PAF vs. NFS

I was sitting in Sunday School today, and there was a bit of confusion among those who are just getting into NSF. The question discussed was whether we needed PAF or other softwares to do this work. Nope, not this work. NSF is for the deceased. PAF is for the living.

If you're doing your own genealogy, and you're developing your family records, you want the names, dates, and places to be correct.

If you're trying to make sure the work is done for your ancestors, does it matter where or when they lived and died? If you could ask them right now, would it matter to them? All that matters is the work is done for the right person, right? And it doesn't even matter when the work is done, only that it really is done.

PAF is for the living. That's where you record all your family history, with pictures, biographies, dates, places, etc. NFS is for the deceased, to make sure all the work is completed in an orderly, duplicate-free manner.

As I'm only now getting into my family history (I really should be keeping a journal), PAF is new to me, and keeping such records is a bit daunting. Since I've been called as a specialist and have dived into NFS, it's already pretty familiar to me and I'm very comfortable with it. I've now hit a point where I need to do the research to extend my lines. I'm going to be spending time at the Family History Library in the coming weeks (any good Irish researchers out there?), and I'll be spending a lot more time in PAF.

Oh--one other thing--PAF is free too. It sits on your computer, so it's not online. You can download it here.