This is part of the Genealympics Challenges and Saturday Night Genealogy Fun at Randy Seaver’s Genea-Musings.
My assignment is to calculate my source to person ratio in my database. I use RootsMagic. It was easy to find the total number of people in my database: 9, 856.
Calculating the sources took a little light bulb power. After searching through the help screens and online, I didn’t see an easy way to do this. Creating a Source List meant counting the entries on 77 pages. I didn’t really feel like doing that.
I found a solution. I created the Source List report as a .txt file. I opened the file in Microsoft Works Spreadsheet.
Each entry appeared as a Source and a Footnote, each on a separate line. I noticed the report generated blank rows sporadically. Instead of deleting those, I sorted the list on column A. I deleted all the entries that started with the word “Footnote”. I deleted a couple of duplicates and some screwy looking test entries. Then, I arrived at my source number: 1,710.
Randy says to divide the number of sources by the number of people. My ratio is .173 (to infinite and beyond). My ratio is too low to earn a medal…I’ve been disqualified 🙁
Looks like I need to work on getting sources into my database. Most of my early sources are still on paper in my binders with the family group sheet. They were once in my database. However, two mishaps (upgrade from Leading Edge DOS to Windows and Converting from Leading Edge to Family Origins) wiped out all off the sources I had input over the first 4 or 5 years.
It’s like I’ve failed a genealogy drug test. I’ve been disqualified. LOL
(Thanks for the fun challenge, Randy, even if I didn’t make it to the medal round.)
Mel,
You can find then umber of citations by doing a File > Properties check. The Source citations are one of the elements in the list of database numbers.
Randy, thanks for the tip! I looked high and low. Well, if I ever have to do this again, I’ll know where to find it.