Genea-Musings

Thursday, January 3, 2019

Selected Genealogy Website Alexa Traffic Rankings - 3 January 2019

Here are selected genealogy website traffic rankings as of 3 January 2019 from Alexa.com:

*  Ancestry.com: 1,053 (Global); 195 (USA)
*  23andme.com: 3,656 (Global); 599 (USA)
*  FamilySearch.org: 3,749 (Global); 1,186 (USA)
*  FindAGrave.com: 5,369 (Global); 1,203 (USA)
5,  MyHeritage.com: 5,473 (Global); 2,051 (USA)

*  Geneanet.org: 7,399 (Global); 314 (France)
*  Geni.com: 10,020 Global); 3,767 (USA)
* Ancestry.co.uk: 10,040 (Global); 328 (UK)
*  Newspapers.com: 11,554 (Global); 2,416 (USA)
10.  WikiTree.com: 18,627 (Global); 5,845 (USA)

*  Ancestry.ca: 23,575 (Global); 478 (Canada)
*  Ancestry.com.au: 26,217 (Global); 423 (Australia)
*  FamilyTreeDNA.com: 26,272 (Global); 8,349 (USA)
*  NewspaperARCHIVE.com: 34,246 (Global); 7,735 (USA)
15.  FamilyTreeNow.com: 36,971 (Global); 6,085 (USA)

*  GEDMatch.com: 41,126 (Global); 8,929 (USA)
*  Findmypast.co.uk: 41,435 (Global); 1,634 (UK)
*  MyHeritage.de: 46,966 (Global); 1,870 (Germany)
*  RootsWeb.com: 48,691 (Global); 11,458 (USA)
20.  MyHeritage.fr: 51,371 (Global); 1,701 (France)

*  MyHeritage.es: 53,491 (Global); 2,610 (Spain)
*  Fold3.com: 53,871 (Global); 10,389 (USA)
*  Ancestry.de: 54,917 (Global); 2,335 (Germany)
*  GenealogyBank.com: 55,791 (Global); 11,778 (USA)
25.  Genealogy.net: 60,306 (Global); 2,983 (Germany)

*  Genealogy.com: 64,024 (Global); 14,141 (USA)
*  Archives.com: 71,745 (Global); 13,625 (USA)
*  Findmypast.com: 79,815 (Global); 20,510 (USA)
*  MyHeritage.se: 82,373 (Global); 538 (Sweden)
30.  CollectionsCanada.gc.ca: 91,712 (Global); 5,051 (Canada)

*  www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk: 91,860 (Global); 6,110 (UK)
*  myheritage.com.br: 94,194 (Global); 2,845 (Brazil)
*  BillionGraves.com: 97,289 (Global); 42,309 (USA)
*  MyHeritage.pl: 104,360 (Global); 1,558 (Poland)
35.  Bac-Lac-gc.ca: 105,746 (Global); 3,217 (Canada)

*  AncientFaces.com: 114,887 (Global); 32,348 (USA)
*  genealogieonline.nl: 115,148 (Global); 55,494 (USA)
*  DAR.org: 116,551 (Global); 19,583 (USA)
*  forces-war-records.co.uk: 121,843 (Global); 8,087 (UK)
40.  JewishGen.org: 122,151 (Global); 28,453 (USA)

*  MyHeritage.no: 124,158 (Global); 584 (Norway)
*  LivingDNA.com: 124,561 (Global); 52,662 (USA)
*  libertyellisfoundation.org: 123,288 (Global); 25,620 (USA)
*  MyHeritage.nl: 128,919 (Global); 2,812 (Netherlands)
45.  CWGC.org: 133,217 (Global); 2,414 (Ireland)

*  FreeBMD.org.uk: 134,248 (Global); 9,502 (UK)
*  MyHeritage.it: 141,679 (Global); 4,092 (Italy)
*  FamilyTreeMagazine.com: 149,244 (Global); 42,430 (USA)
*  USGWArchives.net: 149,612 (Global); 30,246 (USA)
50.  GenealogyToday.com: 151,208 (Global); 82,444 (USA)

*  IrishGenealogy.ie: 151,882 (Global); 867 (Ireland)
*  GenealogyTrails.com: 156,544 (Global); 36,423 (USA)
*  MacKiev.com: 156,623 (Global); 38,128 (USA)
*  Heredis.com: 164,222 (Global); 6,129 (France)
55.  Ancestry.se: 166,293 (Global); 1,024 (Sweden)

*  Ancestry.mx: 177,151 (Global); 4,096 (Mexico)
*  ScotlandsPeople.gov.uk: 177,513 (Global); 13,012 (UK)
*  SteveMorse.org: 183,796 (Global); 48,130 (USA)
*  Genopro.com: 195,451 (Global); 124,721 (USA)
60.  Geneall.net: 199,538 (Global); 20,275 (Brazil)

