Last year I started a spreadsheet to identify my genealogy “number” or “score”. If you don’t know what that means, calculating your “score” is when you identify the total number of possible direct ancestors in a generation then you add up the number of ancestors that you have discovered in your research. It helps you measure progress over time.
According to my spreadsheet I ran this analysis almost exactly a year ago, in March. At that point my 10 generation score was 98/1223. Not very good!
You may know that I inherited a fair amount of research from my maternal grandmother but I have resisted using much of his information for many reasons. I opened her GEDCOM file this time last year to calculate her score as well and she had 128/1223 (this was calculated with me as the primary person).
This year I have recounted my ancestors and updated my number. My new number is 140/1223! I am pleasantly surprised at my own progress, considering I have taken a lot of time off of genealogy this year. I have surpassed my grandmother’s research!
You can see the exact numbers side by side below:
140 is great, but it can only go up from here!
Ellen Anderson
Andersonology 