Saturday, December 30, 2017

2017 FAMILY TREE PROGRESS REPORT ~ By the numbers–How many new people? How many new events and sources?

stats for top of post
This report will cover three years, as I just realized I haven’t run a year end progress report since 2014.  Where does the time go?
 
So, what has changed in the past three years 2015, 2016 and 2017?  Let’s find out.

This is a topic that was first shared on Randy Seaver’s blog Genea-Musings.   It’s all about the statistics or numbers in your database.

If you use Legacy you can read my post from January 2014 about how to find your statistics. The method has not changed. Click here http://www.michiganfamilytrails.com/2014/01/how-to-find-your-family-statistics-in.html

One of the things I am interested in is how am I doing on my source citations?  Am I still consistently citing sources?  Or have I slacked off?
 
To accomplish this I divide the number of Citations by the Number of Individuals and come up with a percentage.

I have the previous numbers from the 2014 report and they are here.

Stats for 2014

Dividing 9719 by 4363 I come up with 222.75% citations per person.  That’s a very good number and means that for many people in my database I have more than one citation.  I’m sure for some people I don’t have any, but that’s a subject for another time.

Now let’s compare that to the end of the year report for 2017.

Since I did not run this report for 2015 or 2016, it will be interesting to see how the numbers have changed over a three year period.



These numbers tell me that I’ve made good progress over the past three years.  First let’s look at the statistic for percentage of citations per individual.  Dividing 11960 by 5374 we get 222.55% citations per person.  That’s so very close to the number back at the end of 2014. Only a difference of  – .2%.
 
What that tells me is that I haven’t been slacking off when it comes to citing my sources.  I’ve continued at a steady pace.

Now let’s look at the rest of the numbers.  How have I progressed in three years?
 Stats compare

Looks like I’ve made good progress in all areas.  Even if we divide the “difference” totals by 3 (for the number of years represented), I’m still happy with my progress.

How do you keep track of your progress?  For me, it’s not just about the number of new people I’ve added because that’s always going to go up.  But, those other statistics that tell me I’m continuing to build my tree – more unique surnames, more master locations, more master sources.

This just means I have more ancestors to write about and a whole lot more cousins to find.

Here’s to a productive 2018 for every one of us.  Whatever our goals are.

Happy hunting,
Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2017   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

2 comments:

  1. I find it interesting that your number of citations per person is basically exactly the same from 2014 to the end of 2017. You've maintained your pace. What's totally baffling me is why you are mixing in percentages. Dividing the number of citations by the number of people gives you the number of citations per person, not the percentage of citations per person. The number 9719 is 222% of the number 4363; that doesn't say anything about "per person". By the way, your number of citations per person is ahead of mine. Just checked and it's 1.65. I don't know whether that's good or bad but I know I have work to do to catch up with you!

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    Replies
    1. Dianne. Thank you for your comment. I've never been very good at math and I followed the lead of Randy Seaver on his post about this subject. So, please tell me how to figure out the number of citations per person. I'd love to know. Always like to learn new things. Happy New Year!

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I look forward to reading your comments. If you have any connection to the people mentioned in this blog, please let me know. I write about mine and my husband's ancestors and would welcome new information or meeting a new cousin or two. Thanks for visiting and come back soon.