*  GenUKI.org.uk: 228,975 (Global); 17,515 (UK)
*  ProGenealogists.com: 231,720 (Global); 47,284 (USA)
*  DigitalArkivet.no: 235,583 (Global); 2,197 (Norway)
*  DNA.LAND: 245,844 (Global); 60,454 (USA)
65.  FamilyTreeWebinars.com: 253,863 (Global); 110,474 (USA)

*  Ancestry.fr: 254,029 (Global); 11,422 (France)
*  RootsChat.com: 250,176 (global); 19,412 (UK)
*  ISOGG.org: 255,790 (Global); 89,618 (USA)
*  TribalPages.com: 266,582 (Global); 94,051 (USA)
70.  LegacyFamilyTree.com: 275,727 (Global); 116,063 (USA)

*  HistoricMapWorks.com: 275,963 (Global); 60,000 (USA)
*  AccessGenealogy.com: 278,427 (Global); 68,844 (USA)
*  FamilyHistoryDaily.com: 281,404 (Global); 88,275 (USA)
*  ObituariesHelp.org: 282,878 (Global); 122,978 (USA)
75.  CyndisList.com: 290,293 (Global); 106,231 (USA)

*  AmericanAncestors.org: 298,997 (Global); 80,742 (USA)
*  DNAPainter.com: 301,946 (Global); 92,259 (USA)
*  RootsMagic.com: 307,892 (Global); 81,137 (USA)
*  Ancestry.it: 314,004 (Global); 23,120 (Italy)
80.  Interment.net: 320,760 (Global); 79,991 (USA)

*  GenesReunited.co.uk: 325,695 (Global); 15,928 (UK)
*  Genoom.com: 332,873 (Global); 56,743 (Brazil)
*  Forever.com: 337,223 (Global); 85,813 (USA)
*  TheGenealogist.co.uk: 349,384 (Global); 21,636 (UK)
85.  RootsIreland.ie: 349,692 (Global); 133,448 (USA)

*  MyRelatives.com: 366,466 (Global); 75,276 (USA)
* FultonHistory.com: 375,798 (Global); 49,094 (USA)
*  FamilyTree.com: 381,078 (Global); 95,408 (USA)
*  DeathIndexes.com: 396,954 (Global); 92,534 (USA)
90.  Findmypast.ie: 398,656 (Global); 6,053 (Ireland)

* WieWasWie.nl: 410,013 (Global); 131,239 (USA)
*  NewspaperObituaries.net: 467,419 (Global); 6,031 (Australia)
*  Famicity.com: 468,331 (Global); 21,663 (France)
* Findmypast.com.au: 484,974 (Global); 16,007 (Australia)
95. Arkivverket.no: 504,045 (Global); 6,270 (Norway)

*  GenealogyInTime.com: 528,086 (Global); 92,966 (USA)
*  LDSGenealogy.com: 598,348 (Global); 170,424 (USA)
*  TheDNAGeek.com: 611,088 (Global); 158,967 (USA)
*  LegacyTree.com: 684,006 (Global); 316,074 (USA)
100.  OliveTreeGenealogy.com: 700,278 (Global); 195,166 (USA)

*  Genealogie.com: 701,271 (Global);
*  DutchGenealogy.nl: 793,173 (Global); 421,550 (USA)
*  DNAGedcom.com: 799,971 (Global); 125,748 (USA)
*  NGSGenealogy.org: 957,396 (Global); 208,844 (USA)
*  NewYorkFamilyHistory.org: 978,669 (Global); 396,499 (USA)

*  MyTrees.com: 1,010,850 (Global); 193,026 (USA)
*  APGen.org: 1,041,372 (Global); 286,719 (USA)
*  GenealogyCenter.info: 1,058,922 (Global); 203,513 (USA)
*  One-Name.org: 1,066,029 (Global)
*  Genealogists.com: 1,189,321 (Global); 358,098 (USA)

*  Puzzilla.org: 1,289,739 (Global); 403,970 (USA)
*  Family-Historian.co.uk: 1,329,775 (Global)
*  AncQuest.com: 1,337,087 (Global);
* RandyMajors.com: 1,387,451 (Global); 331,123 (USA)
*  BCGCertification.org: 1,434,305 (Global); 299,896 (USA)

*  OneGreatFamily.com: 1,447,657 (Global); 477,496 (USA)
*  USGenWeb.org: 1,572,665 (Global); 276,388 (USA)
*  GenSoftReviews.com: 1,686,377 (Global)
*  ReclaimtheRecords.org: 1,722,757 (Global); 306,315 (USA)
*  WorldGenWeb.org: 1,746,843 (Global)

*  TamuraJones.net: 1,796,243 (Global)
*  Moughty.com: 2,331,551 (Global)
*  FGS.org: 2,518,644 (Global)
*  FamilyChartMasters.com: 2,959,152 (Global)

Selected Blog Website Traffic Rankings as of 3 January 2019 (Alexa):

