Saturday, May 14, 2022

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

  It's Saturday Night - 

time for more Genealogy Fun! 


Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible music here) is to:

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 8 because that's where I'm doing my current additions, deletions and editing and is my most up-to-date collection.  In RootsMagic 8, go to "Publish," then " Reports and Charts," and scroll down to "Surname Statistics."  

With "Surnames (alphabetical)" selected, I had 244 pages of surnames - about 9,960 of them.  I have 69,601 profiles in my RootsMagic family tree.

I then chose "Frequency of Surname" and the program showed me the first page:

  The top 25 are, with birth date ranges:

* SEAVER - 7,057 persons, from 1600 to 2022
* [unknown] - 1,322 persons, from 747 to 2017
* SEVIER - 987 persons, from 1702 to 2020
* SMITH - 909 persons, from 1543-2018
* BUCK - 831 persons, from 1577 to 2016

*  SEVER - 708 persons, from 1673-2018
* VAUX - 622 persons, from 1620 to 2020
*  DILL - 532 persons, from 1629 to 2014
*  FITZ RANDOLPH - 484 persons, from 1344 to 1901
*  KEMP - 451 persons, from 1672 to 2020
*  AUBLE - 424 persons, from 1780 to 2019

*  WHITE - 422 persons, from 1550 to 2018
*  SEAVERS - 375 persons, from 1706-2016
*  SEEVER - 362 people, from 1749-2021
*  BROWN - 356 people, from 1580 to 2017
*  NEWTON - 348 persons, from 1600 to 2008

*  RICHMAN - 328 people, from 1598-2007
*  CHAMPLIN - 306 persons, from 1615 to 1944
*  BRIGHAM - 269 persons, from 1602-2019
*  CULVER - 264 persons, from 1700 to 2010
*  BRESEE - 260persons, from 1650 to 1913

*  GATES - 257 persons, from 1565-2013
*  DAVIS - 252 persons, from 1603-2014
*  CLARK - 250 persons, from 1561-2020
*  CARRINGER - 241 persons, from 1758 to 2015
*  RICHMOND - 238 persons, from 1555-2013

NOTE:  We've done this before, but I'm out of town and needed a quick post.  See https://www.geneamusings.com/2016/09/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-how-many.html (on 3 September 2016)) for the last time we did this for SNGF.  

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Copyright (c) 2022, Randall J. Seaver

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7 comments:

Liz said...

Here's mine, Randy:

https://gatapleytree.blogspot.com/2022/05/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-how-many.html

Fun exercise! Especially since it seems I missed it in 2016. But of course as we research, it's probably a good idea to do it again since the numbers change!

Thanks!

Liz

ByAPearl said...

A very interesting exercise. I learned something new!

https://geneajournalsbyapearl.wordpress.com/2022/05/14/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-surnames/

Janice M. Sellers said...

Here's mine. I apparently did not do this the first time you posted it in 2016.

http://www.ancestraldiscoveries.com/2022/05/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-how-many.html

D. Taylor said...

I use Family Tree Maker 2019 for Mac.

To get the report, I went to “Publish” - Person Reports – Surname Report [Create Report]
Next, I selected “Include All.” Then I filtered out any name that begins with a bracket [. (I use a bracket as the surname for women who are married but whose maiden name is still unknown.) The report then returned 7,876 individuals.

To get a total for the number of surnames, do a “Share” then "Export as CSV." After it exports the software want to know if I’d like to open It. I said [Open]. The line number in the spreadsheet is the number of people. It showed 1770 surnames.

The Surname Report itself has a check box to “Sort by Surname Count.” Clicking it sorts the surnames by frequency.
My top surnames (having over 100 individuals) are:
• Mannin 440
• Roberts 298
• Brown 169
• Parsons 143
• Krafve 120
• Bryant 113

Love your family, honor your ancestors, and enjoy life.
Don Taylor

Linda Stufflebean said...

Here's mine: https://emptybranchesonthefamilytree.com/2022/05/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-193/

Lisa S. Gorrell said...

Here's mine! I hadn't done it back in 2016 either.

https://mytrailsintothepast.blogspot.com/2022/05/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-how-many.html

Teresa said...

Here's mine - a day late!!

https://writingmypast.wordpress.com/2022/05/16/sunday-night-genealogy-fun-surnames-count/