Personal Ancestral File (PAF) - Family History & Genealogy Message Board

Re: Help with Check/Repair feature

Rob_Yoder — 2009-11-05 00:01:52Z

You really need to repair the file or restore from a good backup. Errors in the file seem to have a tendancy to multiply.

I would make a backup first (don't overwrite the old backup) and then repair the file. It should tell you what errors it found and what was done to correct them. Be sure to save the report and/or print out any information it gives you. Use these notes repair lost links and etc.

PAF hasn't produced many errors in my file of over 10,500 individuals, but i still make back-ups frequently... daily or more often if I'm doing a lot of work. I also keep my old back-ups just in case.

CHECK FOR ERRORS and BACK-UP
Do it often!

Not as Powerful as Family Tree Builder, Imho

rgadawg — 2009-10-08 15:27:15Z

I personally think PAF is not as powerful as the Free software by myHeritage.com, Family Tree Builder.

Help with Check/Repair feature

toverton185 — 2009-10-06 20:34:53Z

I recently ran a check for errors in my program (for the first time). I had 1 error: "Individual 2268, Notes - note pointer 2206 pointing to wrong owner (2270)". We recommend that you restore the file from a clean backup if you have one." I don't have one.
Do I really need to fix this error or can I ignore it? Does it only affect those 2 individuals or will it cause more trouble with my program in the future?
Also - one of the suggestions in the help file was to create a gedcom and import it into a new PAF file. I did this and the error was corrected, but the new family file is smaller than the original file, 2724 KB vs. 2780 KB. Did something get lost? If so, How would I find out what it was?

Thanks, Nancy

Re: Help - uploading updated gedcom to Ancestry.com

phbrown48 — 2009-09-30 13:25:24Z

I just replace the online data with the updated data from my local computer. Not difficult, albeit time-consuming for large files, and the previous file no longer appears online to confuse the unwary.

Re: Help - adopted to biological

phbrown48 — 2009-09-30 13:23:29Z

Alistair:

Highlight one of the children you want to change from Adopted to Biological. Click "Edit" (next to "File" at the top of the window). In the drop-down list, click "Parents." In the box that pops up, you'll find a line that starts "Relationship to parents." To the right of that line, you'll find a box with "Adopted" in it. Click on the arrow next to the box and choose "Biological" from the drop-down list.

Then click "Save" at the bottom of the box.

You'll need to do this for each of the nine children.

Re: Help - uploading updated gedcom to Ancestry.com

alistaircameron42 — 2009-09-29 23:10:39Z

Bob Hendry from the east side of our BIG POND wrote:

"I have a family tree that was posted to Ancestry.com a couple of years ago. Since then, I have many updates to my main file, which is maintained in PAF5."

I am in that category, and proud of myself being a bright young man in my 80th year of age still maintaining my PAF records since ?1980s thru DOS then Windows then WIN XP and of course PAF5 the best ever!!

But now near the end of a road I get scared of wrecking my records thru carelessness or brain slowing. I HAVE A PROBLEM WITH "ADOPTED" status.

PAF5 Help options, do not seem to provide a clear idiot-proof route for me to switch 9 of the ten children of a married couple (each one having just one spouse/partner) who are showing on screen as ADOPTED, into BIOLOGICAL.

Will you dear reader, pls write me a recipe for achieving that switch?

Thanks, from Bundanoon NSW, one of the few towns which has banned the sale of bottled drinking water!

Cheers, Alistair M. Cameron

Direct reply to acameron@hinet.net.au would be appreciated.

Re: Help - uploading updated gedcom to Ancestry.com

whbos1 — 2009-09-04 17:18:22Z

My experience with uploading to Ancestry.com using Family Tree Maker 2009 is that you will have to delete the old tree and upload the new if it is the same tree. If you have multiple trees for different branches of the family, then you could leave them alone.

If you are updating one that is already online, deleting the old and uploading the new seems to be the only way to go unless you want multiple versions of the same tree. They might have improved this since I last did an upload several months ago so this suggestion might not be useful.

I'd be very careful merging anything into your tree. Do a backup first and perhaps download it to a GEDCOM file. I never merge information from anywhere including Ancestry.com unless I have absolutely researched the names to the extent possible. This is why there is so much wrong information out there. User's information is always highly suspect.

For instance, I have found information on other's trees that pertained to my direct lines--people that I knew personally--and the information they had was dead wrong. When I contacted them to give them the correct information explaining that I knew these people personally and had better sources (they had none) that I would provide them, they refused to change it.

So much for online information. With Ancestry.com, at least you usually have digital images where you can verify transcribed information.

