How Popular is Genealogy?

WARNING: This article contains personal opinions.

A newsletter reader this week sent an e-mail asking a simple question:

I have heard about surveys showing genealogy to be the 2nd most popular hobby in America. Now I need a citation on this statistic and can't find one on the Internet. Can you help?

In short, the answer is "No." In fact, I question the "fact." I don't believe that genealogy is as popular as often claimed. Let's look at the facts.

There are really two slightly different claims:

1. Genealogy is the most popular (or second or third or fourth most popular) topic on the World Wide Web.
2. Genealogy is the most popular (or second or third or fourth most popular) hobby/personal interest in the United States.

I have no doubt that genealogy is very popular. For proof, I can point out that more than 25,000 people read this newsletter every week. FamilySearch.org and Ancestry.com are some of the more popular sites on the Web with hundreds of thousands of users. Local genealogy libraries and Family History Centers serve thousands of patrons every day. The study of one's family tree obviously is a popular activity among Americans, but is it really the second most popular interest? Or tenth most popular? Or fiftieth?

The only reputable survey that I know of was published in American Demographics magazine in 1995. The survey reported that some 113 million adults in the US, or four out of ten of us, were at least somewhat interested in family history. This survey appears to prove that genealogy is one of America's most popular hobbies.

I do believe this article's accuracy, but look at the question asked: "at least somewhat interested." If you approached 100 strangers on the street and asked each of them if they were "at least somewhat interested" in their family tree, how many would answer in the affirmative?

Now, what happens if you ask 100 strangers if they are VERY interested in their family tree or if they have ever done anything at all to discover more about their ancestry? I don't know the answer to that, but I suspect it would be much less than four out of ten.

While many people may claim to be "somewhat interested," I dare say that most of them have never been to a genealogy library or to a courthouse. Most have never cranked a single roll of microfilm in their lives. How many people in your neighborhood do that? Some may have looked at one or two free online genealogy databases to find people of the same last name, but does that count as being interested in genealogy? I don't think they are very interested if they have never gone beyond the simplest of searches.

The American Demographics magazine survey was conducted in 1995, when the World Wide Web was in its infancy. In that year, probably 90% of all Americans had never seen the Web. In fact, some had yet to hear of it. What a difference a decade makes! Today we do know that genealogy is a very popular topic on the web. I suspect there are more genealogists today than in 1995.

In short, while the 1995 survey in American Demographics magazine may be interesting, I believe it is no longer valid. The genealogy world has changed greatly since 1995. I would not trust a survey that is more than ten years old to provide meaningful answers about anything that is popular on today's World Wide Web.

The other surveys that I am aware of were conducted by Maritz Research. These surveys asked similar vague questions:

1. Are you at least "somewhat interested" in tracing your family history?
2. Are you at least "somewhat involved" with genealogy?

Sixty percent of the respondents said they were at least "somewhat interested," and 45% claimed to be at least "somewhat involved" with genealogy. That sounds promising. However, again, let's examine the questions.

What is the definition of "at least somewhat?" Does "at least somewhat interested" mean, "I remember grandmother talking about that?" Or does it mean, "I have a database on my computer or a notebook on the shelf containing the results of my own search?"

The other thing that bothers me about the Maritz Research is the fact that it was commissioned and paid for by Broderbund, the former producers of Family Tree Maker software. One has to wonder how accurate a survey is when the company paying the researchers has a very biased interest in the results.

The reports of the Maritz Research surveys always reported glowing results and then casually mentioned that Family Tree Maker was the best-selling genealogy program in the world. The same reports usually did not mention that the company that sold Family Tree Maker commissioned the entire survey.

I wonder what the percentages would be in response to this question:

Have you personally done any research on your ancestry in the past year?

To be sure, genealogy is very popular on the World Wide Web. A search for the word "genealogy" on Google returns more than 24 million occurrences of the word. Time Magazine even named genealogy as one of the four most popular topics on the Internet in its 19 April 1999 cover article. (Sex, finance, and sports were the other three.)

My question is this: Does this high number of web sites reflect the true popularity of genealogy, or is it merely a reflection of the fact that today's genealogy programs can create thousands of web pages from one person's database? I suspect the answer is a blend of both.

The fact that 24 million web pages contain the word "genealogy" does not equate to 24 million people posting their own ancestry. In fact, it might be only tens of thousands of people using their genealogy programs to create thousands of web pages each.

If genealogy is truly one of the four most popular personal interests of Americans, we should be able to prove that by other means, right? We should be able to measure the dollars being spent, the popularity of local and national conferences, the number of magazines that serve this personal interest, and more. These are all tried and true measurements used by tens of thousands of marketing firms and others.

