Statistics

Do you track the 'growth' of your genealogy database or your Ancestry tree?

I started tracking my statistics over a year ago. In January, I created a new table in my bullet journal to track the growth of my tree in 2019. At the first of each month, I record the data in my journal.

For my tree, I pull the statistics from two different sources. In RootsMagic, I look at the DATABASE PROPERTIES.

True or False?

Do you have ancestors living in the colonies prior to the revolutionary war? Have you applied to the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) or Sons of the American Revolution (SAR) for those ancestors? If so, have you ever encountered a warning that 'future applicants must prove correct service'?

This happened to me when I applied for the DAR. I was trying to use my great-grandmother's application (Josie Winifred Hammond Crawford - #319934) to apply.  She applied thru her great-grandfather, Jason Hammond (1762-1830). Unfortunately, I was told they wouldn't accept Jason Hammond as a revolutionary war ancestor. Since there were other Jason Hammonds living in Connecticut at the time, I'm assuming that the other Jason Hammond was the one who served. Fortunately, I was able to apply thru Jason's father, Nathaniel Hammond, who provided support for the revolutionary troops.

As I'm researching various James Crawford families in early Kentucky, I've found that the DAR has limited applications for one of those James Crawfords.

Unfortunately, many people for many years have mixed these men up. The James Crawford who has data in the 'correction file' is one of the James Crawfords living in Fleming County, Kentucky. This James was married to Sarah Vansant in 1786 in Botetourt County, Kentuckyand died in 1836. James Crawford is buried in the Hillsboro Cemetery in Fleming County, KY

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun

Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music, please!):

1)  Ellen Thompson-Jennings posted 20 questions on her blog this week - see Even More Questions About Your Ancestors and Maybe A Few About You (posted 27 June). 

2) We will do do these five at a time - Questions 1 to 5 tonight.

3)  Tell us about it in your own blog post, in a comment on this post, or in a Facebook post.

Question 1: Which ancestor had the most children?

This was NOT an easy question to answer. I found a report in RootsMagic that told me the average children per family and maximum children per family.

However, I couldn't locate a report that would list the various families and the number of children. 

George W. Crawford

Have you ever just stumbled across something that others may seem minor when it provides major clues. That's what happened yesterday when I did a simple Google search for 'Isaac Crawford Nancy Miller'.

That search led to a biography of George W. Crawford of Gentry County, Missouri in the book, The History of Gentry and Worth Counties, Missouri on page 421.

George W. Crawford

Research Notes

Do you keep a research log? I have to admit that I would likely get a 'failing grade' for this part of the genealogy standard. I've tried using a paper log and a spreadsheet log, but don't seem to be able to keep it up. Thus, I don't have a 'master index' to locate my research notes.

In May, Pat Richley-Erickson, posted a question to the Facebook group, The Organized Genealogist, asking group members how they organize their research notes. This was followed up by a Wacky Wednesday presentation, Organizing Active Research Notes.

Organization

Have you been following all of the Facebook posts about organizing and tracking your genealogy research? If you haven't then you might want to check out some of these posts:

• The Genealogy Squad - search for 'organizing' posts 
• The Organized Genealogists - check out the files submitted to this group

If you haven't joined these or other genealogy groups on Facebook, then you are missing out on a lot of help!

Because of the recent discussions around organizing one's genealogy, I thought I'd share what I've found useful. Since my genealogy adventure began prior to the Internet, I started with a lot of paper. Thus, I had to have a way to organize it so I could go back and find my notes. As Drew Smith has suggested, I used the SURNAME as my first level of organization. Because I had too much information to fit in one folder for the SURNAME, I subdivided my notes. Below is an example of how those folders were named for one of my surnames:

• Crawford
• Crawford - Letters
• Crawford - Census
• Crawford - Kansas
• Crawford - Indiana
• Crawford - Ohio
• Crawford - Kentucky
• Crawford - Virginia