Source: PiBeacon – Making an iBeacon from a Raspberry Pi · Hack N Cheese
SoftEther VPN, Part 2
So, SoftEther VPN has been cranking along nicely for me for months now. I really love it. It stays out of the way and does exactly what it is supposed to do.
I just bought a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B. I did this for a couple of reasons. The first being that my PC is getting so old that spinning up a Linux VM in VirtualBox is a bone-crushing endeavor, especially if i just want to play around with a Python script (hint: pexpect does not work on a Windows client). Second, to move the VPN server to so that it is not dependent on my PC…which is getting to be really old.
I found this page, which was a great help in getting SoftEther installed on the RasPi. I was messing around with this while at work. I am trying to figure out the best way to migrate the settings from the PC (Windows) to the RasPi (ARM/Linux). There are a few methods available, and none of them are recommended while doing this from remote and actually using the VPN server at the same time. AHHAHAHAHAHA!
Probably the safest way is to configure the two boxes as a cluster, move the settings and user info to the RasPi and then shut down the instance running on the PC. This involves several interruptions of the VPN and, well, not something I want to mess around with right now. I’ll do it all from home.
I am really, really excited about the RasPi. While it is not as fast as my old PC, it is speedy enough for most everything I have thrown at it so far. When the VPN is running, I want to see how much it has left in the resources tank. If there is enough, I am looking to move the Plex Server (little used, but still handy) from the PC to the RasPi. Fun!
Reconnecting Lost Donohues
So, this is how I started my day today:
I have been working with Kieran for a couple of months now. I would like to say I played a larger role in his journey to discover his bio family, but he really did all the legwork. I only provided him with a decent tree and cheerleader services when he felt like giving up. While I am very happy that he has finally found his family, I am also very happy that my tree was accurate enough to be able to help him out. In fact, when he first told me the scant details he had about his mother, I was able to quickly locate two sisters that fit the parameters. With a bit more digging, he was able to figure out that his mother was not only one of these sisters, but which one it was and the story of how he came to be, in a very real sense.
I’ve never been involved in a situation of assisting an adoptee to locate and reconnect with his bio family. It was a very different way of looking at genealogy and why we do it. For me, it is a quest to find the Point of Origin in Ireland for the various branches of my mother’s family, and, also, to try and give my only-child-with-no-paternal-first-cousins father a sense of his extended family. In a way, I have often thought that doing the genealogy on my father’s family was not too far removed from that of an adoptee. The main difference seems to be that the adoptee case involves a lot more raw emotion. We know where my father came from, we just don’t know where his father’s father came from. Slowly, a picture is starting to emerge. But the adoptee has no idea where they came from or why they were put up for adoption. In my non-expert opinion, there is a very real sense of rejection and isolation that the adoptee must deal with. At least, that was the case with Kieran. In my father’s case, we are simply curious. With Kieran, there was a real yearning to know who he is and where he came from. I am sure that I made plenty of mistakes in working with Kieran, but I know that empathy and playing the part of the sounding board helped him to keep pushing on.
So, welcome to the family Kieran and your seven siblings! I’ll be raiding your tree for their names shortly. 😉
Flynns and Draddys and Donohues, Oh My!
In a follow up to this post and this post, I finally received the first of the grave records from Calvary Cemetery in Queens. This took just over two months, which seems a bit long, especially for the amount of “research” that went into this and the cost.
Anyway, let’s look at the meat of the matter.
Grave record for Flynn-Draddy-Donohue
As you may recall, there were two unknown people in this grave. These people are Catherine Draddy-Donohue, who I am very happy to have finally found, and her 15 year old son, James. I am unsure how he died, but I am sure it was painfully tragic for all involved.
Let’s run through the history of this grave. It was originally purchased by Mary ___-Flynn, mother of John Flynn and Mary Flynn-Draddy, for John. John was married at the time of his death, but I have not been able to find any records for who his bride was. Mother Mary would soon join him, after dying a not so peaceful death (let’s just leave it that she caught one of the various tenement diseases).
William P. Donohue
The grave seems to have been left untouched for 35 years, when Catherine Draddy-Donohue, daughter of John Draddy and Mary Flynn-Draddy, needed a place to bury her husband, William P. Donohue. William was a bridge-tender and died of pneumonia.
Thomas Donohue
Six years later, William and Catherine’s 21 year old son, Thomas, who had been enrolled in seminary school, died. I do not have his death record yet, but the lore is that he died of some type of flu. 1921 was too late, I think, for Spanish Flu, but most forms of flu were not as treatable as they are now.