*  DNA-eXplained.com: 287,609 (Global); 86,413 (USA)
*  KittyCooper.com: 297,074 (Global); 56,521 (USA)
*  EOGN.com: 435,688 (Global); 146,115 (USA)
*  MyDescendantsAncestors.com: 477,806 (Global); 102,339 (USA)
*  TheGeneticGenealogist.com: 534,084 (Global); 163,026 (USA)

*  AncestralFindings.com: 570,554 (Global); 112,085 (USA)
*  LisaLouiseCooke.com: 639,597 (Global); 183,012 (USA)
*  DutchGenealogy.nl/blog/: 793,173 (Global); 421,550 (USA)
*  TheAncestorHunt.com: 863,048 (Global); 300,573 (USA)
*  Anglo-Celtic-Connections.blogspot.com: 866,628 (Global); 24,847 (Canada)

*  AmyJohnsonCrow.com: 992,891 (Global); 207,006 (USA)
*  AbundantGenealogy.com: 1,063,201 (Global); 413,214 (USA)
*  GenealogyBargains.com: 1,068,045 (Global); 472,055 (USA)*  LegalGenealogist.com: 1,126,577 (Global); 312,936 (USA)
*  GeneabloggersTribe.com: 1,230,864 (Global); 200,225 (USA)

*  GenealogyTipOfTheDay.com: 1,612,302 (Global)
*  GenealogyBlog.com: 1,626,763 (Global); 506,811 (USA)
*  GeneaMusings.com: 1,629,071 (Global); 445,233 (USA)*  TheFamilyCurator.com: 1,848,599 (Global)
*  Vita-Brevis.org: 1,938,197 (Global)*  TheInDepthGenealogist.com: 2,006,189 (Global)
* FamilyHistoryFanatics.com: 2,793,536 (Global)
*  GenealogysStar.blogspot.com: 2,840,927 (Global); 398,385 (USA)

I worked off a previous list, and added some of my favorites. I cut the lists off at 3 million in Global rankings. Some of the U.S. listings did not provide a USA ranking for some reason. Some sites, especially blogs, suffer in rankings because some of their traffic is from email readers or news reader feeds.

Alexa describes their metrics as:

"Our global traffic rank is a measure of how a website is doing relative to all other sites on the web over the past 3 months. The rank is calculated using a proprietary methodology that combines a site's estimated average of daily unique visitors and its estimated number of pageviews over the past 3 months. We provide a similar country-specific ranking, which is a measurement of how a website ranks in a particular country relative to other sites over the past month."

I know I have not listed every genealogy website or blog that exists with less than a 3 million Global ranking. I may have missed some that are relatively high ranking. If you have a favorite not on the list, please let me know in a Comment to this post. I will add it if the Global ranking is less than 3 million.

Last Updated: 3 January 2019

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The URL for this post is: https://www.geneamusings.com/2019/01/selected-genealogy-website-traffic.html

Copyright (c) 2019, 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.

Treasure Chest Thursday - 1800 U.S. Census for Rudolph Spangler in York, Pennsylvania

It's Treasure Chest Thursday - a chance to look in my digital image files to see what treasures I can find for my family history and genealogy musings.

The treasure today is the 1800 U.S. Census record for Rudolph Spangler in York, York County, Pennsylvania:

The Rudolph Spangler census entry is on the top page on the image above, between Jacob Spangler and Jesse Spangler:

The data extracted from this record is:

Head of household: Rudolph Spangler

* one male aged between 10 and 16 [perhaps son Peter Spangler born in 1786]

* one male aged between 26 and 45 [perhaps son Daniel Spangler born in 1781]

* one male over age 45 [certainly Rudolph Spangler, age 62 in 1800]

* two females aged 10 to 16 [probably daughters Helen Dorothea Spangler born in 1789 and Mary Margaret Spangler born in 1784]

* one female over age 45 [certainly wife Dorothea Dinkel Spangler, age 52 in 1800]

The source citation for this record is:

1800 United States Federal Census, York County, Pennsylvania, population schedule, York, Page 1292, Rudolph Spangler household; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com); citing National Archives Microfilm Publication M32, Roll 44.

Jacob spangler and Jesse spangler, who are above and below Rudolph Spangler on the census record, are sons of Rudolph Spangler with their own families in 1800.

Rudolph Spangler (1738-1811) was my 4th great-grandfather, who married Maria Dorothea Dinkel (1748-1835) in 1767 in York, Pennsylvania and they had ten children between 1767 and 1789.

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The URL for this post is: https://www.geneamusings.com/2019/01/treasure-chest-thursday-1800-us-census.html

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.

Wednesday, January 2, 2019

MyHeritage Celebrates a Busy 2018! What's Coming in 2019?

In the MyHeritage Blog post "Goodbye 2018… Welcome 2019!" yesterday, MyHeritage highlighted their new, exciting and improved features of their company at the end of 2018. The opening paragraph noted:

"2018 was an exceptional year here at MyHeritage. We continued to innovate, and released new and exciting features, many in response to requests from the community, and we enjoyed significant growth of family trees, historical records, and DNA kits in our database. We improved important aspects of our family history platform and upped our genetic genealogy game to help people better understand how they are related to their DNA Matches. Most of all, we are proud that we were able to reunite countless families through our DNA Matches and family history discoveries and to change their lives in a meaningful way."

