Personal Ancestral File (PAF) Review by Ann Davies,  Feb 20, 2013

Have done family history since 1954. Installed PAF as soon as it appeared. Have used it ever since for many family trees - never a problem. Absolutely great programme. Thank you.

Biggest Pro: Magic!
Biggest Con: None.

Personal Ancestral File (PAF) Review by Bob,  Jan 7, 2013

PAF is a Great easy to use product with a short learning curve required. You can make it as detailed or complex or as simple as you desire. You get out of it, what you put in. The PAF companion reports are ourstanding.

I’ve been using the product for many years thru its many upgrades and updates, however with the “Corporate” decision to no longer continue maintaining the PAF software, i.e. keeping it current with the ongoing changes in PC operating system and security software, I’m forced to look elswhere for a replacement. An unsupported product quickly dies from the lack of attention. Those who have years of sweat and blood involved in collecting and storing their valuable, critical and CONFIDENTIAL family information on PAF, could find themselfs out on a broken limb with no way off. The PAF database and related backups on your computer could become outdated and unreadable because of technology changes in your computer’s operating system.

The corporate decision to move the family history data computing from the personal computer (PAF) and onto the WEB and use “Cloud” computing, was a wise business decision. BUT to not allow the user /owner /contributer to be able to tightly control who can view “their” information is very short sighted. There are many times where “Private/Confidential” family history information should never be made available for the world to see and use, as would be the case on a web based product with few controls on who can view it’s information (Data Elements). By necessity, this “Confidential Information” will now be kept on scraps of paper or left in someone’s failing memory.

Biggest Pro: Everything, It’s had a long and outstand life.
Biggest Con: The failure to contine to maintain and keep the product current with technology.

Personal Ancestral File (PAF) Review by Colin,  Jan 7, 2013

Excellent free programme that does exactly what I want for my conventional family research.

In conjunction with PAF Companion makes a great programme for sharing my results with family members. pretty intuitive to use but the interface is now a bit dated as it hasn’t been updated for some time. Most memebers of my Genealogy group use it and I think that is a great recommendation too.

Personal Ancestral File (PAF) Review by wilda jeanne brewer,  Dec 10, 2012

I have used it for many years and i like the way it prints the forms.

Personal Ancestral File (PAF) Review by Eric,  Nov 9, 2012

PAF is simple to learn and easy to use. Works with all windows versions from Win 98 up till now without having to be updated. No bugs. Available in several languages. Has the best Gedcom transfer because it seems to be from the inventor of Gedcom. Works with PAF- Companion und PAF- Insight

Biggest Pro: It´s free and simple to use

Personal Ancestral File (PAF) Review by Ron Tibbitts,  Apr 12, 2012

Why is Personal Ancestral File (PAF) the Best Program http://pafbest.blogspot.com. You cannot compare PAF with any other program because PAF is not like any other program. PAF is not alone it is not by it self. Some say PAF they do not update PAF any more that is not true. Every time they update FamilySearch, Ancestral Quest and FamilyInsight PAF is updated. Not only is PAF updated but example if you use the merge option in FamilyInsight it adds that feature or results in Ancestral Quest and even Legacy because Legacy will open and import PAF records including multimedia files. PAF is by far the very best in to many ways to mention http://pafbest.blogspot.com

Biggest Pro: Other programs read PAF data and some even save data back to PAF
Biggest Con: None if PAF has a con you open you PAF data in FamilyInsight, Ancestral Quest, PAF Companion or Legacy.

Personal Ancestral File (PAF) Review by DougVL,  Aug 29, 2011

PAF does everything I need, and easier than Family Tree Builder, Family Tree Maker, RootsMagic, or Legacy. Those seem bloated and confusing, with way too many things on the screen. Not only are their screens complicated and confusing, but all the extra tabs and icons and windows use up screen space I’d rather save for data.

The only thing I wish I could add to PAF is an Everyone chart, and maybe an “All Relatives” chart. Not many programs have that, but I’m interested in who my relatives are/were, not just who my ancestors were. For the Everyone chart, I like GenBox, but will probably evenually buy Family Historian. Both, if I’m really lucky with my budget!

The program is no longer being updated, but that’s fine. Especially for a free one. Retirement on a low budget prohibits buying new upgrades to software anyway.

Biggest Pro: Efficiency
Biggest Con: Lack of an “everyone” or “all relatives” chart.

Personal Ancestral File (PAF) Review by Carsten Fröhlich,  Jun 14, 2011

I tried a lot of genealogical software, but this programm is really the best you can get. It has nearly all features you need. Only feature which is missing is the “all-in-one-tree” but all others are build in. And it absolutely for free! Thumbs up for this great software.

Biggest Pro: For free with nearly all features you need.
Biggest Con: I found no real Con.

Personal Ancestral File (PAF) Review by Carolyn Douglas,  Mar 24, 2011

Great program and very easy to use

Biggest Pro: Simple to learn
Biggest Con: None

Personal Ancestral File (PAF) Review by Bill Buchanan,  Jan 7, 2011

This may be the best supported genealogy software ever created. There is toll-free support at 1-866-406-1830, also at support.familysearch.org, as well as online forums on genforum.com and yahoo.com, and 4500+ Family History Centers.

This is the easiest program for data entry that I have found. It remembers the 25 most recently used place names and the order they were used. I also use AncestralQuest, and excellent program but find data entry there a little more awkward. I have used PAF to generate my webpages for the last 10 years.