Calvary 8-61-T-13
I think it would have been at this point that Catherine put up the headstone on what had been previously, I suspect, an unmarked grave. Notice there is no mention of James, who would die in 1923.
Catherine Mary Draddy-Donohue
Then the grave was left alone for about 17 years before Catherine herself was buried there. She died of “Peritonitis post appendectomy, ileostomy”. I think that means her appendix burst.
Responsible Party
It has now been 77 years since this grave was last disturbed. Now I am listed as the “Responsible Party”…who owes $1801 in back maintenance fees. Good luck collecting that, Calvary!
But, seriously, did I just inherit a grave in Queens?!?!?
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Names Change
In an effort to clear my desk fo at least one piece of paper, I am going to write this blog post about my mother’s, mother’s father, David T. Atkinson Sr. At least, that is what he thought his name was. Turns out…maybe not so much.
You may recall that I have posted about the Atkinson branch of my tree before.
Rather than rehash the proving out of this complex puzzle, here is the actual discussion, which I had at the Queens New York Genealogy group on Facebook.
Matt Hannan
November 9, 2016 · Attleboro, MA
Are there city directories available online for Queens in, say, the 1890s? Right now I am targeting Astoria, but I would eventually like to look through Winfield and Maspeth, too.
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Michael C Carragher
New York Public Library Digitizes 137 Years of New York City Directories
New York Public Library is digitizing its collection of…
NYPL.ORG
Like · Reply · November 9, 2016 at 9:34pm
Matt Hannan
Yowza! Thank you!!!!
Like · Reply · 1 · November 9, 2016 at 9:36pm
Matt Hannan
That was a great help. I traced my man back each year from 1900 (cross refed with Census) to 1896 City Directory. He does not appear in 1895 City Directory. If he is there, he was doing a different job than from 1896 until his death in 1925…and he is lost within the other dozen or so with the same name. At this point, however, he was in Manhattan and, according to 1900 Census, married an Irish girl in 1893. Any suggestions on how to trace them from 1896 to 1893? I an having no luck finding the marriage record.
Like · Reply · November 11, 2016 at 1:39pm
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Michael C Carragher
You checked index at German or Italian genealogy groups?
(Same database)
The German Genealogy Group (GGG) is a not for profit organization established in early 1996…
We invite any person interested in researching their Germanic heritage to join the German Genealogy Group and share experiences with those who range from beginners to professional genealogists.
GERMANGENEALOGYGROUP.COM
Like · Reply · November 11, 2016 at 1:50pm
Matt Hannan
I am very familiar with the Italian Genealogy site. I’ll take a look at this German one now. Thanks for your help! This guy is a long-standing brick wall for me and I am trying to amass enough details on him that the wall falls of its own accord. 😉 He was born in Maryland just prior to the start of their keeping birth records.
Like · Reply · November 11, 2016 at 1:53pm
Matt Hannan
Ah. Looks like same database. Let me fill in some details for you. Go to either the German site or the Italian one and search on Brides. Enter Loftus for her maiden name and 1892 as a year. Elenora Loftus pops up. Clicking the G for Groom, you find she married Edward Atkinson. These two are a decent place to start for me, but the names are not a match. My bride is known as Maria Loftus, but she is listed as Maria E. on the 1925 Census. E for Elenora? And my groom is William Edward Atkinson, not Edward Atkinson. Still, transcription errors do occur, so I sent off for this record. I have it here next to me and it is Edward and Elenora. What is killing me is that the groom is listed as being born in Maryland! And both sets of parents are listed. Elenora is listed as having been born in NY, but her parents were Irish…her mother’s name is Maria. They are both listed as living in Astoria, but they were married by a Minister who lived at 106 E. 123rd St in Manhattan. 1896 City Directory finds my groom living at 221 E. 127th.
Like · Reply · 1 · November 11, 2016 at 2:08pm
Matt Hannan
There is so much info pointing at this being them, but nothing I claim as an exact match.
Like · Reply · 1 · November 11, 2016 at 2:08pm
Michael C Carragher
do you know the church and have the marriage certificate from them?
Like · Reply · November 11, 2016 at 4:32pm
Matt Hannan
I don’t. I only recently received the official marriage record. Google Maps shows that the address of the minister was a four minute walk from the address they would live in in 1900. It has to be my people. It is a tough neighborhood to get to from Astoria. I was looking at a 1895 map and it shows an Astoria Ferry, but it landed pretty far south of where they settled. Interestingly, they moved back to Queens in the Twentieth Century.
Like · Reply · November 11, 2016 at 5:45pm
Michael C Carragher
Does it say religion?
Like · Reply · November 11, 2016 at 5:55pm
Matt Hannan
No, but it says “Minister”. As far as we can tell, we’ve always been RC, so “Minister” stood out. No churches presently exist anywhere near the minister’s address. NYC has changed a bit in 110 years. 😉
Like · Reply · November 11, 2016 at 6:10pm · Edited
Michael C Carragher
Minister does stand out I think too. Google the ministers name and/or address and see if anything comes up
Like · Reply · November 11, 2016 at 6:09pm
Matt Hannan
Good idea. Thanks for your assistance.
Like · Reply · 1 · November 11, 2016 at 6:12pm
Matt Hannan
This guy had some handwriting. It is not good. While looking for letters to compare, I noticed that one of the last names of the witnesses is the same scrawl as the minister’s last name. These same names appear on the second page (We, the Groom and Bride, hereby certify that the info is correct…) and “E. Scrawl” becomes “Elizabeth Scrawl”, so the minister’s daughter or wife (more likely, I think). Also, I took a look through the 1892 (year of marriage) City Directory for the other witness, David J. Dean. He’s a lawyer. My man was a life-long carpenter. What do you think this lawyer was doing there as a witness to the wedding? There may not be a church record. The lawyer practiced at someplace called Tryon Row, but he lived at 338 Lenox Ave, which is no more than a few blocks from the minister’s house. I am starting to get the sense that this was a quickie wedding and I need to double-check the DoB of the first born son. Interesting…
Like · Reply · 1 · November 11, 2016 at 8:42pm
Matt Hannan
Safe there. The first child did not arrive until 1895. Doesn’t mean she did not lose a previous baby, but I have no evidence of that so far. When I started this, I knew only as far back as 1900 (US Census), which provided some guesses on dates previous. The estimate was “1893” for the marriage year. This new record is 30 Oct 1892. Looking at the location of the lawyer and the location of the husband’s work place, these guys almost certainly knew each other. Am I fooling myself into thinking that these are my people? Here is a map I put together. It starts in “Astoria” in 1892 and follows them through to 1940.
Atkinson-Loftus
Tracking the Atkinson-Loftus clan across NYC
GOOGLE.COM
Like · Reply · Remove Preview · 1 · November 11, 2016 at 9:54pm
Carol Kennedy
Many times Ancestry has the wrong spelling. Don’t know if that is a program you use, but please be aware of this.
Unlike · Reply · 1 · November 12, 2016 at 10:30am
Matt Hannan
So, this morning I looked at the Google Maps Street View for the address listed for my man’s work location. It is presently a a small Baptist Church. Born in Maryland…married by a Minister…worked as a carpenter for several years at a Baptist church… More and more things are adding up.
Like · Reply · 1 · November 12, 2016 at 10:37am
Matt Hannan
As I said, I had lost sight of my man in the directories. I am still coming to terms with these documents. Are there more than one put out per year? Tonight I took a quick peek before going to bed, and I found a Wm Atkinson, carpenter, at 492 E 48th in the 1896-1897. This made no sense to me. It is obviously not Astoria, is too far down the island for every other address I have for the guy, and I seem to already have a record of him living at 221 E. 127th in 1897. Then I looked for my mystery Edward. Edw’d Atkinson, carpenter, 104 W 127th! LINK UP at the Baptist Church!!!! I wish I had looked earlier. I need to go back through these directories again and make sure about the dates and names of the editions. This one was Trow’s City Directory. Sadly, I need to go to bed and work in the morning.
Like · Reply · November 14, 2016 at 10:30pm
Matt Hannan
The marriage record has been validated! I found the missing death record for the bride. It listed the same two parents. This has caused two brick walls to come down. I’m pretty much lost in Maryland (groom’s stomping grounds), but have been having decent luck in NY. In discussing all of tjis with my mom, she confirmed there was a house in Bayside that was bought just before the Depression. It was lost by tbe end of it. This is the address where the bride died in 1936. My mom’s input explains why I can’t ID the folks living there on the 1940 Census (and the enumerator,of course, lied about the 1935 question). How can I search street directories by address and not name?
