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This is a really big deal for the genealogical software industry. Although there are a few "free" genealogy programs out there, none of them had the FamilySearch stamp of approval and none of them had the market penetration of Personal Ancestral File or PAF. The official abandonment of the program is long overdue, especially with the FamilySearch emphasis on photos and stories and such.
Here is a link to the FamilySearch Blog Post announcing the date. Quoting from the announcement:
Beginning July 15, 2013, PAF will be retired and will no longer be available for download or support. PAF users should consider alternative products to meet their ongoing personal genealogy management needs.
For full details and for information on alternative products, please visit http://familysearch.org/PAF.I wonder how long it will take to convert all the die-hard PAF users? I suspect that the ghost of the program will outlive me.
I, of course, knew this day would come and have used other programs but PAF was my first love when I was 17 and just starting out at the Family History centers. I still use it everyday. Tell me that you do not think a program that has not had any updates in 10 years and still operates like a powerhouse all the way to Windows 8 is not amazing ?
ReplyDeleteJust utterly depressed over the announcement. I still belong to two PAF users group; this past year we got a surge of new users. As I also volunteer to help people put their genealogy online, I estimated that many will not buy a software but will quickly download a free one and PAF was the best.
James,
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for the heads up on this.
I want to let you know that your blog post is listed in today's Fab Finds post at http://janasgenealogyandfamilyhistory.blogspot.com/2013/06/follow-friday-fab-finds-for-june-21-2013.html
Have a great weekend!
Have fond memories of using PAF when first starting out!
ReplyDelete