Tracking Growth

Do you keep track of your genealogy statistics? I have to admit that I have been tracking my numbers in recent years. My primary reason for such tracking is to measure growth.

However, such measurements can be deceiving. For example, increasing the number of people in my RootsMagic file isn’t growth if the newly added individuals don’t have sources attached. Another example of deceiving numbers is my number of Ancestry DNA matches. Since my tree is entirely located in the United States going back 6 generations the potential is there to not only have a lot of cousins but also to have lots of Ancestry DNA matches.

However, I still record the numbers and try to compare them to the previous year.

RootsMagic	1/2/2023	12/25/2023
People	22246	23959
Families	7404	7876
Events	73184	80157
Places	9279	10968
Sources	5635	6025
Citations	26475	28176
Media Items	13182	14650

Ancestry Tree	1/2/2023	12/25/2023
People	21652	23312
Photos	18323	21111
Stories	1782	1911
Records	22024	24296
Audio	0	0
Video	0	0
People with hints	13606	3880
Hints		22566
Photo Hints		5396
Story Hints		860
Member Tree Hints		3408

Ancestry DNA Matches	Me	ME	Brother 1	Brother 1
	1/2/2023	12/25/2023	12/25/2023	1/2/2023
Paternal Matches	36028	67887	40329	76742
Maternal Matches	30748	56893	35867	64474
Both	2	380	3	281
Unassigned	55820	2116	62281	2307
Total	122598	127276	138480	143804
Common Ancestors		2078		2041

Ancestry DNA Matches	Brother 2	Brother 2	Mom	Mom
	1/2/2023	12/25/2023	1/2/2023	12/25/2023
Paternal Matches	36764	71615	29020	55029
Maternal Matches	31042	57880	15415	29224
Both	4	341	8	276
Unassigned	59125	1884	38148	1377
Total	126935	131720	82591	85906
Common Ancestors			1796	2397

yDNA	1/2023	12/2023	1/2023	12/2023	12/2023
	Brother 1	Brother 1	Brother 2	Brother 2	4th cousin
BigY	28	30	29	29	29
111 Markers	27	30	29	30	25
67 Markers	27	68	24	68	45

mtDNA	12/25/2023
Total Matches	437
Distance Zero	11

What I found interesting when I was compiling these statistics is the reduction in ‘Unassigned’ DNA matches and the growth in Paternal and Maternal matches. I’m assuming that the technology behind this process improved over the year. Congrats Ancestry on this achievement.

While there is no way I will work my way thru all of my DNA matches, I do spend some time during the year documenting ‘Common Ancestor’ matches. I also do a lot of descendancy research in hopes of helping the computer identify more common ancestors.