Stichting Aldfaer (Aldfaer Foundation), an organization in The Netherlands, has released a major new version of the free Dutch-language Aldfaer Windows genealogy program, Aldfaer 11. Among the major changes is support for GEDCOM 7, along with several template additions, and file operation speed has been improved. It looks like MyHeritage support may have been dropped. A full list of changes is at the bottom of this page.
It’s a very capable genealogy from my limited usage (I don’t know Dutch, but I know some German, and I know my way around genealogy programs, and would be interesting if it had been translated into English – it has a bit of a PAF feel to it.
Note: All of the following is based on a translation of the Aldfaer home page (link) and errors may result.
Aldfaer has been around since the late 1990s (and is in our Genealogy Software Hall of Fame as a result), and Aldfaer 11 has been released after a three year gap after Aldfaer 10.1 (October 2021), but gaps are not unusual in Aldfaer releases, especially when you see how many updates/improvements there are between versions:
- Aldfaer 4.0 – 2008 (4.2 came out in 2009)
- Aldfaer 6.0 – 2015 (6.2 came out in 2017)
- Aldfaer 7.0 – 2018
- Aldfaer 8.0 – 2020
- Aldfaer 10.0 – 2021
- Aldfaer 10.1 – October 2021
- Aldfaer 11.0 – September 2024
A fresh install shows:
- Aldfaer-versie 11.0
- Rapportversie 11.0.0.4 (Report Version)
You can download it here:
http://aldfaer.net/sitemap//index.php?q=node/10039
Upgrading from Aldfaer 7 and newer is relatively straightforward, although they caution on making sure that if you are currently running Aldfaer 7, that all family trees you have in Aldfaer have at least been opened in Aldfaer 7. Family trees created in older versions of Aldfaer 7 will need to be converted.
Note – Mac Users: Aldfaer 7.1 was the last version to run under macOS / Mac OS X, and it required 32-bit support, sort only works on macOS versions older than Catalina (10.15) – 32-bit support was dropped after that. See this page for an older download (or read the wiki):
http://aldfaer.net/sitemap//index.php?q=node/11191
There are official Dutch-language forums here:
https://aldfaerforum.nl/forum.html
There is an official Wiki here:
http://aldfaer.net/aldfaerwiki/index.php?title=Hoofdpagina
If you feel the software is worth a donation, they have a page here:
http://aldfaer.net/sitemap//index.php?q=Donateur
There are too many changes/improvements/fixes to list below, please see this page for more details on improvements and bug fixes: http://aldfaer.net/sitemap//index.php?q=node/11217
| Aldfaer 11 Changes (September 9, 2024) (translated to English0 |
| General: Witnesses and other parties (reporter, Godparent) can be linked in the Birth, Marriage, and Death Tabs |
| General: Record Matches and Smart Matches of MyHeritage terminated |
| GEDCOM-Export: Ability to export GEDCOM 7 standard files |
| GEDCOM-Import: Ability to import GEDCOM 7 standard files |
| Merge: New function that allows data of duplicated persons to be merged; can be reached via menu item Person -> Merge… or via Family tree -> Check data -> Possibly duplicate persons. |
| Main window: Family tree -> Convert witnesses… added; converts witnesses birth registration, baptism, death certificate to Reporters birth report, Godparents baptism, Reporters death registration. |
| Main window: Family tree -> Excluded duplicates… allows you to consult and adjust the list of excluded duplicates. |
| Main window: Birth tab: In addition to Baptism, Circumcision can also be registered. |
| Templates: New template code _BAPTTYPE gives birth ritual (baptism or circumcision). |
| Templates: New template code _DIVUNKN: Test for termination of marriage (Stage Unknown) |
| Templates: New template code _KINSCOLO gives the kinship color. |
| Templates: New template code _PREFPRIVNAMEBIRTDATE: Privacy Filter, If not published: Show name and Date of Birth |
| Templates: New template codes _ROLE…. for the display of those involved. |
| Templates: New template code _SETFILLCNT with three arguments: set name, string and number of characters; to be used when determining the number of characters via a function or variable (link, Dutch) |
| General: When using the mouse wheel to scroll through a list, the selection of the record within the list remains unchanged. |
| General: Opening and closing family tree file has been accelerated. |
| General: The Privacy filter has been expanded with the option Show only first and last name and year of birth. |
| General: After automatic update of Aldfaer, it is no longer asked if Aldfaer should be restarted, but this happens automatically. |