LDS Genealogy

Index of previous genealogy lessons

You are finally ready to start putting in your genealogy. You’re going to begin with yourself, since you know yourself best. Open PAF to the new file you created. Do this by clicking file in the upper left hand corner of the program. At the bottom of the drop-down that appears should be a list of the files you created. If there isn’t, click open and navigate to where you stored it. Choose the one you want to work on and open it. You’ll see a family group sheet that has a blue box. Under it says marriage, and then there are spaces for children. To the left are spaces for parents.

When you’re ready to begin, click the blue box in the file. You may need to double-click it, which means to tap it twice quickly using your touch pad or left mouse button. A new box will pop up with lots of information for you to fill out. The cursor is already in the box where you put in the full name. Enter your full name there, first name first unless you instructed the program earlier to do it differently.  Women should enter their maiden name. Tap the enter key to move to the next field (box) which is for sex. Enter male or female. Leave blank anything you don’t know or that doesn’t apply. The section marked Other is optional information. Enter it if you have it. For instance, entering the married name can make it easier to find someone when you have hundreds of names in your file. Title doesn’t mean (generally) Mr. or Mrs., but rather Doctor, King, Father (as in a priest) or something else that might show up in official records. Also known as would be used if someone was commonly called something else, but that wasn’t a nickname. For instance, a man named John Jacob Smith might have been nicknamed Johnny by his family, so that would go into the nickname field, or he might have been called around town “Speedy John.” However, in everyday life, he might have used his middle name, Jacob, and even entered it into some official records. Making note of this will help you recognize him when you see records that have the middle name listed as the first name, as sometimes happens on census records.

Keeping track of your sources is very important. Later, you’ll want to know how reliable what you’ve entered is, since you may find yourself entering in guesses. Use the Sources button to the right for this.

You can also use the notes area, represented by a notepad on the left. “Baptism date from Aunt Mary.” “Found two different birthdates: January 5, 1866 and February 3, 1867. Check on this further.” The notes area is where you talk to yourself about what you’re finding and thinking. It’s also a good place to enter information that doesn’t fit into a form, such as the text of the obituary or a letter your ancestor wrote to someone.

Beside the note pad is a picture of a book. Hovering over it with your mouse reveals that it allows you to view all sources. This will remain empty until you have sources, but once there, you can save typing by using this file for repeated sources.

The camera symbol is where you go to put in pictures. These will show on your computer, but won’t stay with it when you send the program. You’ll want to be sure they are properly documented so you can re-add them as needed.

Click the options button to the right. This allows you to include fields that aren’t already there, such as occupation. Choose any that apply or that interest you.

The date calculator is something we’ll explore later. It essentially does the math for you when you’re trying to figure out how old someone was for a certain event. For instance, if you find a journal record that says, “Mary died when she was 84” and you have her birthdate, you can put in the birthdate and age at death to figure out what year she died.

Once you’ve entered in everything you know, click the save button. You’ll be prompted to include the gender if you forgot to do it. Enter it and save again. You’ll be returned to the main screen, which will display a small portion of the information you entered.

Next lesson: Entering spouses and children.