They also provided a graphic with statistics at the end of 2018:

After a month-by-month review of the highlights of the MyHeritage year, they added a list of the new MyHeritage record collections added or updated in 2018, a list of the heartwarming family reunions achieved through MyHeritageDNA, and popular MyHeritage presentations on Family Tree Webinars.

I am looking forward to two of the new features that are not yet available to all MyHeritage users at this time:

* The "Theory of Family Relativity" BIG Tree announced at RootsTech 2018 and mentioned at the November 2018 MyHeritage Live 2019 conference. As described, this has major promise for autosomal DNA match testers who haven't done much genealogy work and have no tree or a small tree.

* The "FamilySearch Tree Sync" feature which is only available to LDS church members (discussed in the MyHeritage blog post) - hopefully, it will be made available to all MyHeritage Tree owners.

What's coming in 2019? I don't have know...but will make some guesses:

* More genealogy record collections

* More DNA ethnicity and analysis tool improvements, and lots more DNA Quest and celebrity DNA family reunions

* More Family Tree Webinars, with regular MyHeritage contributions

* The "Theory of Family Relativity" BIG Tree appears - perhaps using the Geni.com World Tree as a starting point

* Legacy Family Tree 10 software integration with MyHeritage trees.

* Some total surprises that will knock my socks off!

What other 2019 features and highlights do you foresee? What would you like to see from MyHeritage? Tell me in Comments.

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Disclosure: I receive a complimentary subscription to MyHeritage, and gave received other material consideration in past years. I uploaded my autosomal DNA raw data to their DNA product. This does not affect my objective analysis of MyHeritage products.

The URL for this post is:

Bridesmaids at a 1940 San Diego Wedding -- Post 547 of (Not So) Wordless Wednesday

Several months ago, I discovered an envelope of small photographs saved when my mother died in 2002 - it was hiding in plain sight in the Genea-Cave!

Included in the photo cache was this oldie-but-goodie - my mother, Betty Carringer and two friends as bridesmaids in a wedding party photo in 1940:

This photo was taken in front of a home in San Diego, probably on 8 September 1940. The three beautiful young ladies are bridesmaids Virginia Seifert, Betty Carringer and Eleanor Steddom at the wedding of Richard and Phyllis (Baldwin) Tazelaar.

Richard Tazelaar and Phyllis Baldwin were married on 8 September 1940 in San Diego. Phyllis, and the other two bridesmaids, was a friend, classmate and sorority sister with my mother at San Diego State from 1937 to 1940. The Tazelaars were lifelong friends of my parents and Dick was "Officer Tazelaar" in charge of the Safety Patrol at Brooklyn Elementary School when I attended there. He was my boss!

My grandfather or someone in the wedding party probably took this photograph.

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The URL for this post is: https://www.geneamusings.com/2019/01/bridesmaids-at-1940-san-diego-wedding.html

Tuesday, January 1, 2019

Randy's Autosomal DNA Ethnicity and Match List Summary - 1 January 2019

I'm starting a new blog series for my DNA ethnicity and autosomal DNAMatch numbers - it will likely be a quarterly list so that I can keep up with it. And keep with the science.

For reference purposes, my perceived genealogical ancestry, based on where my ancestors in each line resided in 1500 CE (this had to be an educated guess!) are:

* 68% British Isles
* 24% Germany/Switzerland
* 1% Holland/Belgium
* 1% France
* 6% Unknown (perhaps some are French, Dutch, Scandinavian, Belgian, English, Native American, or other places)

Here are the DNA testing and analysis companies I have tested with to date, along with ethnicity, number of matches, and the analysis tools that help me understand what I have.

1) AncestryDNA

I tested with Ancestry DNA in 2011. The most recent ethnicity estimate (September 2018) is:

* England, Wales and Northwestern Europe 84 %
* Norway 13 %
* Ireland and Scotland 3 %

I have 314 Shared Ancestors, 1068 4th cousins or closer, and 957 pages (over 47,800 matches) with at least 6 cM. I have 23 DNA Circles. I have 17 matches that are third cousins or closer, and 105 matches with 34 cM (0.5%) or more. My highest match shares 779 cM (11.5%) with me, and is one of my known Seaver first cousins.

In the past year, I have added more Notes to all of my shared ancestors, added the MedBetter DNA Chrome extension to show my Notes, used the GeneticAffairs program to download my AutoClusters for matches between 20 cMs and 900 cMs, and started an Excel spreadsheet of my closest DNA matches since AncestryDNA does not provide a chromosome browser. In addition, I have created about 10 "quick and dirty" trees to one of my Ancestry Member Trees in an effort to find common ancestors with matches who have small or unlinked Ancestry trees.

