News from around the web.
Go to Source
—
-
The Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness website, which we’ve recommended in many
a Family Tree Magazine article,
is offline due to the owner’s computer and health issues and will be for “some time,”
according to a
report on Dick Eastman’s blog. Read a similar
report on the Vermont Genealogy blog.
-
Arphax Publishing has announced its HistoryGeo
online service, which we
blogged about last month, is now available for Charter Members to join. The service
gives you online access to land-ownership and other maps—for starters, all maps in
Arphax’s Family Maps and Texas Land Survey Maps series. Enhancements to the Viewer
and additions to the Map Library are in the works. Here’s
a YouTube video that explains how the service works.
-
If you’re visiting the National
Archives in Washington, DC, you can use your phone to play a mobile history game,
earn points and possibly win rewards. Go to the Scvngr
gaming site to download the free iPhone or Android app (or text CIVWAR to
728647), then complete challenges within four blocks of the National Archives D.C.
headquarters. Examples include locating Civil War photographer Mathew Brady’s studio
and finding Red Cross founder Clara Barton’s office. So far, you can redeem points
for a discount in the National Archives Shop.
-
Randy Majors announced enhancements to his Historical
US County Boundary Maps site, for helping you figure out which county had
jurisdiction of the places where your ancestors lived. For example, type a place and
a year, click Go, and be zoomed to that place with an information panel above the
map. See
what else is new here.

