Thank You, Mr. Boyd & Family Maps!

*For reasons unknown there's been problems with this post. The following first paragraph was missing from the initial publishing.

I didn't post on Friday because I wanted to tell you about my experience at the "Genealogy Lock-In" program at Haggard Library. This was a great opportunity for people to utilize various resources across Texas, attend free workshops and receive assistance from the fabulous Genealogy Center staff. And I got to combine two of my favorite things... my hobby and my job. As a representative for my museum, I was there with my portable audio and imaging lab helping people preserve their family history. I met one lady with whom I spent several long minutes discussing photographs. She was lamenting about her family photographs, many of whom are unidentified and a problem I'm quite familiar with (see Tuesday Tagging). We discussed strategies for aging photographs, typing to fashion. As I was walking away I saw another woman with a catchy black shirt was contrasted with her silver hair. It said, "I seek dead people!" She laughed saying, "Only people like us get it," referring to the women and a few men milling around. 

One of the men I met was Mr. Gregory A. Boyd. If you've ever used the "Family Map" books in the library or www.HistoryGeo.com then you've used the brainchild of Mr. Boyd. He's a one-of-a-kind guy, a combination of "attorney, software engineer, and historian" according to Arphax Publishing Co. website. I use the visual placement of the land lots on the map to determine relative proximity to different family branches. For instance, I discovered that the Baker family farm and the Callaway family farms were within a mile of each other. That proximity explains how Irene Baker and John Callaway probably met and later married.

From "Family Maps of Coffee County, Alabama" page 205

Another puzzle the maps solved was to a reference in the family bible. 

The Callaway family bible says: "Rachel Callaway, wife of John [D.] Callaway & mother of J. H. [Jonathan Hosea] Callaway died near Geneva on the 8th day of January 1848 at the residence of J H Callaway & was buried near Dr. Jones where also lies Lany and her 2 little boys J A & H L Callaway." The big question was where is this Dr. Jones place? Again, the proximity of names came to my rescue in the Family Maps. While highlighting the Callaway land, I didn't immediately notice the Jones on the far left until I looked at the historical map on page 145. There I noticed the "Jones Cemetery."

From "Family Maps of Geneva County, Alabama" page 145

The puzzle began to make sense and it was due to Mr. Boyd and his team's (that's his wife and one other person) hard work. I got to shake his hand and thank him personally for helping me answer some genealogical questions. I thought about asking for an autograph because I sincerely appreciate his work... but decided not to. If you have a chance to attend an all day genealogy workshop, I definitely recommend it. I know I'll me coming back to this one.