Personal trees--forget it. They're good for leads and nothing else. I spent 10 years following a bad lead until I found out recently the person had a different surname than what I was searching.

Re: Nagging 'Place' messages

Willow__Nelson — 2009-08-19 13:57:03Z

It is highly doubtful any of the PAF programmers read this board. This is for peer-to-peer help and not associated with the LDS organization whatsoever.

Re: Nagging 'Place' messages

tootsiestoys1 — 2009-08-19 13:55:35Z

How and where do you do that change?

Re: GEDCOM Import to PAF

bitbucket40 — 2009-08-10 12:49:36Z

10 Aug 2009

Just for clarity, you'll need to look at what's been imported into PAF. I'm assuming that you can open the PAF database.

Dave

Re: GEDCOM Import to PAF

bitbucket40 — 2009-08-10 12:00:26Z

10 Aug 2009

Mike,

Click on "Search" in the tool bar on the top and then click on "Marriage list". You'll be given a list of marriages, with the MRIN (Marriage RIN) on the left. Find the marriage number you're looking for, and then go to that couple. Note that you're not looking for the RIN for an individual.

Dave

GEDCOM Import to PAF

Josephmcavey — 2009-08-09 23:47:27Z

Hello,

How do you connect the RIN numbers given in a "GEDCOM Import Log" (of errors) to the people in the online version of the file?

I recently exported (downloaded) my online Family Tree to my computer for backup. I decided to import the GEDCOM version of this file into a new PAF file to see how it would turn out.

The result was that I received a list of errors telling me things like: “…GED, line 23820: MRIN 185: A male individual (P3989092031) has been defined as the wife in a family.”

I tried to correct the error by looking for person #185 in my Family Tree and soon realized that I could not find the person reference that caused the error.

Anyone have any ideas?

Thank you,
Mike

Re: Nagging 'Place' messages

doreen1924 — 2009-07-03 20:20:41Z

There is an option under Tools, (to verify new place names) but it doesn't take any notice of it in my version anyway.

Re: Nagging 'Place' messages

tuffy1148 — 2009-07-02 14:54:57Z

You can change the setting yourself, to not verify place location.

Re: PAF 5 compatibility

andymorgan777 — 2009-06-24 03:56:25Z

More likey it will as Windows 7 is mostly an improved Vista. I cannot say for sure - but there is nothing in PAF that I amaware of that would cause it NOT to run.

Re: How do you make note tag private

bitbucket40 — 2009-05-24 15:35:46Z

24 May 2009

There is a check box on the export menu for "confidential data" which, when unchecked, removed a note starting with a tilde when I tried it.

Dave

How do you make note tag private

OHF640 — 2009-05-08 20:27:05Z

I have my "to do" in my note tags - however when I export my gedcom it has my "to do" - I tried putting the tilde ~ in front of the tag but that did not seem to work to make it private- is there a way to remove them from my Gedcom before I share it...without editing each record?

Re: Converting data from PAF 2.2 to PAF 5.2

cubbybear3 — 2009-04-15 19:33:59Z

SpammerBait, Thanks. Iwas looking at the wrong options for outputting to a GEDcom file in version 2.2. I managed to get the data into version 5.2 within 5 minutes. Thanks again. -pb

Re: Multiple.PAF files problem

OHF640 — 2009-03-19 18:27:01Z

Been there done that - look at the creation date of the newest file then take the other one and select only those individuals that have a change date equal to or greater than the newest file - and this is you export file to merge into the newest. You have to merge the notes of the two files and then clean them up because you could miss something but hopefully this will limit the amount of records to merge. Good Luck

Help - uploading updated gedcom to Ancestry.com

bobhendry — 2009-03-16 00:13:48Z

I have a family tree that was posted to Ancestry.com a couple of years ago. Since then, I have many updates to my main file, which is maintained in PAF5. Does anyone know how I can upload either just my changes to update my tree on Ancestry.com, or upload a complete new file and REPLACE my old file with it??

I just don't get it - Ancestry.com, that is. But, because of my file posted there, I have made contact with lots o' cousins!! So Ancestry.com it is until I can find something better.

Thanks. Cheers!

Bob Hendry -
Southern Maryland -

bhendry@cheerful.com

Converting data from PAF 2.2 to PAF 5.2

cubbybear3 — 2009-04-15 05:59:09Z

Here is my problem. I have my fathers database which was created with PAF 2.2. I also have a CD copy of PAF 4.0 and have downloaded PAF 5.2. How can I get his data from the 2.2 version into 5.2?

