WorldCat Tutorial

Gary Zimmerman from the Fiske Foundation Library in Seattle gave a great lecture today at our Bainbridge Island Gen. Soc. on European search engines. He ended with our own WorldCat. At our IMFA website I added the WorldCat search box because it will find a library that holds a book you've just heard about. However, if your library subscribes to WorldCat's FirstSearch (only available through libraries) you might have more success searching for family history via your library's computer terminal, than on yours at home.

If this is new information to you, the link in the title (http://www.oclc.org/worldcat/genealogy/worldcat_tutorial_genealogy.pdf) takes you to a tutorial showing FirstSearch's many features for family historians - including how to search preferred subject headings (an example: Wills includes Codicils-you don't have to think to type codicil). It will show lists of broader, narrower and related subject headings - meaning a librarian cataloged like subjects together so we don't have to think of all synonyms. Also Genre Forms (like Bibles) can focus a search, or a Preferred Citation can make sourcing what you find that much easier. For family history, we could search "Mullenix family" in the field Named Person, or a county/state name in the Geographic field. Next time you visit your library, see if FirstSearch helps you find what you're looking for.
Marie Mx Spearman

New Page on IMFA

Hi folks;

I just thought of another way to use the Wiki. I often find myself with large files that I want share with fellow researchers--files too large to e-mail without packing them. So lately I've been pasting some of them on the bottom of the Wiki Pages for others to download. It works so well that I've decided to start a new page on the Wiki for just that purpose. I'll call it "Share". Any IMFA member who wants to use this function will be able to do so by asking for write privileges on the Wiki. Recipients of these files do NOT need to have privileges.

Cheers, Wayne

Help: Alexander & Mary Mx

Hi Folks;

As I'm entering data into my family tree software, I find that the wife of Henry Boehm Mx (son of the Rev. Amos N. Mx) is practically an unknown.

She's mentioned in Charles Green's letters, as is her father Alexander "Sandy". Myrtelle Wheeler Mx stated that Mary was Henry B. Mx's "second half-cousin, who descended from Levi and his first wife , whose name we are still seeking." Furthermore, the 1880 Census* for Henry, et al, also lists a female, probably Mary's sister, who according to Ancestry is named Jane, but looks more like Clara to me. Her surname is "Molynaux". These two factors lead me to suspect that Mary's surname (and by default, Alexander's) was some version of Mx. Can any of our readership shed some light on this issue?

(* Source Citation: Year: 1880; Census Place: Whiteplains, Westchester, NY; Roll: T9_945; Family History Film: 1254945; Sheet: 5A; Page: 350; ED: 101; Image: 0701.)

Thanks, Wayne

Fixing Up The Wiki

Hi All;

Several of our members have had trouble viewing our Wiki on smaller terminals such as 17" laptops. In order to remediate this issue we've done some tweaking of the settings (thanks to Pat Geary for her expertise) in the Wiki such that the Wiki window should now (hopefully) size to your screen and/or the width of your browser window. For those of you who have not had any trouble in this regard, you may now have to size down the width of your browser window to get the same look as the original (and coincidentally, the way I designed it).

If you're still having trouble seeing the entire width of the Wiki, try clicking on the little bluish arrow in the upper right hand corner of the Wiki window. This will eliminate the sidebar and extend the Wiki to cover the whole of the browser window.

Finally, if you prefer, you can download the MSWord version of my draft article. Its located at the bottom of the Intro (imfa.pbwiki.com/I-Branford-MX's%3A-Intro) page. Its called Joseph Mx.doc. It doesn't have all the graphics that the Wiki has nor does it have all of my notes about the graphics, but it is the article as I originally wrote it for the IMFA Newsletter. Feel free to download it.

I hope this helps.

Cheers, Wayne

Mx Book: Cain & Allied Families of Mullinix & Wright

Looking for a copy of Cain and Allied Families of Mullinix and Wright, by Ruth Hutcheson Craft. Out of print, probably self published, as publisher is listed as Craft, dated 1978.
Please contact: Marie Mx Spearman - mxworld_us@mindspring.com

IMFA's Wiki: http://imfa.pbwiki.com

IMFA has a wiki. US332 Masugu (aka our Wayne) took on a monumental task and the results are phenomenal. Working with US294 George Mollineaux on an extension of George’s article about the Mx Quakers of New York state, Wayne has researched a lot of history and found great illustrations for this article, a portion of which is excerpted in the February 2009 issue of MxWorld.

A wiki is another kind of website. It makes collaboration and editing easier for joint authors. We invite IMFA members to add items or comments to the existing pages OR to start new folders for other Mx ancestral lines.

If you have any questions, contact Masugu at woichi01@comcast.net for assistance to put your family history stories and photos on the wiki.
Marie Mx Spearman

Hello Again Blog junkies;

I had to go back and reactivate the links to this post--they should work now.

If you haven't already seen them please visit my Wiki efforts at http://imfa.pbwiki.com/
and http://moospics.wetpaint.com/.

In re the first. let the folks at the IMFA know what you think of the Wiki and please feel free to link to the page(s).