Railway Mail Service

I have ancestors that were postmasters and mail clerks and ancestors that worked on the railroad. But not an ancestor that was a mail clerk ON the railroad! 

British Rail TPO vehicle

In Canada the railway postal workers were paid by the Auditor General and in some sessional papers the clerks were named with their salary amount.   

Sessional papers 1924, pg 85

In the United States Railway Mail Service employees were listed in the Official Register of the United States beginning in 1867.

Official Register of the United States 1867, pg 753

The postmaster and employees are named in the Proceedings of the Parliament for Australia, but I have not yet come across where rail mail clerks are listed, if in fact they are listed separately.


Relevant links

Canadian Railway Mail Service

Official Register of the United States 1867

Railway Mail Clerks in Canada and their salaries and bonuses

Trans-Australian Railway

The Travelling Post Office

American Railway Mail Service

Mail by rail : the story of the Postal Transportation Service 1951

Annual Report of the Postmaster General – US – no names, but salaries and pensions

1901 Report to the Postmaster General, Washington DC

Casualties of Rail Mail Service, US

Casualties where someone was killed, and relief for injured employees, US

More books on Rail Mail




Related Posts

The Post Office

Canada 150 - Post Offices and Letter Carriers

Canada 150 - Post Offices and Letter Carriers

During our country's 150th anniversary celebration of confederation I will write posts titled Canada 150 with a link to a publication or website I find that may help you tell the story of your Canadian ancestors.
Click on the Canada 150 label on the right or at the bottom to see all the posts.

Today I have for you...

Post Offices of Canada

This gazetteer, printed in Montreal, has location of all post offices in Canada in 1872.

Check local libraries and historical societies for Letter Carrier Souvenir Books, put out by the Federated Association of Letter Carriers. 

Illustrated souvenir of the Letter Carriers Association of Toronto 1903, pg.27

Relevant Links

Post Office gazetteer of the Dominion of Canada 1872

Constitution and by-laws of the Federated Association of Letter Carriers of the Dominion of Canada, adopted September 28 and 29, 1892

Souvenir of the Letter Carriers of London Ontario, 1904

Illustrated souvenir of the Letter Carriers Association of Toronto 1903

Convention souvenir of the Federated Association of Letter Carriers 1918

Vancouver Federated Association of Letter Carriers w/ lists of patrons, 1914

Related Post:  The Post Office

Serendipity Sunday - Canadian Forces Postal Workers

The other day I came across an online pdf listing names of postal workers in the Canadian Forces.  It Is part of The History of the Canadian Forces Postal Services which was on the website of Bob Emery, retired Sergeant of the Canadian Forces Postal Corps, and put together by L. Dawson.

History of the Canadian Forces Postal Service - pdf

It gives a history of the postal service and nominal roll of postal workers for all the wars.

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)