2) MyHeritageDNA

I uploaded my raw DNA to MyHeritage in 2017. The most recent ethnicity estimate is:

* North and West European: 64.7%
* English: 34.2%
* Central American: 1.1%

I have 5,362 DNA Matches on MyHeritage with at least 8 cM (0.12%), with 39 matches with more than 34 cM (0.5%). I have three close relatives, including a first cousin once removed, and two first cousins twice removed. The highest DNA match is 512 cM (7.1%).

In the past year, I have downloaded all of my DNA Match Shared Segments and used a spreadsheet to sort them by chromosome number and start location. I have started adding Notes to my highest matches.

3) FamilyTreeDNA

I tested my autosomal DNA with FamilyTreeDNA in 2011. The most recent ethnicity estimate is:

* British Isles 90 %
* Southeast Europe: 6 %
* West Middle East: < 2 %
* Oceania: < 1 %
* North and Central America: < 1 %
* Finland: < 1 %

I have 2,902 autosomal DNA Matches on FamilyTreeDNA who share 0.25% (18 cM) or more, have 12 who share at least 1.0% (68 cM) with me, and 1,566 who share at least 0.50% (34 cM) or more with me. The closest match is 96 cM and I don't know the cousin relationship.

In the past year, I have downloaded all of my DNA Match Shared Segments and used a spreadsheet to sort them by chromosome number and start location.

4) 23andMe

I tested with 23andMe in 2011. My current ethnicity estimate is:

* British and Irish: 47.9 %
* French and German: 26.0 %
* Broadly Northwestern European: 21.0 %
* Scandinavian: 2.0 %
* Broadly Southern European: 1.3 %
* Broadly European: 1.1 %
* Native American: 0.4 %
* Broadly East Asian and Native American: 0.1 %
* North African and Arabian: 0.1 %

I have 1,033 DNA Relatives on 23andMe who share at least 0.10% (7 cM) with me. Of these, only 4 share 1.0% or more, and 54 share 0.50% or more. The highest match is adoptee who shares 1.54%. The two closest known relatives are third cousins.

In the past year, I have downloaded all of my DNA Match Shared Segments and used a spreadsheet to sort them by chromosome number and start location.

5) Living DNA

I uploaded my raw DNA Living DNA in 2016. My current ethnicity estimate is:

* South Central England 21.0 %
* Central England 18.6 %
* South England 18.5 %
* East Anglia 10.1 %
* Devon 8.5 %
* Cumbria 2.5 %
* Northumbria 1.7 %
* Southeast England 1.1 %
* Great Britain and Ireland (unassigned) 4.1 %
* Finland and Western Russia 4.3 %
* Scandinavia 2.8 %
* Europe (unassigned) 6.6 %

I have no DNA Matches in my Family Network to date.

6) GEDmatch

I uploaded my raw DNA data to GEDmatch in about 2013.

I have 30 autosomal DNA matches with more than 34 cM (0.50%). The highest match is 86.8 cM and is a known third cousin. I have one X-DNA match with 29.3 cM and I can't find a common ancestor.

I have examined my autosomal DNA matches and see some that are from Ancestry.com, MyHeritage, FamilyTreeDNA and 23andMe. For the Ancestry matches, I have compared their matching chromosome segment data to mine using the chromosome browser. I have not used any of the Tier 1 (paid) tools to date.

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The URL for this post is: https://www.geneamusings.com/2019/01/randys-autosomal-dna-ethnicity-and.html

Copyright (c) 2018, 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.

GenSoftReviews Users Choice Awards for 2018 announced

I received this information from Louis Kessler, the creator of GenSoftReviews.com:

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GenSoftReviews Users Choice Awards for 2018 announced

Genealogists use GenSoftReviews.com as a site to rate and review their genealogy software and to look for new software based on other people’s reviews. The site opened in 2008 and has received over 5,200 program reviews and ratings for the over 1,000 programs that are listed.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 1, 2019

The 10th annual Users Choice Awards have been tabulated and awarded at the GenSoftReviews website.

During 2018, there were 410 new reviews given to 83 of the programs listed at GenSoftReviews. Along with the review, users rated the programs from 1 to 5 star, with 5 being best. Programs with at least one review in 2018, ten or more all-time reviews, and a cumulative user rating of at least 4.00 stars out of 5 receive a GenSoftReviews User Choice Award for 2018. The award is indicative that a program is well-liked by its users.

The 24 programs awarded a GenSoftReview Users Choice Award as a Top Rated Genealogy Software for 2018 are:

* 13 Windows programs: Family Historian, Ahnenblatt, Personal Ancestral File, Generations, Family Book Creator, Brother’s Keeper, Relatively Yours, Ancestral Quest, Family Tree Maker (up to Version 16), Clooz, RootsMagic, Oxy-gen and Family Tree Builder

* 2 Mac programs: iFamily for Mac, and Reunion

* 4 programs that work on Windows, Mac and Unix: Evidentia, rootstrust, Familienbande, and Ancestris

* 5 Online programs: Famberry, The Next Generation, Genealogie Online, webtrees, and MyHeritage

The highest rated programs for 2018 were iFamily for Mac and Evidentia, both with a near-perfect 4.99 out of 5, Famberry with 4.95 and Family Historian with 4.91.

