Category: Blog

Frost-Keysor Genealogy

I had to write this all out to email it to the keepers of the Genealogy of the Abial Frost Family website, so I might as well post it here in case someone finds it from another angle and has information.

I’m looking for a connection to the Frost family and hoping someone might be able to give me some guidance on my wife’s side of the family.

Looking over the newsletters and this site, I don’t think she is a descendant of Abial Frost, but there are references to the Hadley, NY area that I think are intriguing.

My wife is descended from an Elizabeth Frost, who married Clark Keysor Sr., father of Civil War Union Captain Clark Keysor of Mankato, MN. We don’t have direct familial knowledge of the line this far back, but Capt. Keysor’s early life is documented in both “Mankato: It’s First Fifty Years..” (1903) and “History of Blue Earth County…” (Hughes, 1901). I’ve copied some text below:

Captain Keysor was born in Luzerne, Warren county, New York, May 24, 1826, and was among the five children of Clark and Elizabeth (Frost) Keysor. The father followed the lumbering business until his death, which occurred in New York state in 1830. Survived by the widow, she eventually came to Mankato [MN] and died here in 1877 at an advanced age. Their son, Clark, Jr., received a common-school education in New York state and grew to manhood upon a farm, early gaining a thorough knowledge of agricultural pursuits. (Hughes, 1901)

KEYSOR, Capt. Clark–Born in Luzerne, Warren County, New York, May 24th, 1826, a son of Clark and Elizabeth (Frost) Keysor. His grandparents on his father’s side were natives of Germany, who landed in New York City about the end of the 18th century, were the grandmother died, leaving the Captain’s father an infant, who, being adopted by a family named Wells, was brought up in New York State, where he died in 1830. After his father’s death, Capt. Keysor made his home with his grandfather Frost, in the town of Hadley, New York, working on a farm and attending the country school until he was sixteen years of age. He then started out for himself, finding employment first in a saw mill at Luzerne, and the following winter in a lumber camp. (Mankato, 1903)

Elizabeth Frost Keysor did move to Mankato and died there. She may have remarried to a Noyes after Clark Sr’s death, but I am having a hard time finding documentation. There are two markers that bear her name in Glenwood Cemetery in Mankato.

Looking through the newsletters, I see mention of Uncle Elijah, who lived in Hadley around that time and had a daughter named Lizzie. This is noted in the Frost Genealogy (1912); Elijah is individual #8.

I’d appreciate any sources documenting the Frost-Keysor connection if there is one. Thanks for any ideas.

Matt

P.S. My wife’s tree is online, the direct link to Elizabeth Frost is here: https://mattbk.com/webtrees/index.php?route=%2Fwebtrees%2Ftree%2FFinstad%2Findividual%2FI782%2FElizabeth-Frost

Uploading big files to Castopod on YuNoHost

Find PHP version being used:

> matt@example:/etc/php$ tail ynh_app_version
> castopod:8.0

Update `memory_limit` in `sudo nano /etc/php/8.0/fpm/php.ini`

Restarted PHP 8 service, getting `504 Gateway Time-out nginx` now. Progress?

Then set `client_max_body_size` in here to 700 rather than 600:
`matt@example:/etc/nginx/conf.d/castopod.example.net.d$ sudo nano castopod.conf`

Then set `max_execution_time` to 90 at `sudo nano /etc/php/8.0/fpm/php.ini`

Restart nginx and PHP services (I used https://example.net/yunohost/admin/#/services).

WSJT-X Setup on macOS

I may add to these notes, but a key one was to make sure to give WSJT-X access to the microphone, even when using a USB cable to control the rig. Thanks to K3DCW for the tip.

I presume that you have a checkmark in the box labeled “PortAudio” next to the USB Audio CODEC device selectors. If so, then the only other thing that I can think of is that you haven’t given macOS permission to access your “microphone.” Many of these programs see/treat that USB Audio CODEC as a microphone input and failing to give it access to your “microphone” will cause it to not hear a thing. Go to the Security & Privacy pane and make sure that Fldigi has access to the microphone.

