, including 38 AUBLE persons.

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The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2016/09/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-how-many.html

Copyright (c) 2016, Randall J. Seaver

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post.  Share it on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.


5 comments:

Geolover said...

RootsMagic should have a surname count in the file properties list. Too simple, I guess.

Mary Rohrer Dexter said...

Here is my post for this week. I had fun doing the challenge! http://skeezicks1957.blogspot.com/2016/09/the-how-many-surnames-challenge.html

barb said...

Here's my post!

https://relativeshisandhers.wordpress.com/2016/09/04/surname-counts-genealogy-fun/

Lynn David said...

All I have to do is go to my GeneaNet family tree home page, click on Statistics and then click on Popularity: Surnames! Easy as pie....

I have 2,639 surnames for 12,682 individuals.

My top 25 or so are:

RECKER - 151
HALTER - 151
SIEVERS - 132
RUPPEL - 114
WILLIAMS - 114
BOULANGER - 111
LANE - 108
WETZEL - 107
FREY - 106
CARDINAL - 99
CORDONNIER - 98
HOLSCHER - 96
KAISER - 90
MEMERING - 90
PRIMUS - 90
YOCHUM - 87
BEZY - 82
CARIE - 81
HESS - 73
DELISLE - 70
OEXMANN - 69
ELLERMAN - 67
ROSMAN - 67
MOUZIN - 64
FLEMAL - 63
VIECK - 63
NOWASKIE - 62

What's strange is that only 6 of those names are in my own pedigree. I have a load of cousins.

Linda Stufflebean said...

Here is a link to my list and top 20 surnames in both my and my husband's trees: http://emptybranchesonthefamilytree.com/2016/09/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-how-many-surnames-in-your-family-tree/