New to the list of winners for 2018 was rootstrust, a full-featured program for Windows, Mac and Unix, and Oxy-gen, a Windows program to convert GEDCOM files into other formats. Returning to the list this year is Clooz who has regained a rating above 4.

One award winner from 2017 that fell below 4 and dropped off the list this year was The Master Genealogist. Three award winners from 2017 did not get at least one review in 2018 and therefore did not qualify for a Users Choice Award this year. They are: Heredis for Mac, GenealogyJ, and Ages.

Several unsupported programs are still thought of highly enough by their users that they won an award in 2018. These include: Personal Ancestral File, Generations, Relatively Yours, and Family Tree Maker up to Version 16.

Six programs have been GenSoftReviews User Choice Award winners in all 10 years since the awards began in 2009. They are: The Next Generation, Personal Ancestral File, Brother’s Keeper, RootsMagic, Reunion and Family Tree Builder.

GenSoftReviews uses a time-weighted average score. The weight of every user rating is reduced 50% every year, so newer opinions will be better reflected in the overall average score. It is hoped that the reviews and ratings submitted will help genealogists who are looking for new software and help developers who want to improve their programs.

For more information and a complete listing of current and past winners, see the Users Choice Award Winners page at GenSoftReviews.

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About Louis Kessler

Louis Kessler has been a genealogist, lecturer and programmer for over 40 years. He developed and runs the GenSoftReviews site. He is also the author of the genealogy program Behold available at www.beholdgenealogy.com and the DNA analysis program Double Match Triangulator available at www.doublematchtriangulator.com

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The URL for this post is: https://www.geneamusings.com/2019/01/gensoftreviews-users-choice-awards-for.html

Copyright (c) 2019, 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.

Genealogy Industry Benchmark Numbers for 1 January 2019

I'm still a "numbers guy" and like to try to keep track of various numbers in the genealogy world. So this is a list of genealogy numbers as of 1 January 2019. See the last six year's numbers at:

*  Genealogy Industry Benchmark Numbers for 1 January 2018
*  Genealogy Industry Benchmark Numbers for 1 January 2017
*  Genealogy Industry Benchmark Numbers for 1 January 2016
*  Genealogy Industry Benchmark Numbers for 1 January 2015
*  Genealogy Industry Benchmark Numbers for 1 January 2014
*  1 January 2013 Benchmark Numbers
*  1 January 2012 Benchmark Numbers

1) Ancestry.com (various, $$)

* about 3.0+ million paying subscribers (2018: 2.7+ million; 2017: about 2.4 million; 2016: 2.243 million; 2015: 2.125 million; 2014: 2.175 million; 2013: about 2.0 million; 2012: about 1.7 million)
* over 10 million people DNA tested (2018: 7 million; 2017: 2.5 million)
* 32,673 Databases in the Card Catalog (2018: 32,913; 2017: 32,795; 2016: 32,467; 2015: 32,529; 2014: 31,477; 2013: 31,322; 2012: 30,482; 2011: 30,006)
* over 20 billion records (2018: over 20 billion; 2017: over 19 billion)
* about 100 million family trees with over 11 billion profiles (2018: about 90 million, over 10 billion profiles; 2017: about 80 million trees, over 8 billion profiles; 2016: 70 million trees, over 6 billion profiles; 2015: 60 million trees, over 6 billion profiles; 2014: 55 million trees, over 5 billion profiles; 2013: 29 million trees, over 3 billion profiles)
* 1,895,402,213 persons in Public Member Trees (2018: same as 2017; 2017: same as 2016; 2016: same as 2015; 2015: same as 2014; 2014; same as 2013; 2013: 2,147,483,647; 2012: 1,838,295,985; 2011: 1,263,587,509)
* 1,560,284,681 persons in Private Member Trees (2018: 1,505,901,531; 2017: 1,390,621,205; 2016: 1,193,868,492; 2015; 1,060,127,515; 2014: 824,470,052; 2013: 619,560,089; 2012: 448,817,254; 2011: 308,674,051)
* 1 billion daily searches monthly
* 17 million app downloads (2017: 16 million)

