Using Personal Ancestral File

Keeping information organized is essential when gathering family history. The Church family history software program for home computers, known as Personal Ancestral File^® (PAF), is one way to accomplish this. The program allows users to type in names, dates, places, and ordinance details for each ancestor, linking the individuals into family groups and pedigrees. It also allows users to list source citations and notes about biographical details, such as occupation, Church callings, and personal descriptions.

One member, Brother Redmond, and his daughter, Jenny, were working together on their family history using PAF. They had information on three families ready to submit, but Jenny didn’t feel comfortable about submitting it. So, reluctantly, her father said they would wait. They continued their project of entering their family data into the computer.

Typing their information into PAF let them gather all the information about each person into one place. When they found additional facts or corrections, they could easily add or change the computer records. The change, made just once in PAF, was reflected in all the other places where that information appeared, such as pedigree charts or family group sheets. Jenny and her father could print these charts with or without LDS ordinance details, source citations, and notes. They could also create indexes and many special reports, such as ones showing where ordinance dates were incomplete or totally missing. They could then search further for these ordinance dates or determine if the temple work needed to be done.

Personal Ancestral File also has a feature that allows the user to copy the information in automated form for many uses, such as preparing a file for use in TempleReady™, submitting names to Ancestral File™, or just sending a copy to Cousin Dorothy, who could then copy them into her family history software program without having to retype the information (sometimes called “importing,” “uploading,” or using GEDCOM).

As Jenny and her dad reviewed their paper notes to add information to their PAF database, they found three additional children who belonged to one of the families they were planning to submit to the temple.

When they had added these children to their data base, the uneasy feeling left Jenny, and the family knew they were now ready to submit the names for temple work.

Jenny could do the proxy baptisms for the women, and a cousin could do them for the men. Family members who had already received their endowments could serve as proxies for these deceased family members for the endowments and sealings. They felt a great feeling of peace as they anticipated participating in these blessings.—Elizabeth L. Nichols, Salt Lake City, Utah

Photo by Craig Dimond

Illustrated by Beth Whittaker