Spreadsheet Day!

Question

It's Spreadsheet Day!

I know many of us use spreadsheets to track our genealogy and also WikiTree related activities (many projects use spreadsheets to track different types of information about the project).

How do you use spreadsheets? We'd love if you shared some insight :)

Answer 1

The very best spreadsheet I use often is for location names.  Stephen Tibbets and Barry Sweetman put it together and Stephen maintains it, and has added many other pages with useful tips.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jlRaiRtaMEpsPdeuRLS2ids4HAXJyGVCKiQyEMh4NNE/edit#gid=667189750

Comments

Thanks for the star Stephanie.  I hope everyone will use this spreadsheet as it is freely available to all!

Answer 2

Sarah,

I log every match I find on Gedmatch, FTDNA and MyHeritage for myself and my siblings.  I include the chrom. the segments, if there is a gedcom, a link to a family file if I find one, the Wikitree ID, relationship if identified, with ancestor ID's from Wikitree if identified, 3-way or more matches are highlighted in a specific color, matches are identified as being paternal or maternal if known, relationships are coded - P8c1 as an example, e-mails, notes on everything, a note if I have sent an e-mail with the date and a note if there is a significant response. "I think Wikitree is creepy" an actual response - tells me I probably do not need to get anymore information from that person.

The data is sorted by name, chromosome, segment but can be sorted as needed.

Answer 3

I posted a message about how I use spreadsheets in response to a question of the week in February.

Answer 4

I have one spreadsheet for DNA matches, much like Philip's system.  I just enter matches where I have identified the connection or are "interesting", for example if I think I'm related to the person on a brick wall line, not all matches.  I've also color coded which line each match is on and I can sort by amount of shared DNA or common ancestor, etc.

I have another spreadsheet for WikiTree.  One tab is a running "to do" list.  Stuff like profiles I adopted and want to come back and clean up later, requests and messages I sent that I want to follow up on in a certain amount of time, etc.  Another tab is a "how to".  Stuff like the link for the Ancestry citer, syntax for various searches in WikiTree+, etc.  Another tab is a list of source citations for a books or things that don't come with a copyable citation that I might use again.  I also note a profile where I used the source so I can just copy the next time.

I have another spreadsheet that's a general genealogy research log.

And another spreadsheet where I entered several generations in a horizontal tree format.  Then I highlighted the ancestors where I have confirmed the relationship through DNA.  I have this info elsewhere, but the regular grid of the spreadsheet makes it easy for me to visualize.

Answer 5

I used a spreadsheet to create an index of Aguascalientes, Mexico matrimonial investigations from about 1660 to about 1740. The spreadsheet was the data file for a Word merge document, in which the documents are list in chronological order (the original documents were not a chronological order and a real pain to search). The resultant searchable pdf file was posted in parts at the Nuestros Ranchos website where members could download it. The final product amounted to a few hundred pages.

Answer 6

In addition to DNA matches, I also have a spreadsheet for records I've ordered, or plan to.  Helps me space them out, and remember what's on order for the places that take forever.

Answer 7

I have a genealogy spreadsheet that includes everything from dna matches to census reports. It's pretty cool. =D

Answer 8

At present, I'm building a spreadsheet listing GEDCOM that have lots of  unsourced orphans, nearly 200 GEDCOM so far.

Answer 9

I use a spreadsheet that keeps track of my living relative's birthday and current age (years, months, days) and is sorted by the oldest first. (My oldest living "known" relative is a first cousin and is 72 years, 9 months, and 22 days as of today.)

Also, I threw marriages into the listing too and highlighted them in yellow (I have a first cousin that will be celebrating a 50th wedding anniversary in 4 months and a few days).

It's kept in the cloud. So, I can access it anytime that I have access to the internet or I am at one of my devices.

Answer 10

I use a spreadsheet that keeps track of my deceased ancestors and close relatives and the length of time they have lived -- sorted by the longest lived first. (My paternal aunt has lived the longest at 97 years, 2 months and 4 days followed by my maternal grandfather who lived 94 years, 4 months and 5 days.)

I put in the birth date and death date and the spreadsheet calculates the age lived.

It's kept in the cloud. So, I can access it anytime that I have access to the internet or I am at one of my devices.