FamilySearch™ Personal Ancestral File 5.

2
Getting Started

Major changes made since Personal Ancestral File 5.1.12.0

• More fields available in Global Search and Replace. You can now use the Global Search and
Replace feature to make changes to the Full Name field, notes, and temple codes.

• Ability to add ordinance information from TempleReady. You can add ordinance dates from an
.oup file from TempleReady.

• Increased protection of privacy of living individuals. When you create web pages, the Hide Details
for the Living option is selected by default.

Changes made to the online help and Users Guide

Minimal changes were made to the help and Users Guide to correct errors and to explain new features.
Because the changes are so minor, it is recommended that you not print the entire Users Guide for 5.2 if
you previously printed the previous version.

Important: The text for the Users Guide is identical to the information found in the online help, and the
online help actually contains more information than the Users Guide. If you use the online help, you do
not need to print the Users Guide, which is nearly 200 pages. For basic instructions on using the online
help, see the section “How to receive additional information,” which is the last section in this Getting
Started guide.

If you printed a previous version of the 5.0 Users Guide and would like to see or print only the significant
changes, please review the following chapters:

• Introduction. The sections “What is new?” and “Obtaining information about The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints” were updated.

• Adding individuals and families. The section “Guidelines for event dates” now contains information
about what to enter for children who died before age 8 and how to enter B.C. dates. The section
“Guidelines for Latter-day Saint ordinance information” now contains information about what to do if
a sealing was cancelled or should not occur.

• Using notes. Minor changes were made to the sections “How to add or edit notes,” and “Using tags.”

• Using multimedia. The section “Managing multimedia files” contains information about how to use
absolute and relative paths to better manage your multimedia files.

• Creating focus lists. A new example, titled “Case Study: Finding all individuals with multimedia and
moving all multimedia files” has been added to further clarify the use of absolute and relative paths. A
minor correction was made to “Choosing a relationship filter.”
• Importing GEDCOM files. A cross reference was added to the section “How to import GEDCOM
files” to refer you to how to add an ordinance update file (.oup file) from TempleReady.

• Submitting names for temple work. A new section titled “How to add TempleReady updates (.oup
files)” was added.

• Creating web pages. Minor changes were made to this topic to emphasize that you should maintain
the privacy of individuals who may still be living.

• Merging duplicate records. Minor corrections were made to the section “How to merge records by
unique record serial number.”

• Making global changes. This entire chapter was modified to explain how to use the new searches
available in the Global Search and Replace feature: notes, names, and temple codes.

• Changing surnames to mixed case. The section “How to change surnames to mixed case” now
contains a cross reference to “How to make global changes” for how to correct capitalization errors
made by the Change Surnames to Mixed Case feature.

• Using Notepad for Personal Ancestral File. This entire chapter is new.

What Can FamilySearch™ Personal Ancestral File Do for Me?

FamilySearch™ Personal Ancestral File is a tool to help you record, manage, and share your genealogical
information. With this program, you can create and store family information about thousands of people.

Type Each Person’s Information Only Once

You have to type the basic information about a person only once on the Individual Record screen. It is
like filling out a form.

Each person will be stored, linked, and displayed in the relationships you request. For example, an
individual can be seen in one or more families as a child with siblings or as a parent with a spouse.

You can type information from nonroman writing systems, such as Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and
Cyrillic. You can mix these writing systems in one .paf file, and they will display and print correctly.

Customized Individual and Marriage screens (Templates)

You can now create templates, which are customized Individual screens and Marriage screens. Templates
can help speed up the your data entry because:

• The template contains only the fields that you use routinely. You will not have to constantly move the
cursor through fields that you never use to get to a field that you always use.

• The fields can be in the order that best meets your needs.

• If you almost always add the same custom event or attribute to the Individual screen or Marriage
screen, you may want to add it to the template. The custom event or attribute will always appear on the
screen when you use that template.
You can create and use many templates in the same .paf file. This is useful if you have different lines of
ancestry that require different fields. For example, you may use one template for a German line and
another template for a Japanese line.

If you want to type names in more than one script, create a template with fields where you can type the
different versions of the same name. A Japanese template, for example, might have a Full Name field for
kanji, a Phonetic Name field for the katakana, and a Romanized Name field for a romanized (western)
transcription of the name.

You can also specify a default template. The program displays the default template each time you add a
new individual record or marriage record. If needed, you can then select a different template.

Customized Events

Personal Ancestral File 5.2 allows you to define your own events on individual records. For example, you
can add confirmations, bar mitzvahs, engagements, emigration dates, marriage banns, censuses, and so
forth. You can select from a predefined list of events or add new ones to the list.

