Family history is about facts and stories. However, it is also interesting to look at it from a statistical perspective. Statistics about a family can include number of direct ancestors, size of family tree, immigration years, longevity, causes of death, military service branches, occupations, political leanings, religious beliefs, and more. This article takes a look at a few set of statistics using both numerical and visual methods.
Family Tree Size
The chart shows the size of my official trees compared to the size of the same tree on Ancestry.com. It might seem odd that they are different sizes. Many people synchronize their trees on ancestry.com with their local tree. However, I have chosen not to do that. In part, I use the tree on ancestry when researching people or entire family lines (e.g. Lemuel McCracken’s ancestry). In that case, I have added many people to my tree online that I haven’t yet attached to the family or where I have created a temporary attachment that allows me to do additional searching. (And, yes, I make notes on them that they are not confirmed relationships.)
You will notice that in the case of Rod’s family that the online tree is actually smaller. This comes from data that we learned in places other than ancestry.com. In the case of my family, much of the information I had from other sources was already in my tree before I did an initial upload.
You will also notice a huge difference in the size of Rod’s family tree and my family tree. The primary reason, besides the fact that I have been researching my family tree for a longer period of time, is that three of his family lines immigrated to the United States in the mid-1850s while most of my family lines immigrated prior to that time. See the Immigration section for more details.
Military
The chart shows the relatives in our families that served in the Revolutionary War by surname with the surnames grouped by color into the various family lines. It demonstrates that the Klinefelter family line had the most participants followed by the Ellis family line. See Soldiers and Fireworks for more charts about military service.
Immigration
McCracken-Pellett
The chart shows the earliest year that I can confirm each family line was in the United States. In some cases, it is when the family immigrated to the United States. However, often it is the earliest record for someone in that family line. For example, if I show someone was born in the United States in 1780 and I have no records that show the specific date that the family came to the country (or Colonies), it would be included in the 1751-1800 range.
Of the families identified back as far as my 5th great grandparents, a vast majority of them were in the United States prior to 1800. Five of those identified never immigrated to the United States. It is very likely that with additional research that some of the families where I do not know a firm immigration date will be found to have been in the country at an earlier time period than their current category.
The forty that are yet to be determined are in that category either because I hit a brick wall in research or more likely simply because I haven’t had time to research those families in depth. I suspect that they will split with a smaller percentage having early arrival dates and the larger percentage never having immigrated.
Immigration
Thomson – Helm
The Thomson-Helm chart looks very different than the McCracken-Pellett chart. You will notice that the number of families with known dates in the United States or Colonies is much smaller. This is because three of Rod’s four main family lines did not immigrated to the United States until the mid-1800s.
Of the 103 family lines that are not yet determined, a vast majority are expected to fall into the category of “Never Immigrated.” With additional research many of these can be verified. However, a portion of them are from Eastern Europe likely in or near Poland and Ukraine. These family lines may be impossible to trace with any accuracy.
Name Infographic
Helm
This image shows the prevalence of given names in Phillip and Mary Helm’s family. I created it for a post about the confusion around the Helm family due to so many people having the same or similar names. This type of graphic does not include the numerical values. Instead, it demonstrates the values using the size of the text. Clearly, the variations of the name Wilhelm/Wilhelmena are the most common name in the family. The actual numbers aren’t always important when looking at trends or prevalence of certain pieces of data. This type of chart can also be useful in looking at locations of birth/death, causes of death, or any other piece of data or characteristic with repetitive values.
The blog Helm Confusion further discusses information about this graphic.
Age at Time of Death
Pellett
The chart shows the age of death of members of the Pellett family. My mom is the person in the center semi-circle. This provides a visual that shows not only age of death of ancestors, but also trends (or lack there of) by generation and by family line.
One thing that is obvious from this chart is that the further back the generation the younger people tended to die on average. That said, you will see examples of people living longer back many generations. So, the fact that the average lifespan today is greater than it was generations ago seems to be based a lot on eradicating and minimizing childhood diseases and the availability of more advanced medical assistance rather than any changes that make humans naturally live longer.
In the chart, the ones that died very young often are women who died in childbirth. When all the charts are completed (Okay, created. With genealogy, nothing is ever complete), this chart will have a companion chart that shows cause of death when known. This will give a bit of insight into the correlation between age of death and cause of death.
It is also interesting to look at the age of death compared to location, time period, and cause of death. One of my observations, which is not proven, is that early settlers in cities often lived longer than their descendants who moved westward.
I have a section on the website for Statistics. The Earliest Ancestor sections have data in them. However, most other sections are blank right now. Expect this section of the website to start to take shape in 2025.
DNA
Lemuel & Louisiana
Descendants of Lemuel and Louisiana
This chart is focused specifically on DNA matches related to my research of Lemuel L. and Louisiana (Matteer) McCracken. The first three entries show that 95 total descendants of Lemuel and/or Louisiana have taken DNA tests with one of the companies that members of our closer family have tested. A considerable majority of them are descendants of the children that they had together. However, it is possible that additional descendants have tested with other companies or simply do not match as third cousins and beyond are not guaranteed to match.
McCracken DNA Matches
The 80 DNA matches who have been identified as descendants of James & Rachel (Kelly) McCracken show why this couple appears to be Lemuel’s maternal grandparents or great-grandparents (Y-DNA indicates Peppard is likely our paternal line). It does include descendants of a couple of people that are not proven by records to be their grandchildren, but where DNA and available data indicate that it is very likely that they are members of this family.
Peppard DNA Matches
Similarly, the 119 matches to descendants of Johnathan and Elizabeth (Gilmore) Peppard indicate why they are believed to be Lemuel’s grandparents. In this case, there are another 18 matches that are in the Bailey family. However, this specific Bailey family has a Y-DNA match to the Peppard family along with many autosomal matches to the Peppard family. Thus, it is believed that this specific Bailey family descends from the Peppard family despite a different paper trail.
The graphic also shows a group of matches through Louisiana to the Matteer family. We do have a paper trail on Louisiana back to her parents. However, the DNA matches help prove in her family line.
Additionally, several hundred DNA matches to Louisiana have been identified that are believed to fit into several earlier generations of her family. This information will be shared when it is finalized.
I have worked more on Lemuel’s ancestors since I have been working to identify his parents. In his case, an additional 1200 matches have been identified that are believed to most likely be related to Lemuel. However, it is possible that some of them are not actually connected the way they appear.
