The How Many Surnames Challenge

This is a digital image of one of the pages from the Shively Family Bible.

This week the Saturday Night Challenge revolves around the different surnames in our family trees.  To read the original challenge and find the links to the other people that accepted the challenge click HERE.


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 how many surnames are in your database and, if possible, which Surname has the most entries.  If this excites you, tell us which surnames are in the top 5!  Or 10!!  Or 20!!!

4)  Write about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post, in a status or comment on Facebook, or in Google Plus Stream post.

I use Reunion software for my family tree.  Under reports I can generate what is called a "last names"  report.  It tells me that I have 1479 unique last names.   To do this I go to the side bar on the left of my reunion tree window and click on reports.   Then I had a prompt to click on to form the report.  I believe it said "Show".   They are arranged alphabetically so I have to scroll though to pick up on which surnames I have the most entries for.   First I scrolled through and jotted down all the names and figures for those surnames I had in the three figure range.  I had seven.  Then I scrolled back through and counted how many I had in the two figure range.  I had 130.  So I scrolled through one more time and jotted down those surnames that were  more than 75 but less than 100.   There were eight.  So I decided I would  list my top 15 with date ranges.  The explanation given for date ranges is:  

• Earliest Date - the first event date recorded for anybody with a selected surname. The "earliest date" could be any event date, including a death date if there is nobody with the surname who has a birth date. 
• Latest Date - the most recent event date associated with a surname. The "latest date" could be today's date if a person with the surname is living. 

* Sullivan - 158 persons, from 1690-2016

* Shively - 152 persons, from 1709-1840

* Rohrer - 126 persons,  from 1696-2016

* Dexter - 125 persons, from 1500 - 2016

* Rairigh - 121 persons,  from 1775 - 2016

* Morris - 108 persons,  from 1663 - 2016

* Sheafor - 105 persons,  from 1754 - 2016

* Coffman - 99 persons,  from 1730 - 2016

* Moyer - 93 persons, from 1672 - 1979

* Snider - 92 persons,  from 1732 - 1963

* Duffield - 89 persons,  1590 - 1965

* Hutchinson - 85 persons, 1564 - 1740

* Wible - 84 persons, 1730 - 1967

* Lyle - 81 persons, 1765 - 2016

* Stair - 76 persons, 1678 - 2016

Please click on the link on the Hutchinson surname for an explanation of why this surname is in my tree.  She was one of the women highlighted in the series I wrote last March honoring women in my family history.   Hutchinson is one of those lines with issues.   Dexter is my married name.  Coffman, Duffield, and Lyle are all surnames that are from my children's father's lines.   Shively, Rohrer,  Wible and Stair are surnames from my paternal lines.  Rairigh, Sheafor,  Moyer,  and Snider are surnames from my maternal lines.  Sullivan and Morris are surnames that wind through both my maternal and paternal lines - we have to love those Pennsylvania Dutch Anabaptist's lines and how they intertwine. 

This week was another learning experience for me.  I did not realize that there was a last names report function in my software.