Re: Help - uploading updated gedcom to Ancestry.com

tfoy157 — 2009-04-15 19:10:02Z

I thought I could save time & Keystrokes, especially for 1850/1860/1870 census records, by getting FTM2009. Wrong! Ancestry and FTM 2009 do not work together as "I" expected. I "do" understand why! They must follow Gedcom specifications to be compatible with as many software packages as possible. I keep returning to PAF. Less Windows "Eye Candy"!

I will continue to basically do double entry for now. I enter data once on Ancestry.com and duplicate it with PAF. Every 3 months I download my online tree as a gedcom and import it to a PAF file. Though I have local access to all my documents and media/Photos, I do not link them locally. I'm more interested in being able to create quick and dirty reports locally with sources and citations, along with PAF companion, to distribute to family when needed.

I had to learn the "hard way" to only use Ancestry's online tree hints as a starting point to begin OR verify my research. It amazes me to see the number of unsourced trees that others, including me, get suckered into merging into my tree because I thought I could save time. Soon you realize it's the same wrong data merged over & over again to create 11 separate trees. How can someone have children with "one" spouse after his or her death? Come on people! they married again or had a relationship with someone else.

You should delete the old trees and export the updated trees, if you continue to share with family, to Ancestry. Outdated trees, especially online, can return to bite you!

Tyronne

Re: Help - uploading updated gedcom to Ancestry.com

tfoy157 — 2009-03-16 00:14:09Z

Hi,

I've asked myself the same question.

You can download your online tree as a gedcom and merge it with you local tree. You can then delete your online tree and upload your merged gedcom to ancestry. In the PAF program click help, select lessons and take the merging lesson online. It is time consuming.

Another idea is to export your local Paf file to a gedcom and upload it as a new named tree that you own and merge individuals to your original tree. That too is time consuming.

Source/Citations, media, photos and comments...etc will be your major problems. Ancestry & PAF may handle those differently.

Before you do anything BACKUP your local PAF file. Download or export your current online tree as a gedcom to your local system in case something goes wrong and you can return to where you started.

Tyronne

Create Disconnect/Separate Files in PAF

tonfri60 — 2009-03-12 17:49:58Z

Want to create a separate file for a family connected to my initial PAF file. (Separate Jacksons from Stewarts) How do I create a separate GEDCOM file for a particular family? Also, can you include EVERY single person in a book that is connected to your family that means all sides with PAF?

Website Creation Problem

jsmoody185 — 2009-03-18 18:13:49Z

I use PAF to generate my genealogy website:

http://www.geocities.com/astromood/index.htm

I have 2 recurring problems.

1. When I post information in the notes like census data, it doesn't show up properly. There is a littel square at the end of a line and instead of starting a new line, the information is continued.

Like:

Jones, John 52 Farmer
Jones, Mary 58 Housewife

Except it comes out:

Jones, John 52 Farmer o Jones, Mary 58 Housewife
(a little square instead of the o)

I can get around the problem by using a program called BKReplacem to replace the little square with a carriage return.

The other problem, which is much more annoying and for which I haven't found a fix, is that the links to the Notes are wrong.

A family member is listed with a link below that has "Notes" but if you click on the link, it's another page of notes altogether for some unrelated family. Not on all Notes, just some.

Anyone know anything about either of these problems?

Re: Multiple.PAF files problem

roncon60 — 2009-03-31 08:57:06Z

Have you located the Help Tab at the very top of the PAF Program? Perhaps you can create a Custom Report for the individuals in you tree and the information you are looking for. There are many features to PAF that are great for creating a family tree.

Re: Multiple.PAF files problem

roncon60 — 2009-03-30 23:27:16Z

Although I DON'T use PAF anymore perhaps this help file question/answer will give you an idea as to what to look for:
Using the Source List
The Source List shows the source descriptions in the .paf file and allows you to add, copy, edit, or delete them.
You can access this list in three main ways:
1. From the Edit menu, select Source List.
2. From an Individual or Marriage screen, click the appropriate source button. If the record already has sources, a screen showing these sources appears. To view the Source List, click the New button.
3. When you print the list of citations referencing a source.

Re: Multiple.PAF files problem

roncon60 — 2009-03-24 04:02:20Z

The program compares files and looks for matches ie duplicates. You are seeking 2 individuals that are not common to both files so they will not be displayed. You can look for duplicate surnames and/or given names and it will search using that criteria. You can choose to include common dates or not.