Let's start with magazines. If genealogy were truly as popular as our nation's interest in sports, at least one genealogy magazine would have a circulation similar to that of Sports Illustrated. Sadly, I do not know of such a genealogy publication. I could make the same argument about Newsweek, Oprah Magazine, Boating Magazine, Field & Stream, This Old House, Travel & Leisure Magazine, Better Homes & Gardens, Popular Mechanics, various movie fan magazines, and many more. There is no genealogy magazine in a list of the 100 most popular magazines of today. The magazine stand at your local drug store or grocery store probably contains no genealogy magazines at all.

How about national conventions?

The national Star Wars convention draws 40,000 to 50,000 attendees per year. The National Rifle Association's 2005 convention saw 61,000 attendees. The national convention of ham radio operators draws 25,000 to 30,000 attendees every year to Dayton, Ohio. A local health and fitness expo in Phoenix draws 70,000 attendees, and I suspect most of them live within 100 miles of the conference location. Local golfing, hunting, or fishing conferences near me regularly draw 10,000 people and, again, I suspect that most attendees live within 100 miles of the convention center.

Then there are hundreds of local and regional antique fairs, hot rod shows, boating shows, auto shows, and more. Many of these attract tens of thousands of people; some attract hundreds of thousands.

So, how big are the national genealogical conferences? In recent years, the two largest conferences attracted only 1,500 or 1,600 attendees each. Is this an indication that genealogy is one of the five most popular personal interests among Americans?

Side note: Other countries with smaller populations seem to attract more people to genealogy conferences. The annual Family History Show in London typically attracts 2,500 to 3,000 attendees. The last Biennale de Généalogie was held in Paris in December 2004 with more than 20,000 attendees. The smaller Congrés de la Fédération Française de Généalogie is hosted annually in different cities in France and always attracts 3,000 to 5,000 French men and women.

Finally, let's examine the businesses that serve this personal interest. I do not have figures available, but obviously the golfing industry serves a multi-billion dollar marketplace. So do hunting, fishing, gardening, health & fitness, pets, firearms, stamp collecting, and other companies that serve personal interests.

What is the total dollar amount spent on genealogy per year? While I am sure it is a significant sum, it must be a pittance when compared to the other personal interests just mentioned.

In summation, I will suggest that genealogy is indeed a very popular activity among Americans. Hundreds of thousands, perhaps a million, people are actively looking for their family heritage. However, that number pales in comparison to some other personal interests that I have mentioned.

Do you believe there are more genealogists than that? Is genealogy one of the top five personal interests in America? I have one challenge for you: prove it!

Comments

[Dino (All Dino, All the Time)]

Dick,

I agree with your analysis.

I thought about that 24 million web sites as a measure of popularity and thought I'd try to put that in perspective.

Apparently genealogy is more popular than 'peas' which is only mentioned on 14 million websites and 'breadmaking' on 19 million. It has the same popularity as 'shark' and 'socks' both on 24 million sites. Not quite as popular as 'pencil' on 27 million sites. And it gets absolutely crushed by 'snow' on 146 million sites.

Genealogists are pretty focused individuals that do a lot of reading, web browsing, writing, thinking and talking about genealogy and sometimes we can get pretty insulated from other things.

As for me, I've go to go check out the 'Bureau of Lost Socks' website and find out what that's all about.

[genealogynut]

Dick,

You make some interesting points. I am also someone who wonders about the veracity of genealogy's claim of the "[2nd/3rd] most popular hobby." However, coming from a social science background, I think there are some factors that you have missed. I'm just throwing these out with only anecdotal evidence, but think it's worth looking at.

First, I would say that genealogists are "cheap" or frugal, creating the big discrepancy between genealogy and, say, sports or Star Wars. While it has attracted more young people (like me) since the Internet came along, it is still a hobby mostly made up of retirees. The other hobbies you mention, especially things like sports and pop-culture, are made up of younger people with high disposable incomes. Most retirees are on a fixed income and keep a close watch on their money. I think the fixed-/disposable-income differences have an impact on all things related to money, like conference attendance and magazine subscriptions.

Second, unlike sports, Star Wars, hunting, knitting, gardening, and home repair, every genealogist is involved in a UNIQUE venture. In other hobbies, there are a large number of people focusing on a small number of elements or activities. These people can easily reinforce each other's knowledge and enjoyment of the hobby. On the other hand, every genealogist has a completely different family history. Whether the overall theories are the same, the specific stories, sources, and processes, are completely different. No matter how much they pretend, even a group of genealogists don't like to listen to other people's family histories. Compare that to a bunch of guys talking about sports.