Multimedia

You can add digitized pictures, video clips, and sound files to individual records and source citations. You
can include the pictures on reports and create interactive scrapbooks and slide shows.

Link People to Families, and Link Families Together

Once an individual’s information is typed into Personal Ancestral File, he or she can be linked into
families as a spouse, child, parent, or sibling. Personal Ancestral File displays these linked people, and
you can quickly and easily move back and forth between people.

Print Pedigrees, Family Groups, and Lists

Using Personal Ancestral File, you can print many different charts and forms from the information you
type. For example, you can print blank or filled-in pedigree charts and family group records and
individual records, alphabetical lists of ancestors, and lists of persons whose temple work has not been
completed.

Personal Ancestral File 5.2 prints several new types of reports, including modified register books in
descendancy order, ahnentafel books in ancestor order, and scrapbooks that show pictures. You can also
create slide shows that display the sounds, videos, and pictures you have collected.

Use Notes to Add Interest and Value

You can keep track of important and interesting historical information for each individual and marriage by
using the Notes feature. You can record occupations, education, and other bits of information that will
help create a better “picture” of the individual.

You can type a tilde (~) as the first character of a note to keep it confidential. You can then choose
whether to print these notes on reports and include them when you export information from your file.

Use Sources to Track Your Research

The source feature allows you to keep track of your information sources for each event as well as
individual information, marriage information, and family information. You can record details about the
author, publisher, book, page, and place where you found the information.

You can add scanned images of the sources you use.

Search for, Find, and Correct Information

Once you have names in your file, you can easily search for and find specific individuals. You can then
look at or correct their information. When you change information about a person once, it is changed
every time the person is displayed again in your .paf file. This saves time and effort.

View Your Family Information in Different Ways

You can see your family information in three main views:

• The Family View shows an individual, his or her spouse and children, and parents. In Personal
Ancestral File 3.0, this view was called the Small Pedigree.

• The Pedigree View shows an individual and his or her direct-line ancestors (parents, grandparents,
great-grandparents, and so forth). In Personal Ancestral File 3.0, this view was called the Large
Pedigree. You can perform most of the same tasks in the Pedigree View as you can the Family View.

• The Individual View shows all of the individuals in your .paf file. You can sort this list by name or by
Record Identification Number (RIN). You can add or remove columns from the Individual View and
determine the order in which they appear.

Match and Merge Duplicate Entries

As your .paf file grows, you will probably collect duplicate records, particularly if you load information
obtained from another person or from electronic .paf files such as FamilySearch. Using the Match/Merge
feature, you can find duplicate records and merge them into a single record. You can also merge duplicate
sources.

Perform Focused Searches

You can conduct special searches of your .paf file to focus on records with specific types of information.
You can design and print reports that contain the information you want from the records you focused on.
For example, you can have Personal Ancestral File provide a list of Smiths who lived in California
between the years 1850 and 1950 by focusing on surname, birth year range, and place of birth.

Share Your Information

You can import information into your file or export your information for others to use in their .paf files.
Sharing information is a productive way to obtain more research and ensure that others can use your
research.

You can share your information in the following ways:

• You can create a GEDCOM file to share with another person.

• You can also contribute family information to Ancestral File and the Pedigree Resource File so that
other people can see and use your family genealogy.

• You can prepare and submit names to TempleReady for temple ordinance work. Their names will later
appear on the Ordinance Index and on the International Genealogical Index.

Coordinate Research with Others

Personal Ancestral File 5.2 assigns each record in your .paf file a unique serial number. Like a record
identification number (RIN), a unique record serial number identifies each individual in a .paf file. Unlike
a RIN, a unique record serial number is unique worldwide. This means that each individual in each of
your .paf files has a number that is different from all other individuals in all other Personal Ancestral File
.paf files in the world.

The unique record serial number does not change if you export a GEDCOM file and send it to another
person. Therefore, you can send a GEDCOM file to another individual, he or she can import it into
Personal Ancestral File, make changes to it, create another GEDCOM file, and send it back you. You can
then use the Match/Merge feature to identify the records that you originally created, identify what
changes the other person made, decide which information to keep, and merge the records.

You cannot see a unique serial number on the Individual screen, and you cannot edit it.

Publish Information for the World Wide Web

You can easily publish your genealogy on the World Wide Web. Personal Ancestral File 5.2 allows you to
choose the people and information you would like to include and then creates the web pages for you.

Working with Personal Ancestral File

The three main screens you use are the Family View, Pedigree View, and Individual View screens. You
can perform many of the same functions on each screen, but most people find it easiest to use the Family
View screen for adding and editing information. The Pedigree View screen is useful for seeing several
generations of ancestry at one time. The Individual View is useful if you want to view the individuals in a
list that is sorted alphabetically or numerically by RIN.

