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

HOW TO FIND YOUR FAMILY STATISTICS IN LEGACY

The idea of family statistics was presented by another blogger, Randy Seaver, on his http://www.geneamusings.com/

He kept a record of what his database statistics were at the end of 2012 and then ran them yesterday and compared the numbers.

What a GREAT idea!  I encourage all of you to do the same.  That is a wonderful bench mark to let us know how our research is progressing.

Not so much just to see how many more people are in our database, but more to let you know if you entered more citations or master sources during the year.  I just ran this report in Legacy with a couple of clicks of my mouse.

I am using Legacy 8 now so here is what I did.

I clicked on the “HELP” tab, then clicked on “About Legacy.”

This is what will pop up on your screen. 
Now click on the word “General.”

You will see this report come up and it will look like this.  Your report should have your customer number in the upper right, but I have redacted mine for privacy purposes.



That’s all there is to it.  Pretty easy huh?  I’m sure you can do the same thing with whatever database you are using, Family Tree Maker, The Master Genealogist, Roots Magic, Reunion or any of the others.

This report tells me that my citations per person are 222.3%.  
My thanks to Randy Seaver for his comment about my math (see comment section).  Now at least that figure is correct.   

• How does that compare to your percentage?  
• What can you do to improve your percentage? 
• My goal by the end of this year is to add more event addresses and make better use of the to-do list.

I have never been about collecting names, although it’s a natural course of events as you continue your research.  I remember my excitement when I hit 1,000 people a few years ago.

Now, go run that report and save a copy.  I’ll do the same and we’ll compare notes at the end of the year.  

What is the one thing that we might not want to take the time to do, but which is the most important thing we can do in our research.  

CITE THOSE SOURCES!!!

Happy Hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright © 2014   Diane Gould Hall