Saturday, March 23, 2013

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - How Many Surnames?

From Randy over at Genea-Musings: 


Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: 
 It's Saturday Night again - 
time for some more Genealogy Fun!!


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

1)  Go into your Genealogy Management Program (GMP; either software on your computer, or an online family tree) and figure out how to Count how many surnames you have in your family tree database.

2)  Tell us which GMP you're using and how you did this task.

3)  Tell us how many surnames are in your database and, if possible, which Surname has the most entries.  If this excites you, tell us which surnames are in the top 5!  Or 10!

4)  Write about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post, in a status or comment on Facebook, or in Google Plus Stream post.

NOTE:  If you can't figure out how to do this in your GMP (Genealogy Management Program), use the Help button and search for "count persons" then follow directions.  

Here's mine:


 I used Family Tree Maker 2012.  This ended up being the simplest report I've ever tried to pull together.  In FTM2012, go to Publish, Person Reports, and then choose "Surname Report."  Under "Individuals to Include," I checked "Include All Individuals."  After taking a look at the resulting report, which sorted the surnames alphabetically, I went back and also checked "Sort by Surname Count" so the names with the highest number of entries would rise to the top!

The report gives me a total count of individuals with each surname, along with a breakdown by male and female.  It also lists the earliest and latest dates each surname is recorded (dates of birth).  

This did not take long at all, and I have a 28 page list.   The top 10, along with the date ranges, are as follows:
 

1)  TAPLEY - 658 individuals (pretty evenly split with 343 males and 309 females) with a date range of 1691 - 2010 

2)  POWELL - 172 individuals (172 Male; 91 Female) with a date range of 1715 to 1963 

3)  MNU (Maiden Name Unknown) - 161 individuals (all female, of course!) with a date range of 1730 to 1936  

4)  DRAKE - 156 individuals (93 male; 63 female) with a date range of 1647 to 1967

5)  HUBBARD - 151 individuals (70 male; 81 female) with a date range of 1601 to 1893

6)  RANNEY (and RANNY and RANY) - 146 individuals (79 male; 67 female) with a date range of 1616 to 1951

7)  PRICE - 134 individuals (72 male; 61 female) with a date range of 1680 to 1956

8)  CLAXTON - 90 individuals (52 male; 36 female) with a date range of 1806 to 1974

9)  RUSSELL - 73 individuals (39 male; 27 female) with a date range of 1782 to 1916

10) SMITH - 72 individuals (43 male; 29 female) with a date range of 1791 - 1984

Surprises?  Yes!  I was surprised that Russell and Smith made the top 10, but Schwalls or Page did not.  I was also surprised that I only have 12 individuals with no (or unknown) last name!
 

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