03 September 2013

Family History Activity Survey: Canadian results

Of the 143 responses to this survey, and thanks to all those who participated, 110 were from Canada.


Only 15% were not a member of a genealogical or family history society of some type.Provincial. state and UK county focused organization were the most popular.

Ancestry was the most frequent response to the query "I have a personal paid subscription to the following online databases". At 88% that was well ahead of Find My Past at 55%. Interestingly 22% had some form of a newspaper database subscription. Trailing was canadiana.ca; with LAC choosing that site to host their digitized records we can expect it to become more popular once the content grows significantly to match the subscription fee.

As regards genealogy software, 63% use Family Tree Maker, 22% Legacy, 12% Roots Magic and 5% The Master Genealogist. Among the 22% who use some other genealogy software there was more than one response for PAF, Reunion, and Ultimate Family Tree.

Only 38% of respondents subscribed to a genealogy magazine. Internet Genealogy (21%), followed by Family Chronicle (17%) were the most popular.

Societies are always looking for volunteers, yet 70% of respondents mentioned doing some sort of volunteer activity. 34% helped with and event; 28% wrote of spoke with no more than nominal payment; 23% volunteered in a library or archives;19% served as a board member or other official capacity, the same percent as did indexing.

55% percent of respondents were in the 61-70 age category, 20% 51-60 years of age. As a 65 year old Canadian man has a life expectancy approaching 20 years, women longer, and 67% of members retired, the immediate future is bright for genealogy/family history societies.

Come back to the blog for responses for other countries, and to the final two questions.

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