Like · Reply · 1 · November 17, 2016 at 3:30pm · Edited
Michael C Carragher
NYPL Direct Me NYC: 1940
NYPL Direct Me NYC: 1940
DIRECTME.NYPL.ORG
Like · Reply · 1 · November 17, 2016 at 5:36pm
Matt Hannan
That is fantastic! I knew that someone else must have tackled this problem before. This looks a bit more fun than the Steve Morse route.
Like · Reply · 1 · November 17, 2016 at 8:22pm · Edited
Matt Hannan
BTW, this story has been nuts. Looks like the groom was a Baptist who married an Irish Catholic girl 11 years his junior. The marriage record looks like an elopement. It was witnessed by David J. Dean and the minister’s wife, and the bride and groom used their middle names instead of their given names. 13 months later, a baby boy is born and named John in honor of the groom’s father. This is 1892 to 1893. On the 1900 Census, John is now known as David T. It is starting to look like this might be the bride’s eldest brother’s name. I’m thinking that the parents back in Maryland did not approve of the marriage and disowned the groom. The couple remained devoted Catholics the rest of their lives.
Like · Reply · November 17, 2016 at 8:16pm · Edited
Matt Hannan
David J Dean Obituary, 1897
Like · Reply · 1 · November 17, 2016 at 7:56pm
Michael C Carragher
Woodlawn Cemetery have a good response to genealogists
Like · Reply · November 17, 2016 at 8:15pm
Michael C Carragher
You have to pay a fee but they’ll tell you if they have info
Unlike · Reply · 1 · November 17, 2016 at 8:16pm
Matt Hannan
Just found the Bayside address on the 1930 Census. My people are not there. I don’t suppose Queens County has a Deeds database online, does it? That might be asking a bit too much out of this.
Like · Reply · November 17, 2016 at 8:35pm
Matt Hannan
Here is the original marriage record that started this whole quest.
Edward Atkinson and Elenora Loftus Marriage record, 1892
Like · Reply · 1 · November 17, 2016 at 8:36pm
Matt Hannan
Here is the death record for the bride. It lists her name as known to us descendants, but also the same names for her parents as the marriage record. I am loving FamilySearch these days.
Maria Loftus-Atkinson Death record, 1936
Like · Reply · 1 · November 17, 2016 at 9:03pm · Edited
Michael C Carragher
Bayside House
Like · Reply · November 17, 2016 at 10:02pm
Michael C Carragher
Bayside House
Like · Reply · November 17, 2016 at 10:02pm
Michael C Carragher
Obviously remodeled. I grew up a few minutes from here
Unlike · Reply · 1 · November 17, 2016 at 10:03pm · Edited
Matt Hannan
From the marriage record, you can see the groom’s father’s name. Here is the birth record for the first son born to our happy couple. Keep an eye on that DoB.
John Atkinson Birth Record Index, 1893
Like · Reply · November 17, 2016 at 8:39pm
Matt Hannan
Here is the 1900 Census for the family. The address is 1844 Park Ave, which is less than two blocks from where the husband worked (104 W 127th). Look at the name of the oldest son and his DoB.
1900 US Census
Like · Reply · November 17, 2016 at 8:41pm
Matt Hannan
The husband is known on every document that I can find as being a carpenter. Here is a snippet I found for the address of his work.
1904, Sign Shop for Sale
Like · Reply · November 17, 2016 at 8:43pm
Matt Hannan
And a couple others from 1896.
1896 shop ad
Like · Reply · November 17, 2016 at 8:46pm
Matt Hannan
1896 shop ad
Like · Reply · November 17, 2016 at 8:47pm
Matt Hannan
David J. Dean’s house is long since gone and is now a church. 104 W 127 looks to be the same structure, but it is now also a church. You could throw a rock from one to the other across Malcolm X Blvd (Lenox Ave).
Like · Reply · November 17, 2016 at 8:49pm
Matt Hannan
Having the parents verified, I was able to turn up a number of birth records in Ireland with the same parent names. They run a span from 1857 to 1876, so I am doubting it is the same family. One of the sisters I was able to validate, as she died at an address that was already known to me. We call it “the Winfield house”. I located her and her husband on the 1930 Census living there. They were always just “the other tenants” to me. Amazing stuff.
Ann Loftus-Keys Death Record Index, 1935
Like · Reply · November 17, 2016 at 8:58pm
Since then, I have received the birth record of Maria and William’s oldest child. We decedents have always known him as David T. Atkinson, but this record shows that this is not the name he was given at birth: John Atkinson. I doubt that he knew this himself.
John was the name of William’s father. During whatever the issue was that caused this family to split, they changed the name of John the child to David.
John, aka David, Atkinson