2) FamilySearch.org (various, free) - Updated 2 January 2019

* over 11.8 million registered users (2018: 8.9 million; 2017: 7.4 million)
* 157.8 million FamilySearch.org website visitors (2018: 134 million)
* 2,411 Historical Record Collections online (2018: 2,279; 2017: 2,180; 2016: 2054; 2015: 2019; 2014: 1699; 2013: 1,413; 2012: 1,000; 2011: 519)
* 88,880 Research Wiki articles (2018: 86,948; 2017: 84,801; 2016: 82,874; 2015: 82,120; 2014: 75,809; 2013: 70,171; 2012: 65,815; 2011: 46,002)
* more than 350,000 digitized Books (2018: 352,963)
* 122 million indexed records added in year (2018: 283 million; 2017: 274.8 million; 2016: 110 million)
* 300 million new record images
* 5.8 billion searchable records (2018: 5.84 billion; 2017: 5.57 billion; 2016: 5.31 billion)
* 1.21 billion profiles in FamilySearch Family Tree (2018: 1.2 billion; 2017: 1.1 billion; 2016: 1.1 billion; 2015: 1.1 billion; 2014: 1.0 billion)
* 1.2 billion total sources
* 2.5 billion total Hints * more than 31 million Memories (photos, documents, stories) in FamilySearch Family Tree (2018: 22.7 million; 2017: 14.6 million; 2016: 9.0 million; 2015: 4.9 million; 2013: 1.8 million)

3) MyHeritage.com (separate trees, $$)

* 6,559 record collections (2018: 6,523)
* 9.50 billion historical records (2018: 8.43 billion; 2017: 7.166 billion; 2016: 6.362 billion)
* 3.101 billion individuals in MyHeritage family trees (2018: 2.615 billion; 2017: 2.147 billion; 2016: 1.666 billion; 2015: 1.412 billion; 2014: over 1.5 billion; 2013: 1.5 billion; 2012: 906,702,547; 2011: 645,780,280)
* 2.4 million MyHeritageDNA testers (2018: over 1 million)

4) FindMyPast.com (records, $$)

* over 8 billion family history records (2018: over 8 billion; 2017: over 2.0 billion; 2016: over 2.0 billion; 2015: over 2.0 billion; 2014: 1.6 billion; 2013: about 750 million; 2012: about 750 million)
* 1,125 United Kingdom/Ireland databases (2018: 991; 2017: 884; 2016: 796; 2015: 581; 2014: 450)
* 369 Australasia databases (2018: 354; 2017: 347; 2016: 318; 2015: 269; 2014: 276)
* 706 U.S.and Canada databases (2018: 423; 2017: 828; 2016: 655; 2015: 558; 2014: 45)

5) Archives.com (records, $$)

* 658 collections (2018: 658; 2017: 462; 2016: 321; 2015: 508; 2014: 456; 2013: 321; 2012: 268; 2011: 140)
* over 11 billion records (2018: over 7.4 billion; 2017: over 4.8 billion; 2016: over 4.3 billion; 2015: over 4 billion; 2014: 2.6 billion; 2013: over 2.5 billion; 2012: over 1.5 billion; 2011: 1,158,738,805)

6) Fold3.com (records, $$)

* 546 titles of original documents (2018: 272; 2017: 490; 2016: 469; 2015: 445; 2014: 434)
* 537,858,518 total records (2018: 522,713,889; 2017: 484,438,036; 2016: 468,250,775; 2015: 437,779,797; 2014: 426,351,717)

7) AmericanAncestors.org (records, $$)

* 424 online collections (2018: 455; 2017: 462; 2016: 441; 2015: almost 400)
* 30 journals and periodicals digitized (2018: 30; 2017: 30)
* 1.4 billion records (2018: 1.4 billion)

8) Rootsweb.com (free)

* 836,651,652 persons in WorldConnect family trees (2018: down; 2017: 814,875,115; 2016: 782,758,954; 2015: 751,736,012; 2014: 723,773,068; 2013: 698,798,164; 2012: 667,438,708; 2011: 630,984,813 )
* 448,679 WorldConnect databases (2018: down; 2017: 445,984; 2016: 443,388; 2015: 442,391; 2014: 440,417; 2013: 437,989; 2012: 434,729; 2011: 430,030)

9) CyndisList.com (links, free)

* 337,047 genealogy links (2018: 336,733; 2017: 332,188; 2016: 333,949; 2015: 295,359; 2014: 329,378; 2013: 325,819; 2012: 309,467; 2011: 291,330)

10) Linkpendium.com (links, free)

* 10,192,456 genealogy links (2018: 10,406,176; 2017: 10,161,620; 2016: 10,400,108; 2015: 10,377,437; 2014: 10,212,253; 2013: 10,049,723; 2012: 9,948,990; 2011: 9,239,987)

11)  FindAGrave.com (records, free):

* over 170 million memorials (2018: over 158 million; 2017: over 154 million; 2016: over 138 million; 2015: over 121 million; 2014: over 110 million; 2013: over 91 million; 2012: over 73 million)

12)  BillionGraves.com (records, free):

* over 26.6 million grave records (2017: over 19.9 million; 2016: over 18.2 million; 2015: 10.3 million; 2014: over 5.3 million)

13) GenealogyBank.com (records, $$)

