What must you do to link an individual to a father, a mother, or a family? In answering this question, remember this:

CAUTION:  You should never be required to enter the same person twice. If you find yourself entering someone twice, ask for help.

Before you can link one person to another—like linking yourself to your father—you must determine if your father has already been entered into the database. Since this is a brand new file, and you are the only one in it so far, you don't need to worry about that. But later, you will enter people and may forget you have entered them. There are various ways to find people in your program. For now, you will need to add your father's name to the file, just as I will need to do the same in this example.

Notice to the right of my name is the word PARENTS. Click on the upper box of the two boxes given. Notice that the box turns grey. Double click on it and the entry template returns. It is now labeled "Add father for Karen Ann Kamsula." Since I told PAF to add the surname as the surname of the family in my preferences option the surname was already entered. Since fathers are "males," the sex was also entered. Enter the father's given names. If you don't know the father's birth year put an approximate date. If you don't know the place, put an approximate place. Later you will find the missing information. Enter either ALT + S or click on the Save button.

Notice that the program is ready to help. I set the preferences to notify me of marriages upon entering a family. It knows that, after entering one individual, I'll probably want to enter the marriage and then the spouse (see below). If I don't know I can keep it blank or once again approximate in order to remind myself to find the information. While it is possible to enter marriage notes, I would like you to keep everything in your general notes area for this class, so that all your sources will appear in one place in a proper format no matter what other program we pull the data into.

Save the marriage date and location and the program leaves the word "Unknown" for the mother. Double click on word "Unknown" below the father's name to enter the mother. Notice that the program is not sure if you want to Add a New Individual or Select and Existing Individual. If you click on Add New Individual for the mother of Karen Ann Kamsula, it will bring up the same entry template we have been using previously. If you click on Select Existing Individual, it will open the existing family file index so you can search for the worman. If you don't want to do this yet, you may click "Cancel." If you need help, click on "Help."

Now the PAF program shows a daughter and her parents in the Family view. But how do we add siblings to the family? Once again there are several ways. If the mother is shaded dark grey, then she is the active person on the screen. By clicking on the word ADD at the top of the screen, you can scroll down to CHILD. This would put up a template to add another child to Helena. If you wanted to add another spouse to Helena, you could select ADD and then SPOUSE. If you wanted to add her parents, you could click ADD and then PARENTS.

If Karen were highlighted, another option would be available to ADD OTHER PARENTS. I had a stepfather and foster parents. So I could add them if I desired by clicking on that option under ADD once my name was highlighted.