Re: Multiple.PAF files problem

roncon60 — 2009-03-20 13:59:02Z

GENviewer and GENmatcher from MudCreek Software, which you can Google, and purchase for a very reasonable price may fit your needs for this problem. These programs work for any ancestry software program. I have used them for PAF and RootsMagic many times with great success.

PAF 5 compatibility

kenneygen — 2009-03-04 00:16:20Z

Does anyone know if PAF 5 will be compatible with Windows 7 that will be released this summer.

Re: Backing up to outside Source

bhkemp — 2009-02-22 02:20:18Z

Thanks for the info, will check out GMail

I don't have a clue as to what FTP file is.....

What do you use and are you happy with it?

Backing up to outside Source

bhkemp — 2009-02-20 20:25:14Z

In addition to backing up to flash drive, cd, and HD, I started using Yahoo Briefcase last year and it worked great

Just received a notice they are closing.

Would appreciate input on other offsite sources.

I know about Mozy, but it got some bad reviews relating to "service". I also am not comfortable with something always running in the background..........

Suggestions welcome!

bhkemp

merging people

jaylynn0982 — 2009-04-12 20:43:42Z

I'm not sure how or what I did to create duplicates of pretty much everyone in my tree. Is there a way to multi merge people or for it to auto merge people that have the exact information?

Thanks!

Janet

Re: Multiple.PAF files problem

spammerbait — 2009-04-01 10:47:09Z

Yes, and thanks for all your suggestions but I think I've now made a decision.

I had started with 2 files, call them file1 and file2. After a few false starts and suchlike I eventually got to 2 combined files. One was formed by exporting/importing individuals added after a certain date from file1 to file2. The other by exporting/importing from file2 to file1.

For some reason these were not identical (ref numbers aside). Insight helped solve some of the problems, as did exporting a whole file and importing it into a new one on a couple of times.

But I was still left with one combined files claiming more citations than the other.

But last night I checked. File1 started with 262 citations (wherever they are). File2 started with 262 citations. One of the combined files has 262 citations, the other has only 257, implying it has lost some data.

I am going to go forward with the 262 combined one and hope it is correct.

Thanks again

Re: Multiple.PAF files problem

spammerbait — 2009-03-31 06:50:05Z

Thanks for the suggestion. I have found the source list, but it holds just 16 entries rather than the 257/262 citations claimed. It is starting to look as if I need to individually check every individual and marriage one at a time. (And any individual I've clicked on so far has shown no more that the full souces list, so I guess I'm doing something wrong.) If I do have to look at every individual I may just use the file with the most citations, and hope for the best.

I suppose as long as the tree information, dates, location, and notes are ok, that's the important thing.

Re: PAF

spammerbait — 2009-04-15 15:10:32Z

When I open a PAF file most of it is not text, so I can't believe that you are going to be lucky fixing it. There's not enough of a market to encourage someone to develop an application with enough knowledge of PAF files to be able to attempt a repair. Thus the reason back-ups of data files are so important. Have multiple back up's on different removable disks, kept in different places (preferably with other family members).

The only suggestion I have, and it is painfully inadequate, is that you can find apps on the net that will strip out text from a "binary" file for you. Not personally used one for years but I used to have one. Then at least you have something to copy & paste from when you start a new replacement tree.

Re: combining paternal and maternal genealogy PAF data

spammerbait — 2009-04-15 15:01:39Z

• Back them all up just in case.
• Pick one to add to.
• For each of the others export the data to a file (GED is the normal standard).
• Open the PAF file you chose to add to, import the new data file you just exported.
• Repeat for each file.
• Use the tools/match-merge function to merge any individuals that appeared in more than one file.

Re: Help - uploading updated gedcom to Ancestry.com

spammerbait — 2009-04-15 14:57:16Z

The reason I have a number of trees here on the site is that each update seems to need a new tree. Useful though I guess, in case one gets a problem and losses some data.

Not really a PAF specific issue though.

Re: Create Disconnect/Separate Files in PAF

spammerbait — 2009-04-15 14:55:28Z

Try changing the default export from "all" to "partial" near the bottom of the export panel, and then playing with the options (press the select button).

Re: Converting data from PAF 2.2 to PAF 5.2

spammerbait — 2009-04-15 14:53:28Z

Not something I have ever tried, but is it possible to export the data from 2.2 to a common format, GED perhaps ? And then import it into the new 5.2 one ?

Re: merging people

spammerbait — 2009-04-15 14:51:56Z

Not found a good auto system yet, think that is a major gap in the market, although I think the Family Insight app could be useful. It has a trial period.

If you are only dealing witha few individuals though, it's not so difficult to use the PAF facility to merge them. Save the existing data file as a back up somewhere first, then use the tools/match merge option. You can play around with the various options but usually comparing by eye should tell you whether you are looking at the same person twice, or not.

