Tuesday, January 2, 2018

My RootsMagic Genealogy Database Statistics Update - 1 January 2018

I last updated my Genea-Musings readers on the "numbers" in my RootsMagic genealogy family tree database in My Genealogy Database Statistics Update - 1 January 2017 (and before that in:

*   My Genealogy Database Statistics Update - 1 January 2016 
*   Genealogy Database Statistics Update - 1 January 2015 
*  Genealogy Database Statistics Update - 1 January 2014  

I was curious to see how much progress I had made in the last 12 months.

Here is the family tree database summary from RootsMagic on 1 January 2018:





Here are the "numbers" from 1 January 2016 in my RootsMagic database (with increases from 2015):

*  49,315 persons (+ 2,121)
*  19,847 families  (+ 972)
*  159,661 events  (+ 7,569)

*  4,470 Alternate names (+ 2,048)
*  10,329 places (+ 563)  
*  1,603 sources (+ 151)
*  91,058 citations (+ 11,594)
*  1,162 Multi-media Items (+ 32)

*  3,177 Multimedia links (+63)

*  21,404 Persons matched to FamilySearch Family Tree persons (+ 6987)

In the past 12 months, I've averaged adding 5.8 persons, 2.7 families, 20.7 events and 31.8 source citations a day.  I've been trying to work at least an hour in the evening (since baseball season ended) adding content and sources to the database, although vacations and the holidays intervene. 


 Consequently, I've  managed to improve my  citations/person from 168.39% to 184.65%, and my  Citations/Events from 52.25% to 57.03% this past year.  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 9 more years!  

I added 2,121 persons to my database in 2017, some in my 5th great-grandparent's descendant lines, some in my one-name studies, and some from further research on my ancestral families.  My one-name studies include Seaver, Carringer, Auble, Vaux, Dill, and Buck on my tree, and McKnew on my wife's tree.  


I also mine new Ancestry and FamilySearch databases for my one-name study surnames, and add content and source citations.  I have also corrected some relationship and date errors found while working on the database.  I use RootsMagic to match my tree profiles to the FamilySearch Family Tree profiles, and exchange verified information both ways on a regular basis.

I updated my ancestral Ancestry Member Tree (AMT) on Ancestry.com in August 2017 with a new tree upload when RootsMagic was able to synchronize with it.  I TreeShare almost every day now to keep the AMT up-to-date, which generates more Record Hints.  I do not attach Record Hints to that Ancestry Member Tree because I know that it will be replaced eventually.  I do review and manually add records from Ancestry Hints to my RootsMagic database manually to add content and sources to my family tree database.

Doing the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge for a fourth year in 2017, along with deciding to start with my great-grandparents and doing it by ancestor chart numbers, has greatly improved the events, source citations and notes for the ancestors I write about.  I am now in the sixth great-grandparents at the end of this year, doing them in ancestor chart number order.  I will continue this weekly meme because it helps me focus on one individual each week and improves my database and my family history.


My trip to the Family History Library in February added a few more ancestral records to enrich my database - in recent years they have been probate records and land deed records for my ancestors found on FHL microfilm.  I am also mining the vital, probate and land records now available on Ancestry.com, FamilySearch and AmericanAncestors on a regular basis.  Now that many Family Search Library catalog items are online, I will start going to the local FamilySearch Library more often in order to use the digital microfilm that I cannot read at home.


There are only so many hours in my genealogy day - usually 8 to 11 hours, but often only 5 to 8 hours.  I spend one to three 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 and 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've made steady progress, and 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, but it can still be improved.  It is a lifelong task, I think!  
I truly need a genealogy clone or assistant.  I doubt that an Amazon Echo, Google Home or any other Virtual assistant is yet capable of doing genealogy research, source citations, etc.
  


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Copyright (c) 2018, Randall J. Seaver

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3 comments:

Unknown said...

Those are some amazing numbers! I like you sourced percentages. Do you keep track of the events without citations?

Bill said...

Randy-

You live a very full genealogical life! A few questions.
- You mention your "Ancestral Ancestry Member Tree" that you've uploaded to Ancestry. Is that the full 49,000 or just direct lines? If direct lines, is there an easy way to segment that using Roots Magic?
- On the one name study surnames - is that a separate Roots Magic tree, or is there a handy way to segment e.g. just the Carringer family?

Thanks,
Bill Greggs
bgreggs@gmail.com

Randy Seaver said...

I don't keep track of Events without citations - RootsMagic doesn't include that in the File>Properties list. My guess is that it would be in the 100,000 range.

Yes, the "ancestral Ancestry Member Tree" is the one with everything in it - ancestral families, one name studies, etc. I keep it all in one because of the significant overlap between ancestral families and one-name families. I don't want to add info in more than one database.

There is a way to segment only ancestral families in RootsMagic, and descendants of a person, but not "all Seaver" persons unless you go through a list of persons and check the ones you want.