2019 YEAR END FAMILY TREE PROGRESS REPORT ~ By the numbers–A comparison of the past 6 years of my research

As a year and a decade draw to a close, how has my family tree changed?

I began writing my blog in 2010, but it languished until I got serious in 2013.  It wasn’t until the end of 2014 that I began looking at the statistics and charting my progress

Our ultimate goal is to find ancestors.  It’s never about how many people we can add to our tree, but more about being sure we have done our work in verifying and sourcing.  We never want to leave false information for our descendants.

However, that being said, we can look at various statistics and come to a conclusion about whether we are doing our work well.

Let’s take a quick look at a comparison of my statistics from year end 2014 and year end 2019.  This will cover 6 years of research: 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019.

CLICK ON ANY IMAGE TO ENLARGE IT

2014 and 2019

What I can see from the comparison of my Legacy database over 6 years are the following changes.

I’m pleased with my progress.  I’m not just willy nilly adding people to my database, but slowly growing my tree by about 363 people per year.  My source list is fairly steady, as I’ve created many Master Sources and rarely have to add to my list.  I’m pleased to see that I’m adding Events on a regular basis.  This means I’m adding to a person or family story by creating events based on census records, city directories, obituaries, military information etc. 

• How have you done over the past few years or even the past year? 
• Are you happy with your progress? 
• What would you like to accomplish this next year?

HERE ARE MY GENEALOGY GOALS FOR 2020

• Continue to blog about our family and share their stories
• To once and for all break down my two biggest, long standing brick walls
• To become better at reading DNA results and connecting the dots
• To have a great time at Rootstech 2020 in February
• To continue to occasionally teach classes and help others grow their family tree
• To finish the small box of scanning that’s been in my office for several years
• To continue to enjoy what started as a hobby and has now become a passion for me

Here’s to a year full of genealogical breakthroughs and fun!

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2019   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

2018 YEAR END FAMILY TREE PROGRESS REPORT ~ By the numbers–How many new people? How many new events and sources?

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.  How well did we actually do in our research of family?
2018 is quickly drawing to a close.  Each year I take a look back at my Legacy database to see how my family tree has progressed.  
To get to your statistics report in Legacy go to the Help tab>About Legacy and click on General.

• Have I added more people? Although that isn’t my primary goal.
• Have I kept up with citing my sources?
• How about events?  Have I continued to enter events for ancestors lives?
• Am I continuing to add media to my tree?

I’ve run this year’s report and here is how it looks.



Let’s go back to the 2017 year end report and see what that looked like.



I see that I have 508 more people in my tree.  That’s an addition of 1.4 people per day.  Since I don’t work on my tree each and every day, that’s not bad.

How about citations?  Have I continued to be diligent about adding sources to the items I am entering, census, vital records, newspaper articles etc.?

By dividing the citations by the number of individuals you come up with a percentage.  Last year that percentage was 222.5%.  This year for 2018 the percentage is 213.7%.  That’s a drop of 8.8%.  I believe this is the first year in 5 years that my citations have dropped.  What this means is that I’ve gotten lazy.  I add people and events and I’m not citing them like I used to.  For me it’s vitally important that what I put into my tree, be verified by sources and those sources MUST be cited. Legacy makes it so easy and I’ve been doing it for years, so I have no excuse.

Let’s take a look back 5 years and see what’s happened in my tree. 
Here’s the year end report from December 2013. (Aren’t these some ugly colors I was using back than?)



Here’s a comparison table of 5 years of work on my family tree.



In these 5 years I’ve added about 360 people per year to my tree.  That’s an average of just under 1 person per day.  This means I’m discovering new families.  How many new families?  According to the stats I am adding about 128 families per year.  The largest jump I see is the number of times I have linked media to events in my tree.  I will admit to being a media junkie.  I want the visual proof of what I record.  Whether it’s a marriage register, a page from a book, a draft card, pension card or census report.  I like to add that image to my tree.
 
The question for me is, what are my goals for 2019? 

• Definitely to increase my citation percentage and quit being lazy about citing sources
• To continue to add individuals and families to my tree
• To go back and look at some of the families I haven’t looked at in a while
• To continue to blog about my journey
• To keep attending conferences, seminars and classes to increase my knowledge
• To break down a couple of brick walls I’ve had for over 15 years

That sounds like enough goals to keep me out of trouble in the coming year.  LOL!

What are your goals for 2019?  I’d love to hear about them.  Perhaps you’ll mention something I’ve missed and inspire me.  Are we cousins?  Maybe we can work together on our goals?  I love collaboration.

I wish you the greatest of success in your research in the coming year.

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2018   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

2018 - A NEW YEAR AND NEW ADVENTURES ~ What’s on my genea-calendar this year? What’s on yours?

There are lots of reasons to turn the calendar pages and look forward to a new year.  It’s kind of like the clock starts over and we can begin again.  Whether we have personal goals or research goals we always seem to be rejuvenated by a new year.

I’m excited about the coming year and the events revolving around genealogy.

Here’s what’s coming up for this blogger during 2018.

JANUARY 13 – Attending the San Diego Genealogical Society seminar featuring Blaine Bettinger and all his knowledge about DNA.  I’ve heard Blaine speak before and can’t wait to hear him again. If you live in the area and can make it to this seminar, I highly recommend it.

FEBRUARY 28 – MARCH 3 – Rootstech in Salt Lake City.  This will be my first time attending this conference, but my 3rd time in Salt Lake City (and the FHL).  I’m staying for an entire week so that I can get lots of research done.  The best part is my long time friend, Pam, is meeting me there.  The key speaker is Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr.  Scott Hamilton (figure skating champion) will also be speaking.  So many great classes are offered and I can’t wait.

APRIL 15 – MAY 7 – A transatlantic cruise ending in Ireland.  We will then rent a car and drive through Ireland for 7 days.  My hope is to find records from some of my ancestors up in Northern Ireland.  I still have work to do in figuring out parishes and towns, so wish me luck.  My husband will actually be on this trip with me, along with another couple we’ve traveled with before.  We are all good friends and are looking forward to this once in a lifetime trip.

MAY 31 – JUNE 2 – 49th Annual Jamboree in Burbank, CA. I was able to attend Jamboree in 2016 and had a fantastic time.  I met some of my “online” genealogy friends and attended great classes.  I attended with my friend, fellow SDGS member and fellow blogger, Debby Warner Anderson and we plan to go together again this year.  100+ classes and 55+ speakers.  How can we go wrong?

SEPT 8 – Another seminar put on by San Diego Genealogical Society – speaker to be announced.

WOW!  This will be my busiest genealogy year ever.  I look forward to all of it.  I expect to learn a LOT, make new friends, greet old friends and meet in person those I only “know” online.

I should have plenty to blog about and hopefully a lot of new finds.

What are your genealogy plans for 2018?  Will you be traveling, watching Webinars, attending genealogy society meetings or classes or staying home working on your tree?

Whatever the case may be, I wish you a wonderful year, full of discoveries.

If you will be at any of the events I’ve mentioned, please let me know so we can talk face to face.  I’d love that.

Happy hunting,
Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2018   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION