Obergefell v. Hodges, June 26, 2015
Genealogy is like a jigsaw puzzle, but you don't have the box top, so you don't know what the picture is supposed to look like. As you start putting the puzzle together, you realize some pieces are missing, and eventually you figure out that some of the pieces you started with don't actually belong to this puzzle. I'll help you discover the right pieces for your puzzle and assemble them into a picture of your family.
Sunday, June 26, 2016
Thursday, June 23, 2016
Treasure Chest Thursday: Jean La Forêt's Diary, section cinq
Jean La Forêt's diary holds yet more treasures to explore. When last we left Jean, he had arrived in Valparaiso, Chile while serving with the U.S. Marines.
-- >< -- >< -- >< -- >< --
Febr. 11 – 02 – Callao again
Feb. 26 – 02 – Acapulco
Mrch 5 – 02 – Pichili[n]gue Bay and La Paz –
Mrch 12 – 02 – Madalena Bay
Mrch 26 – 02 – San Diego
April 5 – 02 – San Francisco
April 7 – 02 – Mare Island à l'hopital.
Juillet 8, 02 – Quitte l'hopital
Novembre 15 – 02, A Yerba Buena ——
February 1 – 1905 Left Yerba Buena for Philipine Islands –
Manila – March 2 – 1905
Cavite — same day —
Olongapo — March 6 – 05
Leave Olongapo May 19 – 1906
Arrive at Cavite May 19 – 1906
Quitte Cavite Oct. 7 – 1906 – 4 ½ P.M.
Quitte Manila Oct. 9, 1906 – 2 P.M.
Quitte Mariveles Oct. 10 – 1906, 4 P.M.
Arrive à Nagasaki, Japan, lundi, Oct. 15 3. P.M.
Quitte Nagasaki, Japan Oct. 17 – 6 AM.
Arrive à Honolulu, Hawaii on Monday Oct. 30 – 9 AM.
Quitte Honolulu Samedi Nov. 3 – 5 P.M.
Arrive à San Francisco dimanche Nov. 11 –
Arrive à Mare Island Nov. 12 –
-- >< -- >< -- >< -- >< --
February 11, 1902 – Callao [Peru] again
February 26, 1902 – Acapulco
March 5, 1902 – Pichilingue Bay and La Paz
March 12, 1902 – Magdalena Bay
March 26, 1902 – San Diego
April 5, 1902 – San Francisco
April 7, 1902 – Mare Island in the hospital.
Juillet 8, 1902 – Left the hospital
November 15, 1902 – At Yerba Buena
February 1, 1905 – Left Yerba Buena for Philippine Islands
March 2, 1905 – Manila
same day – Cavite
March 6, 1905 – Olongapo
May 19, 1906 Leave Olongapo
May 19, 1906 Arrive at Cavite
October 7, 1906 Leave Cavite 4:30 p.m.
October 9, 1906 Leave Manila 2:00 p.m.
October 10, 1906 Leave Mariveles 4:00 p.m.
October 15 Arrive in Nagasaki, Japan, Monday, 3:00 p.m.
October 17 Leave Nagasaki, Japan 6:00 p.m.
October 30 Arrive in Honolulu, Hawaii, Monday, 9:00 a.m.
November 3 Leave Honolulu Saturday 5:00 p.m.
November 11 Arrive in San Francisco Sunday
November 12 Arrive at Mare Island
-- >< -- >< -- >< -- >< --
Nothing in these pages was difficult to translate, not only because a lot was written in English. These entries are almost entirely a list of locations and when Jean arrived and left. He appears to have become fluent in "franglais", that mish-mash of French and English. He goes back and forth between the two languages and sometimes uses both in the same entry. I took a small amount of liberty with the translations by making the format consistent for each entry: date, then location, then day and/or time if included.
In this part of Jean's travelogue, I think the item that caught my attention the most was his three-month stay in the hospital at Mare Island, from April 7–July 8, 1902. After all of his travels up and down the Pacific coast, he comes back to California and goes into the hospital. Maybe it was a bug he picked up on the trip. Obviously, another item that I hope shows up in his service file.
I'm guessing that the entry for October 20, 1903 — "Quartermaster Sgt" — means he was working in that position. He tends to write little about his accomplishments. I am pretty sure that Yerba Buena refers to the island in the middle of San Francisco Bay, which currently is a U.S. Coast Guard installation. The Wikipedia page about Yerba Buena does mention that a U.S. Navy training station was established there before the turn of the 20th century.