I also have iShowU Audio Capture installed (for OBS screen recording), which I thought might have been the problem. Here are my current working audio settings (Audio Midi Setup).

The rest of the settings described here work out well for connecting the IC-7300 and my MacBook Pro.

To get the gain right in the software, I used the RF Gain knob on the IC-7300. There is a way to adjust this in the settings but I can’t find it at the moment. It’s the ACC/USB AF Output Level setting under MENU>SET>Connectors (make sure you scroll up and down the menu items as needed). All suggestions are to get the bar in WSJT or JTDX to about 30 dB.

Labeling minimum and maximum values on a fill color guide in #rstats #ggplot2

This took me a while to understand, and even though I think this should be built in somewhere, I ended up with the following function:

# Function to show min and max values on fill color bars.
# Inspiration from https://stackoverflow.com/a/60732101/2152245
# original_func should be something like "scales::breaks_pretty(3)"
breaks_min_max <- function(original_func) {
    function(x) {
        original_result <- original_func(x)
        breaks <- c(min(x),
                  original_result,
                  max(x))
breaks_sort <- sort(breaks)
# If values are too close, drop one of them
close <- diff(breaks_sort) < 1
breaks_sort <- breaks_sort[!close]
breaks_sort
    }
}

Note the very rough method of determining when labels will be too close together. This would need to be modified if working with negative numbers or values that are all decimals.

In use:

ggplot(mtcars,
aes(x = mpg,
y = disp,
color = qsec)) +
geom_point(size = 5) +
scale_color_continuous(breaks = breaks_min_max(scales::breaks_pretty(4)))

Result:

Update 2021-09-28:

If you have a log scale, this will also work if you use breaks_log(). Example below. This seems to be sensitive to the number of breaks you set; for the example below, 4 doesn’t work (the top and bottom values aren’t labeled), but 6 does.

ggplot(mtcars, aes(x = mpg, y = disp, color = qsec)) +
geom_point(size = 5) +
scale_color_continuous(trans = "log10",
breaks = breaks_min_max(scales::breaks_log(6)))

List of #APRS Projects (and interesting alternatives)

I’ve expanded my search beyond what I introduced in APRS tracker/viewer build concept. Here I will attempt to organize projects some other folks have put together.

This has been sitting in draft mode for several weeks, but I’m pushing it out now and hoping to add more as I learn.

Bulk Convert your Dire Wolf logs to GPX

Dire Wolf won’t let you save both a daily and single log file of packets received, but if you log daily with LOGDIR, you can write a script that bundles up all the log files and then produces a GPX file of the output. This is useful if you want an idea of the area your digipeater or iGate is covering without trusting to aprs.fi or aprsdirect.com, which only provide the actual path taken and drop duplicate iGated packets.

Simple script for Linux:

#!/bin/bash
# merge log files
sed 1d *.log > log_merged.csv
# convert to gpx
log2gpx log_merged.csv > log_merged.gpx

(sed tip from Linux.com means you don’t need Python or similar)

Make it executable:

chmod +x merge_and_gpx.sh

Run or schedule in cron:

./merge_and_gpx.sh

APRS tracker/viewer build concept

Writing this on the fly and hope to add links later.

I’ve been into APRS lately, which tends to yield project ideas. There are small trackers put there that aren’t cheap, cheaper trackers that aren’t small, and none of them do all of what you might want.

At an event (e.g., an endurance race in a remote location), you want everyone to know as much as possible. We’ve tried satellite tracking on racers to various success, but when the race course has little mobile data and barely SMS (if anything), satellites don’t help race directors very much.

Having enough amateur radio volunteers to set up a real net is the dream, but in absence, what else can we do? Enter APRS.

Build idea here is for an easy-to-install vehicle (staff and volunteer) tracker that lets everyone see other where other people are. A limited number of hams would enter data and send messages or bulletins, and the rest would be passive; not pushing buttons on the radio, but having access to received data.

