Membership
Who is invited to join IMFA?
IMFA membership is open to anyone descended from or researching the surname Molyneux
or any of its many spelling variants.
View a long list of variations.
You may descend from an Mx ancestor, male or female, or you may be a spouse of an
Mx, or perhaps you were adopted into a Mx surname. IMFA promotes family history
not solely genealogy. We are who we are because of our families - and a proven genetic
thread to an ancestor does not of itself tell our family story.
Libraries and genealogical societies are welcome to become members of IMFA as well.
IMFA has been honored by the New York Public Library’s subscription for over a decade.
What does membership in IMFA involve?
First and foremost, IMFA asks you to share your personal ties to the Mx surname
with our membership, primarily by encouraging you to share your direct-line descent
from your earliest known ancestor. We also encourage you to share obituaries, grave
marker extractions, wills, Bible records, family photos and letters, maps or Mx
place names. You never know if or when those clues you’ve discovered in pursuit
of your personal family research may provide that once necessary datum that’ll break
through the brick wall of another member, or at least provide them with a new focus
or perspective.
IMFA can accept either your gedcom (family history software compiled files), or
your pedigree on paper. Beyond your direct line ancestors, we are also interested
in all known Mx siblings at each generation – because although one of our current
members may not connect with your direct ancestor, (s)he may connect through your
ancestor’s sibling.
Secondly, as you research, you may come across Mx information that does not relate
to your own family, but because it might help someone else in our membership, we
ask that you share this non-related Mx information with IMFA.
Lastly, members pay dues, although the amounts are nominal. For the past 24 years,
dues simply covered the expense for photocopies, envelopes, mailing labels and postage
– to mail IMFA’s 28-page quarterly newsletter. This option continues for those who
prefer a newsletter by mail, and for those with no email or Internet access.
The annual cost to mail the newsletter in the U.S. is $15. (For non-U.S. members,
i.e. those in the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and So. Africa, please contact
your country’s family representative, listed below, for pricing details.)
Starting with Volume 25, IMFA is able to offer MxWorld as a PDF document for download
at this website. Dues for a paperless membership are $10 U.S. (or the equivalent
in your country’s currency) sent in your currency by check or money order to your
country’s representative. Donations, in excess of dues, are always welcome.
What are the benefits of membership in IMFA?
- Full-text, searchable access to all back issues of MxWorld.
- Resources listed at our Resource page.
- Option to enter your pedigrees in IMFA’s database of family pedigrees.
- Research assistance by IMFA volunteers.
- Full access to our DNA database.
- Subsidy towards the cost of 37-marker DNA test with FamilyTreeDNA (either for a
male Mx member testing, or for a female Mx member sponsoring a male Mx).
- Opportunity to post your own family research (queries or comments) and to collaborate
with other IMFA members via our various Web portals and /or MxWorld.
How will my dues / donations be used?
For the most part, IMFA uses donations to offset the cost of DNA testing for our
members. We also fund our website updates and library subscriptions. Copies of MxWorld
are placed with many libraries, including the LDS library in Salt Lake City, Utah,
and Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
Full list of libraries.
Recently, because of accumulated funds, IMFA has been able to pay the entire cost
of testing for a few members whose DNA profile may prove to be important in the
research of several of our Mx ancestral lines. Thus, if you join after August 2010,
and you opt for a paperless membership, your membership fee will go toward our DNA
project.