I was curious to see how much progress I had made in my family tree during the last 12 months.
Here is the family tree database summary from RootsMagic 11 on 31 December 2025:
* 74,870 persons (+ 908)
* 30,363 families (+ 387)
* 234,015 events (+ 2,539)
* 15,415 Alternate names (+ 67)
* 21,704 places (+ 840)
* 2,707 sources ( + 421)
* 147,932 citations (+ 607)
* 1,184 Multi-media Items (- 81)
* 3,213 Multi-media links (+ 2)
* 53,031 Persons matched to FamilySearch Family Tree persons (+ 818)
In the past 12 months, I've averaged adding 2.5 persons, 1.1 families, 7.0 events and 1.7 source citations each day. I try to work at least an hour in the evening adding content and sources to the database, although baseball and the holidays intervene.
Consequently, this year I managed to reduce my citations per person from 1.99 to 1.98, and my citations per event from 0.636 to 0.632 this past year. I don't have a citation for every event, name or relationship, and in some cases I have more than one citation for an event, name or relationship. Obviously, I have added more profiles and events with no or only a few source citations.
2) I added 908 persons to my database in 2025 (+ 1.2%). Some are in my 4th great-grandparents' descendant lines (including lines to DNA matches with known common ancestors), some are in my one-name studies, and some are from further and ongoing research on my ancestral families. My one-name studies include Seaver (with variations Sever, Seever, Sevier and plurals), Carringer, Auble, Vaux, Dill, and Buck in my tree, and McKnew in my wife's tree.
3) I "mine" and search new Ancestry, MyHeritage, and FamilySearch databases and use RootsMagic WebHints for my ancestral and one-name study surnames, and add content and source citations. I add or correct name, relationship, date and place omissions or errors found while working on the database. I use RootsMagic to match my tree profiles to the FamilySearch Family Tree profiles, and exchange source-verified information both ways on a near-daily basis.
4) I stopped doing the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge after 10 years in 2024. I finished writing genealogical sketches for my ancestors from my parents to the 7th great-grandparents by ancestor chart numbers (although I skipped those for whom my research and/or reliable information is poor or non-existent). In 2025, I also stopped writing the 52 Relatives in 52 Weeks challenge.
5) I continued the effort in 2025 to convert current place names to historical place names as required. As an example, Medfield, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States was Medfield, Suffolk County, Massachusetts Bay Colony, British Colonial America before 1776.
6) As I write ABC Biographies, I'm taking the opportunity to refresh my Notes and Sources for my ancestors, and adding ancestor biographies, plus listing my "current thinking" to the ancestor's Note. This is a big task and I'm about 5% done (back through 7th great-grandparents).
7) I determined that I was wasting time chasing every Ancestry Hint or MyHeritage Record Match, and started writing family stories for my closest ancestral families. That is why the number of profiles, families, events and sources are lower this year than last year.
8) My conclusion is: I've made steady progress, and I'm 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 truly a lifelong task, I think! I really need a genealogy clone or assistant. I doubt that Siri, Alexa, Google Home or any other virtual assistant is yet capable of doing genealogy research, source citations, etc.; I know that Artificial Intelligence is not able to do actual research, but it can help document submitted information.
9) I updated my Genea-Musings readers on the "numbers" in my RootsMagic genealogy family tree database over the years in:
* RootsMagic Genealogy Database Statistics Update - 1 January 2025
* RootsMagic Genealogy Database Statistics Update - 1 January 2024
* RootsMagic Genealogy Database Statistics Update - 1 January 2023
* My RootsMagic Genealogy Database Statistics Update - 1 January 2022
* My RootsMagic Genealogy Database Statistics Update - 1 January 2021
* My RootsMagic Genealogy Database Statistics Update - 31 December 2019
* My RootsMagic Genealogy Database Statistics Update - 31 December 2018================================================
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