Special to The Journal

Arphax Publishing Co. is proud to announce the publication of &uot;Family Maps of Crenshaw County, Alabama, Homestead Edition,&uot; by Gregory A. Boyd, J.D.

This title is a new addition to the historic &#8220Family Maps” book series where original landowners in counties throughout the South, Midwest, and Western United States are being mapped. For the first time, historians and genealogists can quickly determine not only where early settlers lived, but who their neighbors were.

So far, one hundred counties around the country (10 counties in Alabama) have received treatment from Gregory A. Boyd, an attorney, genealogist, and software engineer.

Mr. Boyd spent two years developing the software systems that allow him to map these pioneers' land-purchases. Arphax Publishing, a Norman, Oklahoma-based company, which he co-founded with wife, Vicki Boyd, is putting these maps into book form. The books that make up the &#8220Family Maps” series are being published at a rate of about three new books each week. The project was first announced at the National Genealogical Society's &#8220Conference in the States”, last June.

Here are some of the particulars for &#8220Family Maps of Crenshaw County, Homestead Edition”:

The book is 192 pages in length, and includes 26 total maps, including a Land Patent Map for each of the 23 Congressional townships that make up Crenshaw County.

Each book contains a state-wide map (with counties), a &#8220surrounding counties&#8220 map, and a map displaying Congressional town ships within or intersecting Crenshaw county.

There is also a separate surname/patent index and a surname/township index to help you dive into the right area of the book for details. The edition of this book that is available from Arphax's web-store is constructed with a plastic spiral binding, acid-free paper, and a tough, laminated cover.

The web page for this book can be reached by clicking on the &#8220Book Store” link at www.arphax.com. From there, you can navigate to the various books (counties) which have been published so far. Each county's web-page contains an on-line surname index (last names), so prospective purchasers can get a better sense of whether their families of interest will be located in the maps. There is also a &#8220Samples” page, which allows you to download excerpts from the books, so you can better understand their huge value to Crenshaw County researchers.

Since their introduction in June 2005, some of the most famous genealogists and family historians in the country have declared the books in the series to be &#8220must have publications” (Dick Eastman, of &#8220Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter”), a source of &#8220instant gratification” (Elizabeth Shown Mills, author of &#8220Evidence!”, and &#8220Citation & Analysis for the Family Historian”), a &#8220great service” (Sharon Tate Moody, Vice President, Association of Professional Genealogists”, and &#8220an incredible on-going series” (Christine Rose, faculty member of the Institute of Genealogical Research in Washington D.C., and a Fellow of the American Society of Genealogists).

No research tool more quickly and adeptly places our nation's pioneers into a meaningful context with their neighbors. To a genealogist, that means finding lots of candidates for families which potentially married into the families they are researching. These books are often called &#8220brick-wall” busters by family historians who had all but given up on finding maiden names for their ancestors.

This &#8220Family Maps” series is quite literally the largest undertaking in U.S. history, to place so many of our nation's frontier families into their exact geographical context: and the result is truly a first-of-its kind set of tools for historical research.

The spiral-bound edition of &#8220Family Maps of Crenshaw County” is available through the company's web-store, and costs $20.95

This version is perfect for individual researchers. Libraries will want to avail themselves of the hardbound edition. Either the spiral or hardbound editions can he purchased by email, phone, fax or regular mail.

The hardbound edition is priced at $ $37.99.

The sales department can be reached at 1-800-681-5298 or by simply emailing sales@arphax.com or by fax at 1-405-366-8184.

Arphax Publishing is located at 2210 Research Park Blvd, Norman, Oklahoma 73069. Order forms are available just for the asking or from the &#8220Mail/Fax-In Order Form” link located on the company's home page at www.arphax.com.