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PAF (Personal Ancestral File)

Readable

other

file format

Identify it

Extensions	`.paf.dat`
PRONOM	`fmt/854fmt/855fmt/856`
Wikidata	`Q29167884`

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Open it

FFmpegOpen sourcereads · LGPL-2.1-or-later / GPL-2.0-or-later
PhotoRecOpen sourcereads · GNU General Public License
Personal Ancestral Filereads and writes · freeware
Family Tree Maker 2009reads
Legacy Family Tree Deluxereads
Personal Historianreads
RootsMagic 3reads

Convert it

To	With	Fidelity	Command and losses
FLAC 1.2.1	FFmpeg	Partial	`ffmpeg -i in.paf out.flac` Audio track only: the video is dropped.
WAV	FFmpeg	Partial	`ffmpeg -i in.paf out.wav` Audio track only: the video is dropped.
Matroska	FFmpeg	Lossy	`ffmpeg -i in.paf out.mkv` Re-encoded with lossy codecs by default; try `-c copy` to remux without re-encoding when the codecs fit the container.
MP3	FFmpeg	Lossy	`ffmpeg -i in.paf out.mp3` Lossy re-encoding.
MP4	FFmpeg	Lossy	`ffmpeg -i in.paf out.mp4` Re-encoded with lossy codecs by default; try `-c copy` to remux without re-encoding when the codecs fit the container.
Ogg	FFmpeg	Lossy	`ffmpeg -i in.paf out.ogg` Lossy re-encoding.
WebM	FFmpeg	Lossy	`ffmpeg -i in.paf out.webm` Re-encoded with lossy codecs by default; try `-c copy` to remux without re-encoding when the codecs fit the container.

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Versions and variants (3)

Sources

From Converters (FFmpeg, ImageMagick, Pandoc, LibreOffice), Just Solve the File Format Problem (File Formats Wiki), Wikidata. Updated 2026-10-26.

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