Third, in-depth genealogy is not just a "hobby" but a social science. It requires a tremendous amount of study about a wide variety of subjects. Even the most experienced genealogists do not develop their skills through wrote repetition like most other hobbies.

Finally, there are incredibly diverse ways to participate in "genealogy" just like sports or Star Wars. Some people go to libraries and archives, travel to family homesites, and keep track of cousins by e-mail. Other people keep track of family photos and documents in a special place, saving them for another generation.

In many senses, genealogy is as much a hobby to people as church attendance. Keeping track of their history is something that families do as a matter of cultural tradition and duty. They pass stories, documents, and pictures from generation to generation in rotted and rusted boxes. Is the genealogy hobby someone going to a county courthouse or is it children sitting around grandma on the porch listening to family stories that grandma's grandma told?

I think an in-depth survey looking at the different ways you participate in "genealogy" would be interesting.

My belief is if you take genealogy as any accumulation or passing on of family history, it is the most popular "hobby" by far. However, if genealogy is the process of proving familial relationships through documentation, the number of participants sharply decreases.

[PeterChristian]

Dick,

We have actually got some more recent reliable figures for the UK.

In the National Audit Office's 2003 report on the 1901 census (http://www.nao.org.uk/publications/nao_reports/02-03/02031259.pdf) they give a figure of 250,000 UK family historians, based on society membership. Unfortunately, they don't give a source for this figure. In any case, this can only represent the hard core.

A Nielsen//NetRatings report last year gave a figure of 1.7 million family historians using the internet, 7% of the UK online population, and they compared that with 8% in the US (http://www.netratings.com/pr/pr_050524_uk.pdf). (Presumably, therefore, they have done a similar survey for the US.) This suggests a total of 2.5 - 3 million. I can't find it now but I seem to remember that GenesReunited claims 2.5m users, though I dare say a good proprtion of those do not do anything else to pursue their family history.

On the other hand, the weekly attendance figures for *just* the top 5 soccer clubs is 250,000!

[M. Diane Rogers]

I agree with much of what genealogynut had to say & I also like your more direct survey question, Dick, asking whether or not someone has done any research in the past year.

As someone active in a genealogical society, it seems to me that it may be a low percentage of people who join their local societies, so those membership #s might be low. Looking at the #s paying for ancestry.com & other paid subscription databases might be interesting, as genealogy, for many newbies, seems to be a solitary pursuit around the WWW.

One point here in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, Canada is that it's easy to find magazines like Family Chronicle & Family Tree Magazine (the U.S. one). Larger bookstores here carry many of the British genealogy magazines too, although all seem expensive. That's one reason I usually give people to persuade them to join our society---free access to current periodicals & publications in our library.

[John B]

This sounds like a tempest in a teapot.

Yes many people are like me. A little older than most and interested in preserving their family background.

Money is not always available to conduct extensive research through Ancestry.com (and related sites) or going to foreign countries to conduct research. I have found it a useful way to learn use of the internet, and provide productive mental exercize.

Doing research into Barbados, England, Ireland and Scotland for generations preceeding 1600 takes time and effort.

I for one appreciated finding this site and hope it will bring my efforts to greater fruition.

[Judy Burns]

Dick, sorry to contact you in this manner. I cannot locate my user id and password for the Plus edition. I have tried to get these from your feedback email address for the past two weeks and have received no response. I could not find another email address to use.

[Dick Eastman]

To contact me at any time, click on "Contact Us" in the Navigation menus to your right on most of the pages on this web site. That takes you to a page that sends e-mail, has my telephone numbers (USA and London), Skype contact information (toll-free phone call) and my FAX number. If I am traveling for a bit, that address is monitored by someone else. You will always receive a reply within a few hours.

As to the comment of "I have tried to get these from your feedback email address for the past two weeks and have received no response," look in your spam filter. They will be there. The exception is for AOL users: AOL simply deletes those e-mail messages and does not place them in any sort of spam folder.

- Dick Eastman

[Irish Roots]

Hi all, just to let you know that you can now trace and embrace your Irish Roots with Irish Roots Magazine. Our next issue due out in March features a special getting started in Genealogy guide, as well as items on genealogy our magazine also features articles of a historical, cultural and general nature. There is something for everyone in Irish Roots. You can now subscribe online at www.irishrootsmagazine.com or email us directly at editor@irishrootsmagazine.com. We hope you have many hours of happy reading!