The Family Tree
By Terence L. Day
Terence L. Day, genealogist and journalist, is on the Washington State University faculty. He welcomes e-mail at genealogy@moscow.com, or regular mail in care of the Tri-City Herald City newsroom, P.O. Box 2608, Tri-Cities, WA 99302-2608.
Christmas comes in July to genealogy enthusiasts
This story was published July 4, 1999
Forget the Fourth of July. It's Christmas for genealogists, and Santa is being very, very nice.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is giving away its new Windows-based Personal Ancestral File software.
Anyone with a modem and a connection to the Internet can download the program by simply logging onto the LDS FamilySearch Web site.
PAF is a venerable genealogy software application. It's been around more or less since the beginning of the personal computer. Until now, it has been a DOS-based program.
Oh, heavens, I don't even know how to explain that to people who aren't familiar with computers. Suffice it to say, in computer terms, it was old and clunky in the Windows world.
Most genealogists didn't like the menu-driven method of entering data, although I much prefer it to the template approach used by all Windows applications. I don't know anyone who preferred the DOS-based forms that the earlier versions of PAF printed, and that especially included me.
Ancestral Quest came along with a program that solved both problems. It would use the PAF database and display it in a Windows environment. This provided both Windows template data entry and beautiful forms printing. I used PAF for data entry and database management, and printed all my forms via Ancestral Quest.
Forms in the new product, PAF 4.0, are so similar to AQ's forms that one suspects PAF's software engineers may have cut a deal with AQ to use their code for forms.
Whatever, I think you'll love the forms in PAF 4.0
At one time, PAF claimed to be the most popular genealogical software in the world. In recent years, others have started claiming that distinction. But at no cost, and given what PAF 4.0 will do, I should think PAF will quickly reclaim the lead, if it ever lost it.
Making PAF work in Windows is just the beginning of this major software upgrade. PAF 4.0 does a whole herd of stuff earlier versions didn't do. There are so many new features in PAF 4.0 that I haven't discovered them all yet.
For instance, it now allows users to print pictures and to create a genealogical Web page. A very valuable feature allows you to edit individual records from the five-generation tree, which displays lineage for 31 people at a time on one screen.
Another option is displaying that individual's family record without losing your place on the tree, or lineage chart. I promise you will find this an extremely valuable feature.
PAF 4.0 also provides for multi-media (sound and pictures) and has a feature that greatly simplifies publishing a book on your family.
I could write a dozen columns singing the virtues of PAF 4.0, but will restrain myself. If you want to enjoy Christmas in July, here's how to get PAF 4.0, for free:
Point your Internet browser to familysearch.org. When the FamilySearch page appears, go to the upper left-hand corner and click your mouse on "What's New." A menu there will allow you to download PAF 4.0.
The file is 3,567K bytes (3,567,000 bytes). I downloaded it in 16 minutes with a 56K bits-per-second modem. If you have a 28.8K modem, it should take you about twice as long. If you have an ancient 14.4K modem ... Well, it will move like an arthritic grandmother, but it will get the job done.
You may want to print the instructions from the Web page before you start your download. They are excellent. Once the download is complete, you go to the directory in your computer that you selected for the software and click on the file. A setup shield will pop up. It will walk you through setup.
My download and setup were flawless, and that's a pretty big compliment to the software engineers who worked on this. If anything on a computer can be messed up, I can be counted on to mess it up.
What do you need in the way of a computer to use PAF 4.0? Any of the newer computers should handle it without any problem. Your computer will need to have Windows 95 or Windows 98 or the NT operating system. A Pentium processor is recommended, but the software will run on a 486/66 processor.
You will need 16 to 32 megabytes of memory and 20 megabytes of hard disk space. There are other requirements, but these are the main ones. Check the PAF 4.0 download page, which lists all of the requirements.
At this price, you can't afford not to give PAF 4.0 a try.