Personal Ancestry File 2.1

[Robin Helmond]

I have been given some old Double Density discs that contain family information that was compiled back in 1996. The discs also contain an application called Personal Ancestry File 2.1 that is attributed to the LDS. I acquired an old Powerbook 5300 and was able to run the application and read the data. Initially I couldn't work out the way the application worked, but after some experimenting I found one navigated the application in a similar way to Reunion.

I made a gedcom file of the data and transferred it to Reunion 9c running on my iMac. Much to my pleasure, it seems to have made the migration successfully. I am pleased to have not been defeated by data rot. I now wish I had not thrown away my other earlier computers. One never knows when they will be needed again.

The point of this posting is to glean some background of the Personal Ancestry File application. It seems to be a precursor to Reunion. Can anyone enlighten me?

Robin Helmond

[Dennis J. Cunniff]

I have been given ... an application called Personal Ancestry File 2.1 that is attributed to the LDS.... The point of this posting is to glean some background of the Personal Ancestry File application. It seems to be a precursor to Reunion.

PAF predated Reunion, but wasn't really a precursor; genealogy programs by necessity have similarities because they do similar things. The last version of PAF written for Macs was in 1994. You can find more information at Wikipedia's article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_Ancestral_File). Some of the history of Reunion is also on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reunion (genealogy software)), though that article needs improving (but at least mentions Reunion's HyperCard origins....)

[Robin Helmond]

Thank you Dennis for your comments. Thanks also for the Wiki links. I will have a look at them. I am very pleased to have rescued this old data. But the owner of the old discs is even more excited. He thought his old work was gone forever.
Robin.

[ttl]

It's nice to hear a story with a happy ending. :)