Personal Ancestral File (PAF) was a free

genealogy software Genealogy software is computer software used to record, organize, and publish genealogical data. Features At a minimum, genealogy software collects the date and place of an individual's birth, marriage, and death, and stores the relationships ...

program provided by

FamilySearch FamilySearch is a nonprofit organization and website offering genealogical records, education, and software. It is operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and is part of the Church's Family History Department (FHD). The Fami ...

, a website operated by

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Restorationism, restorationist Christianity, Christian Christian denomination, denomination and the ...

. It was first released in 1983, last updated in 2002, and formally discontinued in 2013. It allowed users to enter names, dates, citations and source information into a database, and sort and search the genealogical data, print forms and charts, and share files with others in

GEDCOM FamilySearch GEDCOM, or simply GEDCOM ( , acronym of ''Genealogical Data Communication''), is an open file format and the de facto standard specification for storing genealogical data. It was developed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day ...

format. PAF also linked images and other media files to individual records.

History

The history of PAF ran in parallel with the evolution of

, the de facto specification for GEnealogy Data COMmunication or exchange. Version 2.3.1, released in 1994, was the last version written specifically for the Macintosh operating system, though PAF 5.2.18, written for Windows, can be installed on Apple Mac OS X using CrossOver Mac. In 2004 there were speculations about PAF being made

open-source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...

. Version 5.2.18.0 began with an adaptation of Incline Software's Ancestral Quest program, written by Gaylon Findlay. Findlay has been involved in updates of PAF.Personal Ancestral File for Macs - Selected FAQ
"The current version of Personal Ancestral File for the Macintosh is 2.3.1. The current IBM versions of Personal Ancestral File are 4.0.4.18 and 5.2.18 (as of Aug 2002). Ancestral Quest has been developed separately, although it retains much of the basic visual layout and file structure of PAF. In June 2013, FamilySearch announced that, effective July 15, 2013, PAF would be discontinued, and that support and downloads would no longer be available.

Releases (1984–2002)

The following is a selected release history: *PAF 1.0 (

MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few op ...

) released in April 1984. Written in

BASIC Basic or BASIC may refer to: Science and technology * BASIC, a computer programming language * Basic (chemistry), having the properties of a base * Basic access authentication, in HTTP Entertainment * Basic (film), ''Basic'' (film), a 2003 film ...

and did not have support for GEDCOM. *PAF 2.0 (MS-DOS,

Apple II Apple II ("apple Roman numerals, two", stylized as Apple ][) is a series of microcomputers manufactured by Apple Computer, Inc. from 1977 to 1993. The Apple II (original), original Apple II model, which gave the series its name, was designed ...

, CP/M) released in April 1986. Supported an early specification of GEDCOM 2.0. Due to PAF's slowness in BASIC, it was rewritten in C (programming language), C. *PAF 2.1 (MS-DOS, DOS, Apple ProDOS, ProDOS, Classic Mac OS, Macintosh) released in 1987. Supported an early specification of GEDCOM 4.0. *PAF 2.2 (MS-DOS, ProDOS, Mac) released in 1989. Supported an early specification of GEDCOM 4.0. *PAF 2.3 (MS-DOS, Macintosh) released in 1994. The Macintosh version was called ''PAF:Family Records'' and ''MacPAF''. Supported an early specification of GEDCOM 4.0. *PAF 2.31 (MS-DOS, Macintosh) released 30 Sep 1994. This was the final release of the Macintosh version and only worked on Classic OS - OS 8.5 through OS 9.2.2. Supported an early specification of GEDCOM 4.0. *PAF 3.0 (DOS) released May 1997. Supports the current GEDCOM 5.5 specification. *PAF 3.0M (DOS) released June 1999. A maintenance release of PAF 3.0; Shows as Release 3.01M. *PAF 4.0 released 28 June 1999. ( Win9x/ NT) Freeware. Supports the current GEDCOM 5.5 specification. PAF 4.0 was based on Ancestral Quest. *PAF 5.0 released in November 2000 (Win9x/NT) Freeware. Supports the current GEDCOM 5.5 specification. First version to support

Unicode Unicode or ''The Unicode Standard'' or TUS is a character encoding standard maintained by the Unicode Consortium designed to support the use of text in all of the world's writing systems that can be digitized. Version 16.0 defines 154,998 Char ...

allowing multiple languages."Software upgrade makes names easier to submit to temple"
''

Church News The ''Church News'' (formerly ''LDS Church News'') is a multi-platform supplement and subdivision of the ''Deseret News'', a Salt Lake City, Utah newspaper owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (informally, the LDS Church). ...

'', March 24, 2001: "PAF 5.0 was recently updated to accept most of the world's alphabets and now has screens in and prints reports in Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Swedish and German." Included was a standalone read-only

Palm OS Palm OS (also known as Garnet OS) is a discontinued mobile operating system initially developed by Palm, Inc., for personal digital assistants (PDAs) in 1996. Palm OS was designed for ease of use with a touchscreen-based graphical user interface. ...

application to view, but not edit, PAF data. * PAF 5.1 released in 2001 (Win9x/NT) Freeware. Supports the current GEDCOM 5.5 specification. Support multiple languages. * PAF 5.2 released 23 July 2002 (Win9x/NT) Freeware. Supports the current GEDCOM 5.5 specification. Supports multiple languages."Updated PAF 5.2 available"
''

'', August 10, 2002.

Multilingual support

*PAF 4.x supported English, Spanish, Portuguese, German and French; PAF 4.0.4 was the last version for French, Spanish, and Portuguese *PAF 5.x supported English, Chinese, German, Japanese, Korean, and Swedish

References

External links

PAF support page
at FamilySearch.org
PAF Tutorial
at

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU) is a Private education, private research university in Provo, Utah, United States. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is the flagship university of the Church Educational System sponsore ...

(2007)
Alternatives to PAF
from

, archived from th
original
on Sep. 13, 2013
Modern Software Experience: A Brief History of Personal Ancestral FileModern Software Experience: Why PAF is still popular
{{Genealogy software 1983 software Products and services discontinued in 2013 Discontinued software Genealogy and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Windows-only freeware Windows-only genealogy software

History

Releases (1984–2002)

Multilingual support

See also

References

External links