While I do not doubt people's experiences with problems, I personally combine files from PAF 5.2, FTM, Legacy, etc. all the time. I export/import/etc. and I have had no problems. I have never lost a parent/child relationship or had non-bio parents become bio parents. In my immediate family we have multiple combinations of biological, adoptive, sealed, etc. parents often where one is biological and the other is adoptive. My oldest son is my wife's by her first marriage but I am his adoptive father. It has always worked for me. It is true that I do not create my own custom database fields, I stick with the many ones that are provided. Alan Mission Viejo, calif > From: "E.Rodier" <cerear@telusplanet.net> > Date: 2005/02/24 Thu PM 01:19:16 EST > To: PAF-5-USERS-L@rootsweb.com > Subject: Re: [PAF-5] Is this a PAF problem, or my other software? > > Adrian, > If you want to share data with individuals using different genealogy > programs, it is best to test file transfers *during* data entry and avoid > custom fields. PAF has one source field that is shorter than GED 5.5 > standard. Other programs used the same field for lengthy source text though > the standard was about three lines. > > Child-parent relationships are lost in all (or most) file transfers *or* may > be changed from non-bio to bio relationships. It might be helpful to search > for all non-bio relationships and remove them before a file transfer between > genealogy programs. has issues with non-bio child-parent relationships. > > Advanced programs allow sources for name variations. PAF is limited to the > main name without a source. Highly detailed source and repository data entry > methods are known to cause file transfer problems. Custom GEDCOM tags with > underlines are usually ignored by the importing program. > > Do you have any children attached to non-bio parents? PAF assumes that a > child has the same relationship to two parents. If one or both bio parents > remarried, the child might be attached to other marriages with a bio > relationship or a non-bio relationship. > > One of the list participants kept the bio relationship for father's second > marriage and non-bio relationship for the mother's second marriage in a PAF > test file. > > Other Windows genealogy programs going back to 1993 have allowed children to > be attached to one bio parent and second spouse and/or two bio parents > and/or two non-bio parents -- always with individual child-parent > relationships. -- Elizabeth > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Adrian Gray" > > I've recently composed a large file in my normal FH software, The Master > > Genealogist. > > However on beginning to send it round other people as a GEDCOM it became > > apparent > > that all sorts of funny things happened when it was opened. > > > > I installed PAF 5.0 to try to make it openable by as many people as > > possible, and tried to > > import said GEDCOM - result little flashing boxes telling me about errors > > etc, so many > > that it was obvious it would never import sensibly so I abandoned it. > > > > Next step - try to save as a PAF file from TMG and open in PAF. Easy! No! > > I can save it > > & get a file on my disc with the .paf suffix and the fetching little PAF > > icon but when I try to > > open it PAF simply closes down. No warning, no flashing boxes, it just > > vanishes from the > > screen as if I'd never opened it. > > > > The GEDCOM works in TMG and also opens in Legacy so this seems to either > > be > > problem with PAF or with something I am doing. As a new user I don't know > > what, and I > > can't find anything in the help file either. > > > > ==== PAF-5-USERS Mailing List ==== > PAF-5-USERS Mailing List Search > http://searches2.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl?list=PAF-5-USERS > >