‘Personal Ancestral File  (PAF)’

Les Binns - 19 Apr 2006 - speaking at the BerksFHS Computer Branch, Woodley

Les started his talk by saying that Personal Ancestral File (PAF), like all genealogical programs, is a form of database and can be thought of as boxes containing cards with information written on them.

The three ‘boxes’ in PAF are
1 Individuals containing information about people, such as names but also database information such as RIN
2 Family This is about groupings, not individuals. Family details, such as links to spouse and children are here. (PAF does not recognise the existence of same sex partnerships)
3 Source Where the information came from - often overlooked at first but becomes of greater importance as the records grow.

All genealogical programs will save the information in their own generic format, which usually is not recognised by other programs. However all of them can export in Gedcom format, where the data is saved as a text file in a format defined by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) who provide PAF as a free downloa.

When you start PAF you are asked to set preferences, including LDS data. The latter can be turned off but this screen allows choice of format of names and dates etc. The main screen then opens in the Family view. Tabs at the top can change the view to Pedigree or Individual.

To add a new individual, select Add from the top menu. This offers the option of entering individuals or a family. It is possible to link individuals into families at a later stage. The standard entry provides for the basic data of birth, christening and death but if extended information is available, eg the child is adopted, then the Options button leads to a menu where New Events/Attributes can be chosen. If the extensive list does not include an appropriate description then a new Event can be defined.

The default entry screen refers to many types of LDS information that most family historians will not use. At the foot of the screen is a box labelled Template and this allows you to select which fields you want to use

The Individual View is a table of all entries. It can be sorted by name but not by other columns such as date. The columns displayed can be modified by right clicking on a heading, such as Full Name, and either choosing one of the categories, such as Death (which adds columns for Burial Date & Place) or by selecting ‘Add or Modify Columns ‘.

Much more information can be added including sources, notes and multimedia. These are accessed from the Options button of the entry page.

Reports are prepared from the Print menu and there are several pre-defined options. There is also an option to define a Custom Report to include only the data required.. Another form of report is the series of Web Pages that can be created from the Tools menu. These are written to disc for preview and can be loaded onto a web site.

PAF is free and contains many features. It is worth exploring.

updated 1 Sep 2007