* over 9,000 newspapers (2018: over 8,700; 2017: over 7,000; 2016: over 7,000; 2015: over 6,500; 2014: over 6,500; 2013: over 6,400; 2012: 5,800; 2011: 4,600)
* over 2 billion articles (2018: over 2.109 billion; 2017: over 2.109 billion; 2016: over 1.929 billion; 2015: over 1.727 billion; 2014: over 1.528 billion; 2013: over 1.365 billion; 2012: over 1 billion; 2011: 700 million)
* over 250 million obituaries (2018: over 250 million; 2017: 230 million; 2016: 228 million; 2015: 215 million; 2014: 215 million)

14)  ChroniclingAmerica.loc.gov (records, free):

* 2,685 digitized newspapers (2018: 2,469)
* 14,467,889 newspaper pages available (2018: 12,523,789; 2017: 11,505,288; 2016: 10,292,163; 2015: 8,831,604; 2014: 6,673,511; 2013: 5,206,652; 2012: 4,540,417)

15)  Newspapers.com (records, $$)

* 11,200+ digitized newspapers (2018: 6,001; 2017: 4,437; 2016: 3,714; 2015: over 3,400; 2014: over 200)
* 457,960,747 total pages (2018: 337,263,531; 2017: 226,068,997)

16)  NewspaperARCHIVE.com (records, $$):

* 10,465+ newspaper titles (2018: 8,528; 2017: over 7,631; 2016: 7,395; 2015: over 6,200; 2014: over 5,000)

17) Old Fulton New York Postcards (records, free)

* over 44 million newspaper pages.

18) Geni.com (shared tree, $$)

* 279.8 million profiles in family trees (2018: 268.9 million; 2017: 166.9 million; 2016: 153.9 million; 2015: 144.1 million; 2014: 131 million; 2013: over 100 million; 2012: over 100 million)
* 121 million profiles in Geni's World Family Tree (2018: 118.2 million; 2017: 111.8 million; 2016: 99.0 million; 2015: 83.1 million; 2014: over 70 million; 2013: over 65 million; 2012: 60,629,166)

19) WeRelate.org wiki (shared tree, free)

* over 2.9 million persons in family tree (2018: over 2.8 million; 2017: over 2.75 million; 2016: over 2.692 million; 2015: over 2.655 million; 2014: over 2.3 million; 2013: over 2.3 million; 2012: over 2 million)

20)  WikiTree.com wiki (shared tree, free)

* 582,304 WikiTreers (2018: 481,487; 2017: 389,466; 2016: 288,943; 2015: 233,297; 2014: over 80,000; 2013: 57,000; 2012: 43,000)
* 19,233,338 profiles (2018: 16,056,346; 2017: 12,907,762; 2016: 11,268,773; 2015: 8,835,233; 2014: over 5.3 million; 2013: 4.2 million; 2012: 2.9 million)

21)  GeneaNet.org (separate trees, $$)

* 950,000 family trees (2018: 850,000)
* 3 million members (2018: 2 million; 2017: 2 million; 2016: 2 million; 2015: 2 million; 2014: 2 million)
* 5.5 billion profiles in online family trees (2018: over 5 billion; 2017: over 4 billion; (2016: over 4 billion; 2015: over 1.9 billion; 2014: over 650 million)

22)  OneGreatFamily.com (shared tree, $$)

* Over 249.5 million names (2018: 248.6 million; 2017: over 190 million; 2016: over 190 million)

23)  FamilyTreeDNA.com (DNA, $$):

* ?~ 1 million DNA test results (2018: ????; 2017: ????; 2016: ????; 2015: 707,017; 2014: 663,523; 2013: 401,057)

24)  23andme.com (DNA, $$):

* ~ 5 million genotyped customers (2018: ????; 2017: ????; 2016: over 1.0 million; 2015: over 750,000; 2014: about 500,000)

25) FamilyTreeWebinars.com (Webinars, $$)

* 838 webinars in archives

I obtained these numbers from publicly available information on the websites. Several sites have not updated their numbers, or have hidden the numbers.

There are many free and subscription websites that do not publish easily findable numbers.

What other websites and what other numbers should I be benchmarking? Are some of the numbers wrong? Please tell me in Comments and I will edit the list above!

Last UPDATED: 5 January 2019

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The URL for this post is: https://www.geneamusings.com/2019/01/genealogy-industry-benchmark-numbers.html

Copyright (c) 2019, 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.

Happy New Year! Let's Make 2019 A Great Year!

I want to wish all of my readers a very Happy New Year for 2019.

May 2019 bring you happiness, good health, many friends, lots of love and more time to pursue your genealogy addiction passion.

May you complete all of your genealogy and family history goals and objectives (you do have them, don't you?) and may extra genea-blessings be provided to you! Have fun!!!

Stay tuned to Genea-Musings for more genealogy fireworks in 2019!!!

I see I have a new reader:

Hey, don't blame me, I'm not his cousin!

Let's sing the song:

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The URL for this post is: https://www.geneamusings.com/2019/01/happy-new-year-lets-make-2019-great-year.html

Copyright (c) 2019, 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.