YEAR END STATS ~ Did I make any research progress last year?

 

As we say goodbye to 2024 and welcome a new year.  Let me take a look at my research for this past year.

This year hasn’t been my best year for research or blogging.  When two senior citizens move into a brand new home and are tasked with unpacking and setting up.  Well, let’s just say it takes a lot of time.

The very last thing to get set up was my office aka “the genie cave.”  Thankfully, I have a husband who can build almost anything.  He built me a beautiful desk and several shelves. My office isn’t quite done (still have ancestor photos to hang), but it’s good enough to allow me to research.

This has been my worst year for number of blog posts since 2010.  But, there have been finds and there has been progress in my Legacy database.

And, I didn’t post my progress at the end of 2023, so we will have to go back to 2022 to compare stats.

Let’s see just what kind of progress.  I’m afraid to look, but here goes.

Before we look at the results let me make a shout out to my friend and fellow blogger, Randy Seaver.  In my original post my percentages were incorrect.  Math was never my favorite subject in school.  LOL!  But, Randy being an Engineer is very good at it.  Thanks for letting me know my friend.  I have made the appropriate corrections.

Please click on any image to enlarge it.

I’ll say one thing.  I was happily surprised at the results.  Not very much work done, but the numbers do make it seem better than the percentages.  And as long as I made some progress during this incredibly busy year, I’ll take it.

I’m looking forward to a more productive genealogy year in 2025. 

I hope you’ll go along with me as I share more ancestor stories and research tips.

If you are related to or connected to anyone in this blog post, please get in touch.  Let’s exchange information.

 

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2024   Diane Gould Hall
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

ANOTHER YEAR COMES TO A CLOSE~Has 2022 been a good year for research?

It’s that time of year again. 

Time to review what I've accomplished in my research.

This has been a much better year in regards to research, than 2021.  I’ve been able to spend more time at my computer.  I have published just a couple of blog posts less than last year, but still tried to keep posting.  Blogging is something I very much enjoy.  Sharing family stories and hearing from readers makes me smile.

So, what has changed in my tree on Legacy this year?  Let’s have a look.

These are the stats from 2021

2021 Stats

How do they compare to this year?

Here are the stats from 2022

2022 Stats

Here is a comparison between years

There was progress made in all areas. Whether small or big progress it's important to move forward in our research.

I’m happy to that I’ve added more ancestors (240) and that I am also citing my sources.

More importantly, I've made some great discoveries, connected with new cousins and increased my knowledge in many areas.  

My research goal has never been to see how many ancestors I can collect.  Just to do thorough, documented research and let the numbers take care of themselves. 

Have you had a good research year in 2022? 

Did you have specific goals?  Did you achieve them?

My goals for next year will remain the same as most any year.  To continue to do good research.  To connect with more cousins.  To keep sharing family stories on my blog. To attend our first in person Rootstech since 2020 (my tickets are already booked).  To teach a few classes here and there.  And LAST but not LEAST, oh please, can I solve at least one of my two BIG brick walls.

Happy New Year,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2022   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

 

THE END OF ANOTHER YEAR ~ 2021 comes to a close–What have I accomplished this past year?

Hello readers.  It’s been a very quiet year here at Michigan Family Trails.  I have not blogged as regularly as I have in years past.  Truth be told, I haven’t done much research either.

What are the reasons?  If I thought 2020 was a rough year, 2021 has proved much tougher.  My husband has had some health issues in the form of needing back surgery and hip replacement. I’ve had to pick up the slack of chores and animal care etc. here at home. 

I have noticed in past years that if I have distractions in my regular life, my research and my writing take a hit.

However, all was not lost as far as family preservation.  I began digital scrapbooking in April, taught myself how to use Photoshop Elements, and have created 75+ pages honoring our ancestors. You can see some of those pages here Ancestor Scrapbook  In addition, in August, I started my own Facebook group devoted to heritage scrapbooking, here is the link for that, Digital Heritage and Vintage Scrapbooking We have 168 members so far.  There are some very talented people in the group.

Other good things have happened as well.  My nephew Joshua married his wonderful fiancé Katya, we had a visit from our granddaughter Chalyssa and great grandson, Conrad. I was officially welcomed into the San Diego Mayflower Colony at the November meeting (first in person meeting since before Covid) and we welcomed a puppy into our home in January. Her name is Libby and she’s a Bernadoodle and we love her to pieces. I also presented and co-presented some classes for the San Diego Genealogical Society via Zoom.

As I do every year, good or bad, I will share my Legacy family statistics with you.  I’m sure it won’t be pretty, but let’s see what changes occurred in my database in 2021.

Here are the stats from 2020

Here are the stats from 2021

Surprisingly, there have been increases in all the numbers I normally keep track of.  That’s a good thing, in spite of a very slow research year.

Here’s the comparison

Goals for 2022 – In general I just hope that this coming year is happy, healthy and safe for everyone. As to research and blogging, I am hoping for a more productive year and sharing more family stories and learning tips.

What are your genealogy goals for 2022?

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2021   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

HAPPY NEW YEAR ~ And WELCOME 2021–Here are my year end stats for 2020 and GOALS for the new year

Good riddance 2020 and hello 2021.  May this be a much kinder and gentler year for all of us. 

I always like to look back and see what’s changed in my Legacy tree. 

• How many new ancestors and/or collateral people have I added?
• Have I kept up with my sourcing? 
• What else has changed in my tree?

Let’s take a look.

Here is a side by side comparison created by Legacy

(Click on any image to enlarge it)

On the left are the stats from 2019 and on the right the stats from 2020

I appears that I’ve made steady progress consistent with previous years.  That certainly makes me happy.  My goal has never been to see how big I can make my tree, but rather, to add people that are well researched and confirmed.  Speaking of goals.  I shared my goals for 2020 in my first post last year.  Let’s see how well I did.

Speaking of goals.  I shared my goals for 2020 in my first post last year.  Let’s see how well I did.

HERE WERE MY GENEALOGY GOALS FOR 2020

• Continue to blog about our family and share their stories – DONE

• To break down my two biggest, long standing brick walls – SADLY NOT DONE

• To become better at reading DNA results and connecting the dots – SOME PROGRESS

• To have a great time at Rootstech 2020 in February – ABSOLUTELY DONE!

• To continue to occasionally teach classes and help others grow their family tree – DONE

• To finish the small box of scanning that’s been in my office for several years – NOT DONE

• To continue to enjoy what started as a hobby and has now become a passion for me – DONE

What were your goals for this past year?  How did you do?

Here is my list for this coming year – writing them down helps motivate me

• To break down my two biggest, long standing brick walls
• To finish the small box of scanning that’s been in my office for several years
• To do a better job of citing my sources.  I was a bit lazy this past year
• To connect with more cousins and exchange information
• To continue to teach and help others
• To get my blog post count back to where it was in previous years (before 2020)

That top goal is huge for me and my most urgent desire.  What are your goals for the coming year?  I’d love to hear about them in a comment or your own blog post.

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2021   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

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

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

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.



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?
 

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