Family History Activity Survey: US results

There were 20 responses to this survey from US residents, thanks to those who participated. With such a small sample the error margin in representing the US genealogical community will be large, but as the results parallel those for Canadians they're likely not too far off.

30% of respondents were not a member of a genealogical or family history society of some type. Membership across the various types of society was fairly evenly distributed with a many being members of more than one type.

Ancestry was the most frequent response to the query "I have a personal paid subscription to the following online databases". At 79% that was well ahead of Find My Past at 37%. Newspaper databases attracted 26% and My Heritage 16%,

As regards genealogy software, 55% use Family Tree Maker which is also the most used software as in Canada.

47% were subscribers to Family Tree Magazine (US), while the same number reported not subscribing to any commercial magazine. This is the one area where Canadian results are quite different, there Internet Genealogy magazine was the most popular.

Voluntary contributions were much as in Canada with 65 % of respondents mentioned doing some sort of volunteer activity.

80% of respondents were retired; 45% were in the 61-70 age category, 30% 71-80 years of age. That makes the average age of respondents slightly greater than Canadians.