Surname Word Cloud

 

I don't know if any of my readers have noticed, but there is new image gadget on my blog.  I'll share it here, but please check it out there on the side the next time you open my blog to read a post!

This was very simple to do!  It was made by ChatGPT using a surname report I prepared in Family Tree Maker (FTM) 2024.  The size of the each name corresponds to the number of individuals in my tree with that last name.  So obviously, I have mostly Tapleys in my tree, but surprisingly, Price, Claxton, and Powell are right up there!  You can do one with every surname in your tree, as I did, or you can limit it to just your immediate or extended family.  It's entirely up to you.

How did I learn about Surname Word Clouds and how to make one?  I am so glad you asked!  Thanks to Randy Seaver over at Genea-Musings.com, I read his weekly post of the Best of the Genea-Blogs -- Week of 13 to 19 September 2026 and found a link to Doris Kenney's blog, A Tree With No Name.  You can read the excellent directions she provides on her post Updating My Genealogy Surname Word Cloud - and a Little Blog Housekeeping and make your own!  (And I got a new blogging friend out of deal, too!)

I'm going to hold on to her post for future updates like she did.  It will interesting to see how the surnames "grow" in my cloud.

(Please note that I had to remove my underlines for an unknown surname from my list or 5 dashes would have appeared in the Word Cloud.  I really don't want to think about how many surnames I do not know!)