The Post Office

The Post Office by Augustus Pugin Senior and Thomas Rowlandson

for Ackermann's Microcosm of London (1808-11).

When my husband's great grandfather, who lived on the Rainy River in Koochiching Minnesota, decided to retire from full time farming, he opened a general store in Central Village and became the village's first postmaster.

Several of my indirect Seale line were Post Office employees. A few men from the Quebec line were postmasters, and cousin Henry Seale worked as an Assistant Inspector for the Post Office in Kingston, Ontario in 1918.
Look under Post Office in the local directories and almanacs.

Kingston Directory 1918

The salaries of Canadian postal workers are in the Sessional Papers of the Dominion of Canada, under Auditor General Report.  We find that Henry Edgar, as a Postal Inspector at Kingston, made $1350 for the year ending March 1919.  

When I was young we lived in a small town and our Post Office, established in 1948, was in the basement of someone's house. They had a section set up with a wicket behind which, in my time, Mr or Mrs Giroux sold stamps, mailed parcels and did other post office business.  This is the record of post masters for this post office...

Lists of Unclaimed Letters at the Post Office were often posted in local newspapers, as well as the Government Gazette. Also check University websites, some have lists of unclaimed letters addressed to students who have graduated and moved out of the dorms without giving a forwarding address.


Relevant Links

LAC - Post Office and Postmaster database search

Sessional Papers of the Dominion of Canada

Post Master finder - USPS

List of uncalled for letters, Wabash County, Indiana, 1861

List of letters unclaimed at Kingston, Ontario: Chronicle & Gazette 1833

Alphabetical list of Postmasters in Canada 1862

List of Post Offices in the United States, w/names of Postmasters etc 1828

Registered Letters of Canada: loss reported (missing money or contents) 1886

Registers of money, letters and packages sent to prisoners, US War Dept 1861-1865

Unclaimed Letters posted in the Victoria Government Gazette, AU

Allen County Genealogical Society Indiana - Unclaimed Letter Index

Unclaimed Letters at the Milwaukee Post Office 1836

List of Postmasters in Tasmania Newspaper 1853

The History of the Post Office Down to 1836 - UK

Canada Postal Guide 1821

Guide official du service postal Canadien 1917

Post Office Distribution Lists for Canadian Provinces

Newfoundland Post Office Circular (various years)

The Post Office of India and it's Story 1921

British Postal Museum -Appointment Records (available on Ancestry UK)

Unclaimed Letters at the Post Office, Auckland NZ to Dec 1862

Unclaimed Letters at the Post Office, Nelson, NZ 1857

Index to the Postal Working Map of Shanghai - 1904

Pre 1875 PEI Postmasters Database

Undelivered letters to Hudson's Bay Company men 1830-1857 (Google, limited view)

(Check at World Cat for libraries holding the above mentioned book)