Several of the locations Jean mentions I had not heard of previously. I now know, however, that Pichilingue Bay (with some spelling variation) is in Baja California, as is Magdalena Bay. I guessed correctly that Cavite, Olongapo, and Mariveles are in the Philippines because of their apparent proximity to Manila based on Jean's notes.
There are additional significant gaps in time in these pages. Between November 1902 and February 1905, Jean made only one entry, the one that says "Quartermaster Sgt." And it seems that Jean had nothing to write about during his stay in Olongapo. He arrived on March 6, 1905, and the next entry records his departure on May 19, 1906. I wonder if that means he had a quiet tour there.
From May 19, 1906 through the last page shown here, the entries were written first in pencil and later copied over in ink. I wonder if Jean was the person who wrote over the entries to make them darker, or if that was the work of Emma.
Wednesday, June 22, 2016
Saturday, June 18, 2016
Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Three Stories for Father's Day
Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission: Impossible music) is:
1) Sunday, 19 June, is Father's Day. Let's celebrate by writing a blog post about your father, or another significant male ancestor (e.g., a grandfather).
2) What are three things about your father (or significant male ancestor) that you vividly remember about him?
3) Tell us all about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a Facebook status or Google+ stream post.
 |
| Father's Day 2013 |
(1) My father loves cars. He raced cars, worked on cars, worked in garages. I remember him racing when I was growing up in the Los Angeles area and going to racetracks to watch races. He raced while we lived in Australia, in Florida when we returned to the U.S., and in Texas when he moved there. He has a large collection of trophies and memorabilia from his racing days (or better still have them, because I told him that if storage was an issue, I would take care of them). He told me one story about having broken an arm while racing when he was a teenager, and he tried to hide it from his mother (my grandmother). Several years later, he discovered she knew about it all along. Even now, when I go into a garage and smell the grease, it brings back happy memories. If I ever have a question about car models, I know he'll be able to answer it. He identified all the cars in the photos I took while I was in Cuba (well, except for the Russian "Moskva", which he had never seen before).
(2) My father was a great musician. I grew up listening to my father play guitar and sing. I learned the words to many songs, including "Sixteen Tons" and "Mairzy Doats", from listening to him when I was little. Later, when my siblings and I were a little older, he would try to skip a verse and I would usually be the one who pointed it out to him, which would earn me a comment about being a "smartass kid." He also used to play piano. He performed swing music with a band called the Court Jesters that competed on Ted Mack's Amateur Hour, coming in second to Gladys Knight. I say my dad was a great musician because he can't really play anymore due to arthritis.
(3) My father looks a lot like his father. This is kind of ironic, because the two did not often get along well. Whether that was because of the ways they were the same or the ways they differed, I don't know. But I have noticed each year how much he looks more and more like my grandfather.
Archives in Africa, a Cultural Heritage of Humanity
This article about the situation with archives in Africa was published online by Le Monde on March 20, 2015. I thought the information might be useful and of interest to other researchers, so I've translated the article from French to English.
At the Foccart symposium taking place on 26 and 27 March [2015] in Paris, Le Monde Afrique will publish a brief on the famous consultant and on archives in Africa. Report of the former director of the Senegal archives, Saliou Mbaye.
Archives allow one to glimpse the past and to write the future. They delve into the history of societies, peoples, and states. Archives in Africa are currently a key issue of good governance, democracy, and development. An archive is, among other things, knowledge of the state about the state, namely the peoples themselves. Our societies and our African states therefore cannot develop without full knowledge of their own history.
Archival heritage, in West Africa for example, is not confined to yellowed papers from colonial administrations. It’s about a heritage produced and admittedly received by colonial administrations and those of independence, but to it must be added all private archives, copies of archives of former colonial powers, collected and stored oral archives, objects and materials produced by West African societies, and finally manuscripts in Arabic or ajami (Arabic characters used to transcribe African languages: Pulaar, Soninke, Hausa, etc.). Oral sources and the extraordinary vitality of our societies based on oral tradition, as well as new information and communications technologies, are also part of this cultural and archival heritage that Africa has shared with mankind.
