It’s time for more Saturday Night Genealogy Fun with Randy Seaver!

Here is today’s challenge:

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 what the top 20  surnames are in your database and, if possible, how many entries.  How many different surnames are in your family tree?

Like Randy, I use RootsMagic 7, so I followed his lead and went to surname lists. I have a total of 1,521 different surnames in a tree of about 7,500 people.

These are my most common surnames:

Adams (134 entries) from 1619 to 2008
Coleman (100) from 1704-2017
Carlisle (100) from 1758-2009
Tarbox (81) from 1612 to 1984
Hicks (78) from 1602-1955
Green (74) from 1530-1982
Unknown (73) from 1563-1920
Bucknam (72) from 1602-1879
Molin (69) from 1700-1908
Haskell (67) from 1575-1869
Wilson (64) from 1742-1919
Brown (64) from 1580-1939
Scerbak (62) from 1820-2011
Coffin (61) from 1609-1815
Burt (60) from 1568-1897
Stewart (59) from 1750-1966
Redding (59) from 1848-2013
Parker (57) from 1650-2001
Patorai (56) from 1810-1995
Smith (55) from 1596-2004

I looked back at my 2017 list. Most of the surnames have an increase of perhaps one or two entries, but some are unchanged. These aren’t families that I’ve been actively researching for the past couple of years, so I wouldn’t expect to see any big number increases.

Thanks, Randy, for this week’s challenge.