Updating My Genealogy Surname Word Cloud—and a Little Blog Housekeeping

As I'm winding down my end-of-summer staycation, I took time to do a little housecleaning on my blog. Below are the updates I made to the general layout.

• Removed links to social media sites I'm no longer monitoring. Ancestry (patndoris94) or Threads (@patndoris) have evolved into the best "off-blog" ways to contact me. Of course, you're always welcome to leave comments directly on any posts here on Blogger! 
• Added a text link to show I'm a member of the New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS). 
• Updated disclosures to include how I use ChatGPT for titles, search descriptions, and to review posts for clarity, punctuation and grammar. I will continue to use disclosures on individual posts as well.
• Updated disclosures to clarify that prices and features of any site I review were current at the time the post was published.
• Updated my notice regarding sharing to clarify it's fine to share my posts on other social media sites by linking directly to a post.
• And my favorite! It's been 2 years since I posted my first surname word cloud using ChatGPT. I've updated it to reflect the current distribution of names in my tree. The current surname word cloud appears in my sidebar.

Take a little peek at the changes to my surname distribution. The first image is the newly generated image for 2026. The second picture is the original surname cloud from 2024. While they look similar, some of the names have grown in font size, indicating I now have more of these family members in my tree. My original 2024 image was based on 677 individual surnames. The new 2026 image is based on 971 individual surnames—an increase of approximately 43%!

Surname word cloud 2026

Surname word cloud 2024

Generating a word cloud with ChatGPT is very easy! I used the Publish feature of Family Tree Maker (FTM) to create a Surname Report. I chose to include all individuals, but you can also select immediate family, extended family, or choose specific individuals. I generated the report and then exported it to a CSV file. I removed the total line (otherwise the word Total will be included as a surname). Then I asked ChatGPT to create a word cloud using the attached CSV file, with the font size reflecting the number of individuals for each surname. I was happy with the default colors it used last time, but you could absolutely prompt it to use alternate color schemes if you wish.

As always, I'm thankful for everyone who stops by to read my blog. I'm especially grateful to those who regularly share my posts so they can reach more family historians, and to those who comment to let me know when a post resonates in some way. I know housekeeping updates aren't exciting, but I do want to be transparent—especially about my use of AI and how to best share my content with others.

Disclosure: I used ChatGPT to create my surname word cloud. I also used ChatGPT to assist with a title and search description, and to review this post for clarity, punctuation and grammar. Unless otherwise indicated, the content and all opinions are my own.