To switch from one screen to the other, use one of these methods:

• From the View menu, select Family, Pedigree, or Individual.

• Press Ctrl+S. (S means “switch.”)
• Click on the Family, Pedigree, or Individual tab.

Moving Around

Personal Ancestral File allows you to move individuals around on the Family View and Pedigree View
screens. The options you use on each screen are different.

Moving Around on the Family View Screen

The name in the upper-left portion of the screen is in the primary position. You use several methods to
move another person to the primary position:

• Click the triangular arrow button next to the person’s name.

• On the keyboard, press S to move the spouse, F to move the father, M to move the mother, or C to
move a child. (These keys work much the same way as they did in previous versions of Personal
Ancestral File.)
• Right-click on an individual, and select Primary.
• Use one of the options listed on the Search menu.
• Hold down the Ctrl key, and double-click on the individual.

Moving Around on the Pedigree View Screen

The name in the first generation position is in the primary position.

• Use the arrow keys on the keyboard to highlight one of the triangular buttons located next to a fifth-
generation person.
• Click one of the arrow buttons that are located after the fifth-generation person.
• Right-click on an individual’s name, and select Make Primary.
• Use one of the options listed on the Search menu.
• Hold down the Ctrl key, and double-click on the individual.

Adding and Editing Individuals

To add or edit an individual’s information, you will need to display the Individual screen.

You can use several methods to display this screen. These methods work on the Family View, Pedigree
View, and Individual View screens.

• Highlight the individual’s name, and click .

• Double-click on the individual’s name or on the place on the screen where the name should appear.
• Highlight the individual’s name or the place on the screen where he or she should appear, and press
Enter.
• Right-click on an individual’s name, and select the appropriate option.
• Use the options on the Add or Edit menus.

To add marriage information, you must first link a person to a spouse or child. You can then access the
marriage information from both the Family View and Pedigree View screens.

Using Other Features

To use other features, you can:

• Click on the button on the tool bar. If you are not sure what a button does, position the mouse arrow
over the button, and leave it still for one second. The name of the button will appear.
• Select an item from a pull-down menu.
• Use the shortcut keys. To find out what the shortcut keys are, click on the Help menu, and select
Keyboard. The shortcut keys also appear on the pull-down menus.

Where Do I Start?
When using Personal Ancestral File 5.2, what you do first depends on what you have already done.

• If you are just beginning to add information about your family, you will need to create a new file and
begin typing information about you and the rest of your family.

• If you have been using Personal Ancestral File 2.31, you will need to create a GEDCOM file that
contains all of the information in the INDIV2.DAT. You can then import the GEDCOM file into
Personal Ancestral File 5.2.

Tip: Keep a backup file of your data until you are sure that the file was converted correctly.

• If you are transferring information from another GEDCOM-compatible program, you will need to
create a GEDCOM file and import it into Personal Ancestral File.

Setting Preferences
Use Preferences to customize how Personal Ancestral File works on your computer. To access
Preferences, from the Tools menu, select Preferences (or press Ctrl+Shift+P).

You can change many different settings, including the following:

• Display or hide Latter-day Saint ordinance fields and options.

• Display and print surnames in all uppercase letters or in mixed case letters.
• Display RINs, MRINs, Ancestral File numbers (AFNs), or Custom ID numbers.
• Change the primary person displayed when you open a .paf file.
• Select screen fonts and colors.
• Add submitter information (called “Prepared by.”)
• Choose the folders where you want to store various types of files.
• Set preferences for multimedia (pictures, sound, and video).
• Choose how names, places, and dates are formatted.
• Choose how the InfoBoxes on the Pedigree View screen work.
• Choose whether Personal Ancestral File asks you to verify the spelling of new names that you type.
• Choose whether you can add and edit Ancestral File numbers (AFNs).
• Create templates (customized Individual and Marriage screens).
• Determine how Personal Ancestral File marks surnames with slash marks. If Personal Ancestral File
does not mark surnames correctly, set the preferences so that the program does not mark surnames.
You can then type the slashes yourself.

Submitting names in nonroman languages

If the names you want to submit have nonroman characters, you must attend a temple that processes those
characters. Please follow that temple’s submission procedures.

• The Tokyo Japan and Fukuoka Japan Temples process Japanese characters.
• The Seoul South Korea Temple processes Korean characters.
• The Taipei Taiwan and Hong Kong China Temples process Chinese characters.
• The Stockholm Sweden and Freiberg Germany Temples process Cyrillic characters.

