Personal Ancestral File (PAF) – was a genealogy software program/database that was developed by FamilySearch (by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints). When it was first released in 1983 for DOS, it was written in BASIC and did not support GEDCOM files. Over the years and various releases, it tended to support the contemporary GEDCOM standards of the time, so it supported GEDCOM 2.0, GEDCOM 4.0, and GEDCOM 5.5.
It is in our Genealogy Software Hall of Fame
- Official Site: FamilySearch.org (No longer available)
- Last Major Release: Personal Ancestral File 5.2 (PAF 5.2) in 2002
- Last Version: PAF 5.2.18.0 (2002)
| Name | Released | Status | Platform / Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| PAF 5.2 | 2002 – July 23 | Retired Version 5.2.18.0 Ended 15 July 2013 | – Windows (Win9x/NT), Freeware – Supports current GEDCOM 5.5 |
| PAF 5.1 | 2001 | Retired | – Windows (Win9x/NT), Freeware – Supports current GEDCOM 5.5 |
| PAF 5.0 | 2000 – Nov | Retired | – Windows (Win9x/NT), Freeware – Supports current GEDCOM 5.5 – First Unicode version (multiple languages – Supported English, Chinese, German, Japanese, Korean, Swedish – Included Palm OS app to view PAF data |
| PAF 4.0 | 1999 – June 28 | Retired | – Windows (Win9x/NT), Freeware – Supports current GEDCOM 5.5 – Based on Ancestral Quest – – Ancestral Quest 3.0 is the base – Supported English, Spanish, Portuguese, German, French (last version with French, Spanish, and Portuguese) |
| PAF 3.0M | 1999 – June | Retired | – DOS – Shows as PAF 3.01M – Maintenance Release of PAF 3.0 |
| PAF 3.0 | 1997 – May | Retired | – DOS – Supports current GEDCOM 5.5 |
| PAF 2.31 | 1994 – Sep 30 | Retired | – DOS, Macintosh (last version on Mac) – Worked on Classic OS 8.5 – OS 9.2.2 – Supported GEDCOM 4.0 (early spec) |
| PAF 2.3 | 1994 | Retired | – DOS, Macintosh |
| PAF 2.2 | 1989 | Retired | – DOS, ProDOS, Macintosh – Supported GEDCOM 4.0 (early spec) |
| PAF 2.1 | 1987 | Retired | – DOS, ProDOS, Macintosh – Supported GEDCOM 4.0 (early spec) |
| PAF 2.0 | 1986 – April | Retired | DOS, Apple II, CP/M, Supported GEDCOM 2.0 (early spec) Rewritten in C |
| PAF 1.0 | 1984 – April | Retired | DOS Written in BASIC, no GEDCOM Support |