Dakar, the “Holy Mecca” of Archives in West Africa
In the early 2000’s, Africans decided to take charge. Africa relied on itself. It established the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD; http://www.nepad.org/), which intended to use private funds to implement development programs. Among NEPAD’s priorities were indeed mastery of the new information and communications technologies and the development of records management capabilities. What about today? Efforts were certainly made. But the great majority of countries are still deficient in rational management of their archives.
The archives in Dakar, the "Holy Mecca" of archives in West Africa, as my late colleague J. Enwere from Nigeria said, "are recorded in the Memory of the World Register [since 2000] and were classified as World Heritage documentary" by Unesco. The archives of French West Africa, held in Dakar, are also an exception, that we in Senegal today like to rank among the "Senegalese exceptions."
On the other hand, while the archives of Indochina, Madagascar, Equatorial Africa, and Algeria, based on the principle of sovereignty, are now found in the National Overseas Archives (ANOM) in Aix-en-Provence, France, the French West Africa (AOF) archives remain in Dakar. This collection is undeniably a "common heritage." This means that "the collection is kept physically intact in one of the relevant countries, where it is integrated into the national archival heritage, with all the responsibilities for security and processing that implies the State as acting owner of this heritage."
The archives have been microfilmed since 1961, but a good portion of these microfilms have deteriorated, and microfilming operations have been reduced for about a decade, which it is hoped will be of short duration. In the 2000’s, several countries have made efforts to microfilm all or part of the archives relating to the histories of their countries preserved in the AOF collection. These are Burkina Faso, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger.
But in fact, to do it well, the entire collection should have been scanned, so each party could freely access it and in its own territory. Total digitization would protect and save this "shared memory" between France and Africa. Reducing the technology gap also begins with scanning everything.
The AOF Archives, Sources for African History
Although they originate from colonial institutions, the AOF archives unquestionably constitute sources for the history of Africa. Of course, they have been grouped to illustrate colonial actions. But they serve Africans and specialists in the history of Africa, who analyze them as bona fide sources of African history. So, based on territorial principles (they were mainly produced in Africa) and relevance (the majority are focused on Africans), they belong to the heritage of Africa and Africans consider them as such. They are correct.
At independence, governments made efforts to provide archival services. The challenge is how developed the nation is and that archives are viewed and maintained as a tool for development. Moreover, most archives are under the authority of either the president of the country (e.g., Burkina Faso), the prime minister (e.g., Senegal, Madagascar), or the Ministry of the Interior (e.g., Ivory Coast). In doing this, the administrations want, in effect, to present archives as an interdepartmental service that can provide historical information needed by any active bureaucracy.
Although repositories have been built here and there to house the archives, the oil crisis of the 1970's and the emergence of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank in the economy of our country, with their structural adjustment programs, have dampened the enthusiasm of the 1960's. It was not until the years 1990–2000 that a building construction policy resumed. This is the case in Benin, Mali, Niger, and Ghana, where buildings were constructed for archives. Guinea and Cape Verde have renovated old buildings.
But curiously, Senegal, which has had a construction plan since 1972, remains stuck at the starting line. The project was started, but political changes that occurred 19 March 2000 terminated it. However, since 2012 (after a second round of political changes), there are rumors that generate a lot of hope in the national community of archivists.
The development of democracy, the issue of good governance, and the requirements of new citizenship demand more transparency in government actions and greater access to administrative information. The governments of African countries must give their citizens free access to administrative information and create privacy legislation. Another obstacle is that only a few countries, such as Senegal, have adequate legislation, characterized by a number of laws, notably on archives (2006) and the protection of personal data (2008). It is hoped that such laws will be adopted in the near future in all of Africa, giving the countries of the continent the opportunity to be included among the countries of the world where archives count.
Saliou Mbaye is a palaeographer and archivist. Former director of Senegal's archives, he is a university professor.
I've tried for the past year to obtain official permission to publish this translation, but Le Monde says it isn't their intellectual property but the author's, and they won't help me contact the author. I found an e-mail address for the author online, but no one responded to my message. If anyone can help put me in touch with Saliou Mbaye, I would appreciate it.
-- >< -- >< -- >< -- >< --
 |
| At the National Archives of Senegal, Dakar. Credit: AFP. |
At the Foccart symposium taking place on 26 and 27 March [2015] in Paris, Le Monde Afrique will publish a brief on the famous consultant and on archives in Africa. Report of the former director of the Senegal archives, Saliou Mbaye.
