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.
Be careful when using Personal Ancestral File 3.0
This story was published June 8, 1997
Be careful entering data into Personal Ancestral File 3.0, the exciting new upgrade of genealogical software from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
I wasn't, and cloned my wife and married her twice. I expect now marriage will be twice the bliss. Unfortunately, I also made myself both her father and her husband. I also made Ruth her own child and four biological parents. Who said genealogy isn't interesting?
I didn't commit any of this genealogical mayhem on purpose. I simply uploaded PAF 3.0 it and started adding a few names. Then, I grabbed my old PAF 2.31 database and exported 2,075 records to PAF 3.0 to see how that worked.
Of course, I didn't read the manual first. Where's the adventure in that? If a software application is truly "user-friendly," you don't need a manual, except for advanced tasks, such as reverse engineering the kind of family structure that I created for my family, which is against the laws of both nature and society.
I'm pleased to report the PAF 3.0 manual tells you how to get out of the sticky problem that I created, and a lot of other useful things. The only problem is, you have to read it - preferably before you start using it. I know, that's a drag. But as manuals go, this is better than average, and not in the same sense that all of the children who live in Lake Woebegone, Minn., are "above average."
It really is above average. Considerably. The main message here is to be careful when importing data from older versions of PAF. You could save yourself a ton of trouble by actually reading the manual first. Especially note the warning to back up your old database before importing it and converting it into a form that PAF 3.0 can read, because you cannot convert it back. If something goes awry, or if you decide you don't like PAF 3.0, you'll want to go back to your old database and an earlier version of PAF.
Some may want to do this, but after playing around with PAF 3.0 for a while, I predict most will stay with the upgrade. Folks who are buying their first software application for genealogy probably will take well to the new application.
Change is difficult, sometimes downright painful, even for those of us who revel in it. It was with great pain I discovered PAF 3.0 drops the date calculator and the relationship finder of earlier versions.
The omission, however, wasn't a surprise. I had been warned, and I'll be keeping PAF 2.31 on my computer. It's on a separate drive so neither I nor PAF will get confused. Well, at least PAF won't.
I envision firing the old version up at times just to use the date calculator and relationship finder. These are tremendous boons to genealogists. The date calculator, especially, surely saves myriad mistakes by mathematically challenged genealogists like me.
Although I haven't thoroughly tested PAF 3.0, I've spent enough time with it to know that I will import about 20,000 records from my old PAF database and keep my main genealogical database in PAF 3.0. However, I may wait until Incline Software comes out with an Ancestral Quest upgrade that will allow me to use AQ to print from my PAF database.
One of the negatives in PAF 3.0 is the database no longer is compatible with AQ and dozens of useful third-party, add-on applications that expand PAF's utility. PAF 3.0 signifi cantly improves printed forms, but there's only so much they can do with a DOS-based application.
AQ is a Windows application, which allows superior forms print quality. I predict many PAF 3.0 users will find the upgraded printing adequate for their needs and aesthetic sensibilities. Others will seek other solutions.
I strongly recommend PAF 3.0 to all who need or prefer a DOS application.
Although some legitimately complain the upgrade's data entry features aren't as easy and fast as earlier PAF versions, I still prefer the PAF approach to the Windows approach.
It is easier and faster than the keyboard option for data entry provided in Windows applications that I've tried. Bizarre as it seems, using a mouse is much harder on wrists than keyboarding, and many of us who are using computer applications designed by mouse-happy engineers have the surgical scars to prove it.
There is much more to like about PAF 3.0 than can be covered in a newspaper-length column. But at $15, it's hard to go wrong. Unless, of course, you convert your old database without keeping a copy of the older version.
Spokane Genealogist Donna Potter-Phillips will speak to the Tri-City Genealogy Society on Wednesday in Richland's Harry Kramer Center. Her topic is "A Light-Hearted Look at Court Records."
The meeting will start at 6:30 p.m., an hour earlier than usual. Society meetings are held on the second Wednesday of each month, except July when no meeting is held.
The public is invited and there is no fee.