Re: Multiple.PAF files problem

spammerbait — 2009-03-20 13:31:25Z

Thanks for the suggestion. I have started to create a repaired file from advice given me from the family search organisation, but it proved very tedious since I merged both files and had to spot masses of duplicates, and merge them. Too easy to press the merge button in error, and took hours.

I may give it a second go, trying to move across only the new/change individuals afterwards, and then compare the result of both. Bit paranoid I'm going to ruin the original good file with one full of errors and lost bits. Problem I have with passing over only certain individuals is less where a new individual has been added, but more where existing data has been updated. Only needs different edits in each file for something to go awry.

Still I'm on the way now, thanks.

PS any good comparison/check software out there ?

Re: Multiple.PAF files problem

spammerbait — 2009-03-23 19:36:13Z

Thanks for the tip, but the Matcher seems to operate in a strange way, unless I'm not understanding.

Since the trial version only allows you to look at 4 individuals, I deliberately created 2 test GED files containing 4 individuals in each, 2 individuals were in both, 2 were different. But Matcher seemed not to show it had found the mismatched individuals at all, and only claimed to find 2 individuals.

Is that how it is supposed to work, or did I get something wrong ?

Re: Multiple.PAF files problem

spammerbait — 2009-03-30 21:42:47Z

OK, following advice given, and with a little help from a demo of a Family Insight app, I ended up with 2 files created from slightly different routes, and apparently almost identical (ref. numbers excepted).

But there is still a difference. Apparently one has 262 citations and the other 257. I'm not even 100% sure what it is counting.

Any idea how to list and compare the citations, or even where to find them ?

Thanks.

Re: Multiple.PAF files problem

spammerbait — 2009-03-24 07:49:38Z

PS I shall "play" further with different search criteria and see what can be achieved.

Re: Multiple.PAF files problem

spammerbait — 2009-03-24 07:48:08Z

Ah ok thanks. My mistake.

i have experimented with it a bit, and it seems that even a small change to the data and the 'almost duplicate' isn't picked up. Methinks a version 2 could probably be a commercial opportunity ;-)

Anyway I am making progress so thanks everyone for the suggestions.

Multiple.PAF files problem

spammerbait — 2009-03-18 20:02:56Z

Almost literally tearing my hair out here, or would be if I had any left.

First problem:

Unintentionally I have managed to create 2 .paf files containing different versions on my family tree. As far as I can tell they are identical up to individual RIN 1241 but each have different individuals after that point.

How can I make a single file with all the information and be 100% confident nothing has been lost ? I do not think I can face adding data again by hand. :-(

I tried the Match/Merge and the Merge Duplicate Sources options on the menu, but neither seemed to do anything sensible. In fact neither asked me for file names to work on to start with !

Second problem:

I though I might be able to tackle this by exporting GEDCOM files for both and looking to see if there was text I could copy across with the intention of importing it to a new paf file in the hope it would solve the issue. (Probably wishful thinking.) But it is continually asking for a name and address before it will export, which as far as I can tell it clearly already has ?!?!

Any advice gratefully received.

Re: Backing up to outside Source

Willow__Nelson — 2009-02-23 14:30:20Z

FTP stands for "File Transfer Protocol" and is a type of software used to upload files to a web server. RootsWeb Freepages gives you server space to make a web-page - there's nothing there until you upload something (such as HTML files you create on your computer). FTP allows you to upload HTML files, photos, and even GEDCOM's, to that server space. There are a variety of free ones available such as FileZilla, SmartFTP, FireFTP. The one I use is CoreFTP and I like it. Here's a list of FTP's on CNet:
http://www.download.com/windows/ftp-software/?tag=bc

Re: Backing up to outside Source

Willow__Nelson — 2009-02-21 18:08:24Z

If the files aren't too big to email, you can set up a gmail account and email them to it...

If the files are too big to email, you can request a RootsWeb freepage and upload them (via an FTP program) to your directory there.

combining paternal and maternal genealogy PAF data

mvanbaaren1 — 2009-02-20 01:41:22Z

I have 5 files with my genealogy data in PAF 5 format:

1. "me" (just my first 4 generations)
2. "pat grandpa"
3. "pat grandma"
4. "mat grandpa"
5. "mat grandma"

How can I merge files 2, 3, 4 and 5 into file 1 so I have all of my genealogy in 1 file? Or is it possible? Is there a limit to how much data 1 PAF file can hold? Thanks for any advice!

~Michael