Archives allow one to glimpse the past and to write the future. They delve into the history of societies, peoples, and states. Archives in Africa are currently a key issue of good governance, democracy, and development. An archive is, among other things, knowledge of the state about the state, namely the peoples themselves. Our societies and our African states therefore cannot develop without full knowledge of their own history.
Archival heritage, in West Africa for example, is not confined to yellowed papers from colonial administrations. It’s about a heritage produced and admittedly received by colonial administrations and those of independence, but to it must be added all private archives, copies of archives of former colonial powers, collected and stored oral archives, objects and materials produced by West African societies, and finally manuscripts in Arabic or ajami (Arabic characters used to transcribe African languages: Pulaar, Soninke, Hausa, etc.). Oral sources and the extraordinary vitality of our societies based on oral tradition, as well as new information and communications technologies, are also part of this cultural and archival heritage that Africa has shared with mankind.
Dakar, the “Holy Mecca” of Archives in West Africa
In the early 2000’s, Africans decided to take charge. Africa relied on itself. It established the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD; http://www.nepad.org/), which intended to use private funds to implement development programs. Among NEPAD’s priorities were indeed mastery of the new information and communications technologies and the development of records management capabilities. What about today? Efforts were certainly made. But the great majority of countries are still deficient in rational management of their archives.
 |
| At the National Archives of Senegal, Dakar, in February 2013. Credit: Nicolas Courtin. |
On the other hand, while the archives of Indochina, Madagascar, Equatorial Africa, and Algeria, based on the principle of sovereignty, are now found in the National Overseas Archives (ANOM) in Aix-en-Provence, France, the French West Africa (AOF) archives remain in Dakar. This collection is undeniably a "common heritage." This means that "the collection is kept physically intact in one of the relevant countries, where it is integrated into the national archival heritage, with all the responsibilities for security and processing that implies the State as acting owner of this heritage."
The archives have been microfilmed since 1961, but a good portion of these microfilms have deteriorated, and microfilming operations have been reduced for about a decade, which it is hoped will be of short duration. In the 2000’s, several countries have made efforts to microfilm all or part of the archives relating to the histories of their countries preserved in the AOF collection. These are Burkina Faso, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger.
But in fact, to do it well, the entire collection should have been scanned, so each party could freely access it and in its own territory. Total digitization would protect and save this "shared memory" between France and Africa. Reducing the technology gap also begins with scanning everything.
The AOF Archives, Sources for African History
Although they originate from colonial institutions, the AOF archives unquestionably constitute sources for the history of Africa. Of course, they have been grouped to illustrate colonial actions. But they serve Africans and specialists in the history of Africa, who analyze them as bona fide sources of African history. So, based on territorial principles (they were mainly produced in Africa) and relevance (the majority are focused on Africans), they belong to the heritage of Africa and Africans consider them as such. They are correct.
 |
| These two sculptures stand guard at the bottom of a staircase at the National Archives of Senegal. Marianne's feet are surrounded by mango trees, each representing a new colony. Credit: Nicolas Courtin. |
Although repositories have been built here and there to house the archives, the oil crisis of the 1970's and the emergence of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank in the economy of our country, with their structural adjustment programs, have dampened the enthusiasm of the 1960's. It was not until the years 1990–2000 that a building construction policy resumed. This is the case in Benin, Mali, Niger, and Ghana, where buildings were constructed for archives. Guinea and Cape Verde have renovated old buildings.
But curiously, Senegal, which has had a construction plan since 1972, remains stuck at the starting line. The project was started, but political changes that occurred 19 March 2000 terminated it. However, since 2012 (after a second round of political changes), there are rumors that generate a lot of hope in the national community of archivists.
The development of democracy, the issue of good governance, and the requirements of new citizenship demand more transparency in government actions and greater access to administrative information. The governments of African countries must give their citizens free access to administrative information and create privacy legislation. Another obstacle is that only a few countries, such as Senegal, have adequate legislation, characterized by a number of laws, notably on archives (2006) and the protection of personal data (2008). It is hoped that such laws will be adopted in the near future in all of Africa, giving the countries of the continent the opportunity to be included among the countries of the world where archives count.
Saliou Mbaye is a palaeographer and archivist. Former director of Senegal's archives, he is a university professor.
-- >< -- >< -- >< -- >< --
I've tried for the past year to obtain official permission to publish this translation, but Le Monde says it isn't their intellectual property but the author's, and they won't help me contact the author. I found an e-mail address for the author online, but no one responded to my message. If anyone can help put me in touch with Saliou Mbaye, I would appreciate it.
Thursday, June 16, 2016
Treasure Chest Thursday: Jean La Forêt's Diary, fourth section
This Thursday we continue on with Jean La Forêt's diary. Since only a small portion of the next page was needed to finish the last entry translated, I'm counting this week's first page (above) as a complete one. Remember, as of last week's episode, Jean is no longer in the U.S. Army but has joined the Marines.
-- >< -- >< -- >< -- >< --
Janvier 15 – 92
Changeons de quartier – Caserne nouvelle bâtie trés confortablement.
Avril 5 – 1897
Pars de Sitka et d'Alaska avec "Topeka" – Arrive a Victoria Avril 11 – 97 Seattle – Avril 11 – 12 – 13/97 Retourne a Victoria 13/97 Arrive à San Francisco Avril 18 – 97 – a Vallejo même jour
A Mare Island Avril 20 – 97 – 3h. P. M.
A l'"Independence" Mai 24 – 1897 ——
May 25 – 99 – Quitte Independence and report for duty at Mare Island.
Juillet 1 – 99 – Prend charge de l'office de Quartier Maître.
Août 31 – Prend in[s]cription pour Gunner – Passe examen Sept. 1 – 99;
Sept. 1st 1900 – Décharge
Oct. 3 – " – Prend saloon à San Francisco.
Nov. 19 – " – revends
Nov. 30 – " – Rentre dans Marine Corps. Congé 6 semains.
Jan. 15 – 01 Report for duty at Mare Island, Cal.
Febr. 4 – 01 U.S.S. "Wisconsin" put in commission – Reported aboard as 1st sergt of Marine Guard — In commission at 2 P.M.
March 9 – 01 Left at noon for Magdalena Bay (Mexico)
March 15 – 01 Passed "Philadelphia" off Guadaloupe Island
March 17 – 01 Arrived in Magdalena Bay
March 28 – 01 Arrival of "Mohican"
April 11 – 01 Left about 4 P.M. for San Francisco
April 15 – 01 Arrived in San Francisco Bay 1 P.M.
May 28 – 01 Left San Francisco Bay for Puget Sound, Wash.
June 1 – 01 – Bremerton at 5 AM.
June 12 – 1901 – San Francisco.
June 29 – Port Angeles, Wash.
July 2 – 01 – New – Whatcom –
July 23 – 01 – Bremerton
Oct. 23 – 01 – Honolulu
Nov. 1 – 01 – Passe l'équateur.
Nov. 5 – 01 – Tutuila Island
Nov. 20 – 01 – Pago-Pago – Apia – Samoa
Dec. 1 – 01 – Honolulu
Dec. 25 – 01 – Noel – Acapulco Mexico —
Jan. 3 – 02 – Passed under Equator again
Jan – 7 – 02 – Callao, Peru
Jan. 9 – 02 – A Lima
Jan. 20 – 02 – Valparaiso Chile
-- >< -- >< -- >< -- >< --
January 15, 1892
We change quarters – new barracks built very comfortably.
April 5, 1897
Leave Sitka and Alaska with the Topeka – Arrive in Victoria April 11, 1897 Seattle April 11-12-13, 1897 Return to Victoria [April] 13, 1897 Arrive in San Francisco April 18, 1897 – in Vallejo the same day
In Mare Island April 20, 1897 3:00 p.m.
On the Independence May 24, 1897 ——
May 25, 1899 – Leave the Independence and report for duty at Mare Island.
July 1, 1899 – Take charge of the Quartermaster's office.
August 31 – Apply for Gunner – Pass exam September 1, 1899;
September 1, 1900 – Discharged
October 3 " – Buy a saloon in San Francisco.
November 19 " – Resell it
November 30 " – Return to the Marine Corp. Six weeks leave.
January 15, 1901 Report for duty at Mare Island.
February 4, 1901 U.S.S. Wisconsin put in commission – Reported aboard as 1st Sergeant of Marine Guard – in commission at 2:00 p.m.
March 9, 1901 Left at noon for Magdalena Bay (Mexico)
March 15, 1901 Passed Philadelphia off Guadaloupe Island
March 17, 1901 Arrived in Magdalena Bay
March 28, 1901 Arrival of Mohican
April 11, 1901 Left about 4:00 p.m. for San Francisco
April 15, 1901 Arrived in San Francisco Bay 1:00 p.m.
May 28, 1901 Left San Francisco Bay for Puget Sound, Washington
June 1, 1901 – Bremerton at 5:00 a.m.
June 12, 1901 – San Francisco.
June 29 – Port Angeles, Washington
July 2, 1901 – New Whatcom –
July 23, 1901 – Bremerton
October 23, 1901 – Honolulu
November 1, 1901 – Pass the Equator.
November 5, 1901 – Tutuila Island
November 20, 1901 – Pago-Pago – Apia – Samoa
December 1, 1901 – Honolulu
December 25, 1901 – Christmas – Acapulco Mexico —
January 3, 1902 – Passed under Equator again
January 7, 1902 – Callao, Peru
January 9, 1902 – To Lima
January 20, 1902 – Valparaiso, Chile
-- >< -- >< -- >< -- >< --
This man surprised me again. He enlisted in the Marines on August 26, 1890. He was discharged on September 1, 1900, one year after he passed the Gunnery Sergeant exam and with a little more than ten years service. He didn't stay out even three months before he re-upped (but at least he had six weeks leave before reporting again). I'm sorry, but I just don't understand. He had the saloon in San Francisco for only a month and a half before selling it. Maybe he just had a love-hate relationship with the military and couldn't stay out.
He seemed to be pretty successful in the Marines. He was in charge of the Quartermaster's office; he passed the Gunnery Sergeant exam.
Jean apparently became more comfortable with English during this period, because about half the entries are in that language. He still goes back and forth, though.
He definitely saw a lot of the world while he was in the Marines. Up and down the Pacific coast, around the Pacific Ocean — that's a nice travelogue.
I was very disappointed to see the gaps in dates in these pages. Whatever the reason, Jean did not write between November 1890 (from last week's installment) and January 1892, January 1892 and April 1897, and May 1897 and May 1899. That's eight years we don't know what he was doing, the bulk of this tour in the Marines. Who knows where else he went during that time? Maybe he was on classified missions and couldn't write. I hope those periods are documented in his service file.
Thinking again about Emma La Forêt's 1917 emergency passport application, where she said that Jean had lived uninterruptedly in San Francisco from 1884 to 1909, we now have more data. Based on these diary entries, Jean appears to have been in Sitka from 1890–1897. He wasn't in San Francisco an entire day before he went to Vallejo. The longest he might have been in San Francisco was while he owned the saloon, not even a month and a half. Emma was certainly stretching things when she filled out that application. Or maybe she really meant "the San Francisco Bay area."
Wednesday, June 15, 2016
Sunday, June 12, 2016
Loving Day 2016
It is Loving Day, and therefore time to celebrate the U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1967 that struck down antimiscegeneation laws in those states that still stood firmly by them. Those sixteen states, all in the South, did not permit someone classified as "black" (the "one-drop rule" prevailing) and someone classified as "white" to be married, some of the states even disallowing marriages performed in states that permitted the unions. If not for the Loving v. Virginia decision, my brother might not have been able to marry Sandra, and my family would not have had the pleasure of welcoming her and her family into our lives. This year will be their 5th anniversary.
Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: My Genealogy Database Statistics
1) If you have your family tree research in a genealogy management program (GMP), whether a computer software program or an online family tree, figure out how to find how many persons, places, sources, etc. are in your database. (Hint: The Help button is your friend!)
2) Tell us which GMP you use and how many persons, places, sources, etc. are in your database(s) today in a blog post of your own, in a comment to this blog post, or in a Facebook status or Google+ stream comment.
Randy uses Roots Magic 7 but generously gave instructions on how to find the statistics in several programs, including Family Tree Maker 16, which is what I use. I didn't take a screen capture of the results from my inquiry, but the statistics from the default settings are:
• Size: 6,835 kb
• Total number of individuals: 7,884
• Total number of marriages: 2,622
• Average lifespan: 57 years 4 months
• Earliest birth: 1540, Ebert Mack (from my adoptive Sellers line)
• Text record: 71,765 (I have no idea what this means)
• Total number of generations: 18
• Total number of different surnames: 1,970
I don't know if I can adjust the inquiry to add more statistics, but the default shows that Family Tree Maker gives substantially different information than Roots Magic. But now I know how many people I have in my database (which is not totally up-to-date, unfortunately, or it would show a birth in 1508, along with several hundred more individuals)!
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