Using Personal Ancestral File Companion

What is Personal Ancestral File Companion?

Personal Ancestral File Companion is a utility program designed to print high quality genealogical charts
and reports directly from Personal Ancestral File. The program is available only in English.

Personal Ancestral File 5.2 prints many of the same reports as the Companion, though the Companion
prints them in a different format. The Companion also prints some reports that Personal Ancestral File 5.2
does not, including:

• Fan charts.
• Descendancy lists that are not indented.
• Kinship reports.
• Hourglass reports.

Version 5.2 of the Companion works with Personal Ancestral File 5.2.

How to Receive Additional Information

Online Help

The online help has been extensively revised and expanded.

• To receive information about an entire screen, click a Help button. A menu of available help topics
will appear. If you do not see a help topic that you want to use, click Index, and search for the topic
you need.

• To receive information about a specific item on a screen, click the button, which appears in the
upper right corner of the screen. Then click on the item that you want to learn about.

Lessons

Lessons are available for Personal Ancestral File from the Help menu. The lessons cover typing in your
family, making changes, notes and sources, printing reports, sharing files, match/merge, and advanced
focus/filter. You may download or copy the lessons when you install Personal Ancestral File, or you may
use them at www.familysearch.org/paf. The lessons are available in English only.

The lessons require a web browser, such as Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator. If you have an older
browser, you will also need the Flash player. If you have Windows 98 or later, you probably have the
Flash player. If not, you can download the player free of charge from . A link to this site appears on the
first page of the lessons. If you do not have Internet access and if you do not have Flash, you can run the
lessons, but you will not be able to use the Show Me and Try Me buttons.

User’s Guide

The online help system has been compiled into a user’s guide. The user’s guide is in Adobe® Portable
Document Format (PDF), and the file is called PAF5.PDF. To view and print it, you must use Adobe®
Acrobat® Reader 3.0 or higher.

• If you downloaded Personal Ancestral File, you can also download the user’s guide:
 1. Go to www.familysearch.org.
2. Click Order Family History Resources.
3. Click Software Downloads-Free.
4. Click Personal Ancestral File User’s Guide.
5. Follow the instructions on the screen to download the user’s guide.

Then, if you do not already have the Reader, you can download it for free from
www.adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/readstep.html.

• If you purchased Personal Ancestral File on compact disc, both the manual and Reader are available
on the compact disc.

Tips: When you view the user’s guide in Adobe Acrobat Reader, use the Zoom In Tool, which looks like
a magnifying glass, to enlarge or reduce the text. Then, click on the document. Each time you click on the
document, the text gets larger. To reduce the text size or to select a specific size, click on the magnifying
glass, then right-click on the document.

Frequently Asked Questions

The help system and Getting Started guide are designed to give you the help you need.

In addition, the Frequently Asked Questions and Feedback features for Personal Ancestral File may be
helpful. These are found at http://www.familysearch.org/paf.

Tip: If you have an Internet connection, you can go directly to this web page. From the Help menu, select
Feedback and Frequently Asked Questions.

If you have a question not addressed in the help system or the Getting Started guide, please refer to the
Frequently Asked Questions option. These questions and answers are updated frequently, based on users'
responses.

If you do not find the answer you are looking for in Frequently Asked Questions, please use the Feedback
option to submit your question. You can also use the Feedback option to report a problem with the
Personal Ancestral File program or to suggest an improvement. Your feedback is appreciated and will
help improve Personal Ancestral File.

User Groups

User groups are local groups of people who meet periodically to discuss or to assist each other in using
Personal Ancestral File. Often these groups are aware of utility programs that have been developed to
perform certain tasks that Personal Ancestral File does not do. Some groups offer classes for beginners,
send out newsletters, and provide technical support. Although not affiliated with The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints, user groups receive communication from the Family History Department
about Personal Ancestral File developments and technical helps that benefit users. You may want to
consider contacting or joining a user group that is close to where you live.

A link to a list of user groups is provided in the Frequently Asked Questions feature found at
www.familysearch.org/paf.

© 1999, 2002 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in the USA. Ninth edition May 2002. English approval:
05/02.

No part of this document may be reprinted, posted on-line, or reproduced in any form for any purpose without the prior written
permission of the publisher. Send all requests for such permission to:

Copyrights and Permissions Coordinator

Family and Church History Department
50 East North Temple Street
Salt Lake City, UT 84150-3400
USA
Telephone: 801-240-2049
Fax: 801-240-2494
E-mail: fhd-copyright@ldschurch.org

FamilySearch is a trademark of Intellectual Reserve, Inc. Adobe and Acrobat are trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated.