INTRO TO THE FINDEX (pp.195-199)
As the name implies, the FINDEX is designed to help you find the articles you're looking for! The FINDEX is a detailed index of reference articles which have been published in the FNs from the years 1977-85 inclusive, as well as in the Family Specials Magazines, Heavenly Helpers, How to Love Book, How to Get Things Done Book, BORs, LINs & KIDZ Magazines published up to the end of August, 1985. Also included in the FINDEX are articles from the GNs & ML Volumes (those items which have no ML numbers), plus miscellaneous WNs from the WNDs & FNs not included in the WNDEX, as well as items from assorted other publications such as Dad's OLD GOLDIE Magazine, the three Songbooks, & the LNFs.
The over 9,000 articles selected & indexed for the FINDEX chronicle an 8-year history of the Family from 1977 to the middle of 1985, as well as provide reference material on 400 different subjects. Please note that not every article ever written & published in the FN is found in the FINDEX as we only indexed the important reference material of the sort that you would now find published in the Family Specials Magazine & in the FN ENcyclopedia. We pray that the FINDEX will prove to be a useful key in helping you to easily find & refer to these articles, so that you can draw from their wealth of information.
In order to get the most out of the FINDEX, we suggest that you take some time to study the following explanation of How to Use the FINDEX, as the more familiar you are with it & what it can do for you, the greater benefit you will receive from it. When examples are given in this Intro, we suggest that you actually look them up, in order to get a "feel" of how to use the FINDEX, Table of Subjects & Author Index. The extra time you invest now in learning how to properly use the FINDEX will benefit you for Eternity!
Each of the articles listed in the FINDEX has been indexed in one or more of the 400 categories, according to the subject covered in the article. The goal of the FINDEX is to make it easy for you to find a particular article you want to read, as well as to make it possible for you to easily do a thorough study on all that the Family has written on a specific subject.
HOW TO USE THE FINDEX
GETTING TO KNOW THE FINDEX
The FINDEX consists of four main sections:
1) LIST OF CATEGORIES (Beginning on page 200)
You will find the complete alphabetical list of all FINDEX categories printed on pages 200 & 201. You can quickly scan those pages to locate the page number of the category you want.
2) TABLE OF SUBJECTS (Beginning on page 202)
The Table of Subjects is a complete directory to the FINDEX, & it works much the same as the Table of Subjects in the MOPs. The Table of Subjects consists of a list of over 700 subjects, each one followed by the name or names of the FINDEX categories in which you can find articles on those subjects. (For example, if you want to read about Breast-Feeding: You'd first of all look in the Table of Subjects under "B", & find the word "Breast Feeding". Although there is no FINDEX Category called Breast-Feeding, it will refer you to the Category "BABY CARE" where you can find such articles.)
As you look through the TOS, you will note that only the Category names are in bold print & underlined. The minor subjects in the TOS are not in bold print as these are not actual FINDEX Categories. (To cite the above example, "BREAST-FEEDING" is not in bold print as it is not a FINDEX Category, whereas "BABY CARE" is a Category & is therefore listed in bold print & underlined, along with the page number where it begins in the FINDEX.)
When using the Table of Subjects, always look for the most specific reference first. Then if you do not find it listed, try to think of other related subjects which, if listed, will direct you to the most appropriate FINDEX Category.
SEE ALSO'S: Following most of the FINDEX Categories, there is a list of "See_ _Also's". These "See Also's" give related Categories in the FINDEX that you may also wish to research for further information on the subject. (For example, under "BABY CARE" you will find the related Category "PREGNANCY & BIRTH".)
OTHER SOURCES: If you wish to do even further research, below the See Also's, you will find "Other Source" references. These other sources direct you to Books & publications which are not included in the FINDEX, but which may be found in another index within the PUBDEX, or in a separate Book, such as the ML Letter Index. So if you have read the articles on Breast-Feeding listed under "BABY CARE", as well as related articles in "PREGNANCY & BIRTH", both found in the FINDEX, & you still desire more information, the "Other Sources" will direct you to publications such as the "Childcare Handbook Index", the "Royal Family Childcare Index", & "ML Categorical List" (all found in the PUBDEX); the WNDEX, as well as the "Letter Index", KWIC*, "MOP", "Daily Bread", "Daily Mights", etc., which contain tidbits from the Word on Breast-Feeding. (*Note: The KWIC is not listed under "Other Sources" because it was printed after the PUBDEX was finalised, but don't forget to check it also when doing your research.)
3) THE FINDEX (Beginning on page 215)
This is the main body of the FINDEX, where the actual information is listed. You will find under each Category heading the title & author of each article in the Category, as well as the publication & page number where the article may be found, & the year the article was published.
Since many of the early FNs from 1977 to 1982 were unavailable to a large number of the Family, Dad & Maria suggested a reprinting of the reference articles from this time period in the FN Encyclopedia. These earlier articles are therefore listed according to their page number in the FN Encyclopedia (coded "FNENC"). Though this FN Encyclopedia was published in 1985, all reprinted articles found in it are listed in the FINDEX according to the original publication date, in order to maintain the chronological continuity of articles on various subject matter.
4) AUTHOR INDEX (Beginning on page 348)
Here you will find all articles included in the FINDEX, listed according to their author. For example, if you are trying to locate an article written by Secundus & Seek, you would look under the listings of authors beginning with "S" where you will find a number of articles listed as having been written by "SECUNDUS & SEEK". Of course, you may still need to do some further searching if you're looking for a specific article, as in the original article the authors may have listed themselves instead as "SEEK & SECUNDUS", or perhaps just "SEEK". So if you do not locate the article you're looking for immediately, you should be able to do so by checking the other possibilities.
While we have attempted to standardise the authors' names in the various articles as much as possible, you will undoubtedly run across a number of instances where articles written by the same author are listed in different ways in the Author Index. The reasons for this are many: Perhaps at one time the author wrote using his Bible name, & then the next time signed his legal name; perhaps his Bible name changed, or as in the previous example, perhaps one time the author was listed as "PAUL & MARIANNE", & in their next article signed "MARIANNE & PAUL", or even listed themselves as "MWMI: P&M" if the article was more to do with MWM activities, etc.
If the same writer wrote two articles but signed his name slightly different, like "Mark" one time, & "Mark Gypsy" the next time, the computer has no way of determining if it is the same person & so the two articles will be listed separately, one under "MARK" & the second under "MARK GYPSY"--These two groups of articles will appear close to one another & therefore should be relatively easy to locate.
If two or more people named Ben wrote articles, these will end up in the same listing under "BEN", unless a second name was originally given. If one article has more than two authors, or if someone has an exceptionally long name, it was necessary to abbreviate the name. For example, an article written by Joash, Rachel & Timothy will be listed as Joash/Rach/Tim.
HOW TO FIND AN ARTICLE
As explained before, in researching a subject such as Breast-Feeding, you would look up your subject in the TABLE OF SUBJECTS, which directs you to the category "BABY CARE" & you can then comb through all the titles listed under this category to locate the articles you want to read.
The "See Also" of "BABY CARE" directs you to the related category of "PREGNANCY & BIRTH", & if you wish to do even further research, "Other Sources" references include the Childcare Handbook Index, Royal Family Childcare Index, & WNDEX, as well as sources from the Word as found in the Letter Index, the KWIC & the ML Categorical List.
However if you are only trying to find a specific article & you know who wrote it, then just look up the author's name in the AUTHOR INDEX & it will direct you to where the article is located.
If you can't remember who wrote it, then think of the general Category that the article would most likely be listed under & look for it there, again referring to the Table of Subjects. If you know the Mag or Book it was published in, or even the approximate year it was published,this will facilitate your finding it, since all articles are listed chronologically. (The only exception to this chronological rule is that since FNs appear before HHs in the listings due to alphabetical sequence, all the FNs published that year are listed together; so even if HH2 actually came out before FN 65, FN 65 will be listed first. Both publications will be found listed under "1983", which is the year they were both published.)
OTHER POINTS OF INTEREST
In the HEALING section we've made it easier for you to find the ailment you're looking for by listing it in parenthesis after the title if it is not already clear.
In the TESTIMONIES section, you'll find a list of all the published Personal Testimonies. Since our personal testimonies are one of our greatest witnessing tools, & we have people in the Family who have done just about everything, all personal testimonies have been sub-categorised into a wide range of backgrounds & experiences, to enable you to locate & use the testimonies you need for your mail ministries, new disciples, fish, etc. The author's country of origin is listed in parenthesis after their name. As in other categories, you will find that different articles/testimonies are found listed in more than one category. If you are looking for someone's specific personal testimony, it's easiest to find it by using the AUTHOR INDEX. Their name & country of origin will appear as a separate entry, close by any other articles also written by them. For example, if you wanted to find Marianne's testimony, you would look in the Author Index & you'll find a number of articles listed under "MARIANNE", followed by articles listed under "MARIANNE & PAUL" followed by "MARIANNE (FRANCE)", which is her personal testimony.
RFNs and RFN: FIRST IMPRESSIONS are categories listing all the articles written about and/or by the Royal Family & M&M Staff, as well as by visitors to Dad & Maria's Home. In the case of visitors, articles written while the person was in the Royal Household are included in the RFN section, while those written before or after that person returned to their field are not. (An example of this is Faithy, whose articles written while at the Folks' appear in the RFN section, whereas those written in the periods before & after are instead only listed under the Category "FAITHY--Articles By & About".)
Another interesting Category that we would like to draw your attention to is "DAD & MARIA: LITTLE JEWELS". This Category contains a listing of important & significant comments that Dad & Maria have made on a wide range of subjects to & about people, places & events, etc. Where you find a person's name followed by a slash mark (/), & then "Dad", this indicates that Dad has jotted a note on their article.
EXPLANATION OF CODES
The coding of the individual publications, & page numbers for each article in the FINDEX is explained in sample below:
[Format: Where the article is found; the page no.; the title; the author; this indicated that Dad wrote a comment on the article.]
GN 170 9 Major World Events of 1984 James Penn/Dad
A full listing of the codes for the publications are as follows:
FN = Family News
FNENC = FN Encyclopedia
FS = Family Specials Magazine
HH = Heavenly Helpers
KD = KIDZ
LN = Love Is News
GN = Good News
BK = GN Book
VOL = ML Volume
WND = WND
WNE = WNDEX
BOR = Book of Remembrance
DB = Daily Bread
OG = Dad's Old Goldie Booklet
GTD = How To Get Things Done
HTL = How To Love
CCHB = Childcare Handbook
LS = Love Songs (Songbook)
SL = Songs of Love (Songbook)
We pray that these basic instructions will help you to get the most out of your FINDEX so that you can benefit from all the material the Family has written over the years. PTL! God bless & keep you & make the FINDEX a blessing to you! We love you!
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family