Quick concept and then I’m done:

  • Raspberry Pi Zero running Dire Wolf as a TNC.
    • Will need USB port, maybe not the Zero?
  • Cheap 2m radio, ideally mobile rather than HT so powering is easy. Doesn’t need any features!
  • Custom cable to run the radio and sound in/out.
  • USB sound card.
  • APRSdroid pr APRSfi phone app.

See where im going? Need to run numbers on cost, because it’s adding up in my head.

Summits on the Air (SOTA) and highpointing

Did some quick looking for information on Summits on the Air (SOTA), a ham radio contest to make contacts while either you or your contact are standing on top of a summit (mountain peak, usually) and highpointing, which is a hiking contest to stand on all the high points in a given set of jurisdictions (continents, counties, US states, US counties, etc.). Links below.

  • https://www.sotamaps.org/ maps to help you find official SOTA summits, although determining which association you belong to is not especially clear. Minnesota is association K0M and North/South Dakota are association W0D.
  • https://sotawatch.sota.org.uk/en/ SOTAwatch is a good place to let people know what peak you’ll be on so they can try to contact you
  • SOTA summits in North Dakota and South Dakota: https://summits.sota.org.uk/region/W0D
  • SOTA summits in Minnesota: https://summits.sota.org.uk/association/K0M
  • Getting started with SOTA: http://www.pnwsota.org/content/getting-started-sota
  • SOTA Minnesota association reference manual: https://sotastore.blob.core.windows.net/arms/ARM-K0M.pdf
  • Joining in with SOTA: https://www.sota.org.uk/Joining-In
  • How to activate a SOTA peak: http://www.pnwsota.org/sites/pnwsota.org/files/How%20to%20Activate%20a%20SOTA%20Peak.pdf
  • Minnesota county high points: https://www.peakbagger.com/list.aspx?lid=13407

 

Getting Started in Genealogy

I responded to a “how do you get started” question somewhere else and came out with the following brain dump, so I’ll post it here too.

What tips and tricks would you have to get started with genealogy?

You don’t have to put your tree in Ancestry and pay monthly, especially if you have hosting somewhere. Webtrees is good software. If you are associated with a university, you may have access to an Ancestry subscription for free through the library. Set up a system for digital files and naming conventions on your local machine to back up any documentation you add to an online tree. Family tree software should all operate with the GEDCOM format, which makes it really easy to move around if you are dissatisfied (although objects like photos may be harder to).

When I started in high school 20 years ago, it was just a tree of everyone I knew I was related to. Then you get back far enough and have to ask people for help. My grandmother remembered dozens of names and dates, which got me further. Ancestry and similar free websites (findagrave.com) can fill in a lot. Newspapers.com helped me find a ton of obituaries and gossip column entries, which filled in even more.

It’s only recently that I got into thinking about the “History” going on around my ancestors when they were alive, and that’s been driving my interest for the last year. Person A lived in this place in the 1890s–what was going on there, and how were global events affecting them? Newspapers.com or another archive were very useful for this as well.

Although Ancestry and Newspapers.com are subscription, even one month lets you dig into and download as much as you want, so if money is tighter you can sign up for a single month and dedicate a lot of time to getting as much raw material as possible.

Urban Arrow Family winter riding

I can’t promise a lot of updates about this, but here are some observations from this morning. 20 degrees F, alleged 7 mph wind (felt like more). Put studded tires on last night, felt super solid with two kids in the box. Trace to drifts of 2″ of snow, drifts were sketchier on return trip without kids.

Kids stayed warm with the classic rain tent, coats, mittens, hat/hood, and big flannel blanket. Still would like more protection from wind in the back where it’s just mesh.

LCD screen seemed okay, although I think battery is discharging faster than usual. I am bringing the battery inside now between rides.

All around, a wonderful ride. Plus we saw turkeys!

photo of the corner of an urban arrow cargo bike and some turkey tracks in snow
Turkey tracks on the preschool commute.