Biggest Pro: support
Biggest Con: no direct connection the FamilySearch Family Tree

Personal Ancestral File (PAF) Review by Bruce,  Sep 21, 2010

efficient, simple and uncluttered

Personal Ancestral File (PAF) Review by Larry,  Sep 19, 2010

I have used PAF 5.2 for years. Not once has it crashed or caused any loss of data. This reliability is the reason I don’t change to a prettier, newer program.

Biggest Pro: Simple to use. No bugs in program

Personal Ancestral File (PAF) Review by David Rogers,  Jul 20, 2010

I Have been using it for yeary. Good reports & Books, Over 8000 Names in my tree with no problems.

Biggest Pro: free
Biggest Con: not updated

Personal Ancestral File (PAF) Review by hugh tornabene,  Feb 8, 2010

Have used PAF for years, love it, it has not crashed.
Though the output is limited, the companion PAF software is excellent++.
It will not allow a male-male marriage. A kinky Mormon restriction, doesnt bother me, probably a workaround.
I love the way it makes gedcom files, like others do.
The only feature I use other software for, is making partial Gedcom files, of selected parts of my tree.

Biggest Pro: does not crash
Biggest Con: no partial gedcom file creation ability that I have found

Personal Ancestral File (PAF) Review by Betty Jo,  Dec 14, 2008

I’ve used all the genealogy programs for the PC, but keep my data in PAF. The advanced focus/filter feature is worth using the program for — even if it didn’t have lots of other great features. With the advanced focus/filter, I can produce a list of folks who meet a specific criteria — i.e. men born or died in OH who were born between 1880 and 1900 who may have been on the WWI Draft registration. I haven’t found that feature in other programs. The others keep adding bells and whistles — I want something that records my data so that I can use it - and doesn’t clutter up the program with unnecessary features. I use PAF to teach beginning Computer Genealogy classes for SrNet — it’s free so everyone can have a copy, easy to use and does the job! Using it with PAF Companion gives me what I need most of the time. If I need other features, I can GedCom to others…

Biggest Pro: Price, advance focus/filter, lack of “bells & whistles”
Biggest Con: none

Personal Ancestral File (PAF) Review by Jon Thomas,  Dec 14, 2008

Always used since Day 1, and will continue to use. But when adding a photo, it wants to just record the absolute path to where that photo happens to exist at the time it was added. The problem is 1) the path probably will be very temporary, and 2) the path is relevant to that computer only. I like to port my whole PAF database to other computers, and expect the photos to come along with it.

I wish the program would have just either made it’s own copy of the photo to maintain inside it’s own database, or at least make the path relative to where my PAF database exists.

So for now I have to resort to moving the entire PAF database+program to a “generic” location such as “C:\PAF52\”, and keep a sub-directory there called “Photos”.

Biggest Pro: Free, Standardized, Runs off Flash drive
Biggest Con: Multimedia (photos) location management prone to getting lost after port to other computers.

Personal Ancestral File (PAF) Review by Bill Buchanan,  Oct 22, 2008

This has got to be one of the best supported products I have ever seen! Besides the toll-free phone number and email address, there are online forums on YahooGroups, Rootsweb, and GenForum (and possibly others), various users groups, 4500 Family History Centers around the world use it and teach it.

I like the fact that it can be run from a flash drive without installing it on the host computer, complete with the multimedia files.

Ancestral Quest 12.1 and FamilyInsight allow PAF to interact with the new FamilySearch, so in effect they act as add-ons for PAF.

I have used PAF since (DOS) version 2, and while I have tried several other programs, I can’t find anything I like as well. Data entry is as easy as it gets. Merging supports unique record identifiers as well as AFNs.

I wish it allowed linking individuals to a wider range of document types. PAF supports some common formats of images, video and sound, but the repertory is rather limited. (You can not link to PDF files.) Still, free is good!

I have used PAF to create genealogy websites, books, reports, etc.

Biggest Pro: Fantastic support! 1-866-406-1830, support@familysearch.org, online forums, knowledgebase
Biggest Con: Printed output is limited to 6 charts plus various configurations of them

Personal Ancestral File (PAF) Review by Anne,  Oct 4, 2008

I’ve been using PAF since about v3. The later versions did away with the useful facility to repeat part-addresses when entering data. The biggest gripe I have is that when presented with a possible match, or with an apparent error (e.g. child born before parents’ marriage), there is no way of marking this as checked so that it doesn’t come up again and again and again whenever I run the utility. I also wish it wouldn’t flag up ‘this sibling is younger than the previous sibling’ but just alter the order of siblings automatically by birth date.

Biggest Pro: Easy to use
Biggest Con: Doesn’t include in-laws’ names on charts; no way to suppress error messages once checked

Personal Ancestral File (PAF) Review by Di Maloney,  Oct 2, 2008

I have used PAF for so long I can’t remember. I recently purchased PAF Companion and it has enhanced what I already had in the free version of PAF. I find it extremely easy to use and it does exactly what I need.
I have been researching my family history for over 25 years and not all of it on the internet.

Biggest Pro: Ease of use
Biggest Con: None that I can think of.

Personal Ancestral File (PAF) Review by Dennis Gries,  Oct 2, 2008

I’ve had PAF for several years, and have taken a look at others.

Beats me what updates in the database engine would do. I don’t think it will do same sex partnerships, but other than that, one can record children to have different last names than the father (or mother, I suppose). Since my projects are true genie studies of blood and marraiges, this causes me no concern.

Yes, the reports don’t appear to match the programmed flexibility of some of the commercial programs, but I still am able to put out (from a nearly 10k person history), some very useful reports, including the whole “family” for several historical societies.

Agan, easy, and limited number of screens input, and plenty of space for Notes.

Biggest Pro: Ease of use and maybe what the LDS was trying to accomplish (KISS)
Biggest Con: Reports could be more imaginative