Sunday, January 1, 2017

My 2016 Genealogy Research in Review

Last year when I started blogging I learned from Diane Gould Hall (check out her post TIME FOR MY YEARLY PROGRESS REPORT ~ FAMILY STATISTICS FOR 2016–How Have I Done?) at Michigan Family Trials that it’s a good idea to take a look each year at what you have accomplished in your researching.  I use Legacy Family Tree and by clicking on the Legacy icon on the upper right hand side of the Tool Bar and then selecting General.
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                                                                                             From 2015
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                                                                                               From 2016
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                                                                                 A review of the statistics I am most interested in:
2015 2016 Change
Number of Individuals 624 869 +245
Number of Families 230 319 +89
Unique Surnames 165 235 +70
Citations 7 75 +68

In 2016:
I completed 55 Blog Posts with over 18,000 page views.
I’ve connected with 2 new cousins as a result of DNA.  (One cousin I still need to determine the paper connection.)
I’ve located through researching and connected with 6 new distant cousins.
I’ve met 3 new 3rd cousins.
I’ve reconnected with 2 - 2nd cousins.
Goals for next year:
I decided I would print out a new Legacy Fan Chart for 7 generations to look at how many places I have empty where I do not know the names of my ancestors.  Looks like I’m doing pretty well out to 5 generations (4 places empty) but the 6th generation has a lot of gaps (40 places empty-UGH!).  I think I would like to concentrate this year on seeing how many of the gaps I can fill in during 2017.
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Along with my research this year I will continue to edit the transcribed version of Carrie’s Letters.  I’m currently working on an index of all the people Carrie mentions in her letters (to date I have about 390 people).
In summary, I think it’s been a good year for research and a great year for people connection (My favorite).  I’ve learned so much more about my ancestors then I ever thought possible.  I look forward to the new things I will find this year and the new people I will meet along the way.  I greatly appreciate those of you that read my blog and encourage my research!
Thank-you Diane for reminding us to take a look back to see our accomplishments!  Life gets so busy that this really helps us see that we have accomplished a lot more then we think we did. 
Happy New Year!!  Have a great year researching your Family Tree!

If you have any corrections or additions or stories to share I look forward to hearing them.
Enjoy the journey,
Debby

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