About a third of my stamp collection was an inheritance from my maternal grandfather, so I have covers from four generations of family and friends. I have begun doing some online genealogy and although there are very few letters, I have been able to use the postmarks and addresses on the covers as a treasure trove of information about my family's lives.
Plus, more questions arise: Why did my grandparents sometimes live apart? Wow, Grandpa lived at nine different addresses between graduating from high school and getting married to Grandma! And he had a lot of commercial covers from car dealerships in the 1930s but I know he didn't learn to drive until the 1960s... I can imagine his dreams!
I started looking at postcards of the locations my family lived in so I could get a feeling for my family's geography outside Minnesota---
New Hampshire mountains, lakes, rivers: Georges Mills, Springfield, Winchester, Dunbarton, Dorchester Township, Salisbury, Hampstead, New London, Kingston, Mont Vernon, Lisbon, Stewartstown, Newton, Henniker, Hampton Falls, Sandown, Bristol
Vermont mountains, rivers: Brattleboro, Marlboro, Newfane, Westminster, Franklin
Maine ocean: North Yarmouth, Kittery, Prospect, Brunswick, Eliot, Buxton
Massachusetts hills, rivers, lakes, ocean: Amesbury, Salisbury, Brimfield, Framingham, Billerica, Lexington, Watertown, Salem, Woburn, Chelmsford, Dorchester, Marlboro, Reading, Haverhill, Ipswich, Andover, Topfield, Rowley, Shelburne, Newbury
Thinking of my family in these landscapes helps to bring them to life.
Imagine my surprise when I found this postcard on
ebay. Collins is my grandmother's maiden name so I Googled the Collins Museum in Georges Mills VT (DPO) on the off-chance that there might be a family connection.
This is Clarence Collins, my great grandfather's cousin!
Thank you, SCF! Without you I wouldn't have learned about the study of postal history. I wouldn't be noticing postmarks and researching addresses. I wouldn't have thought of using postcards to add another dimension to my genealogy studies. And I would have missed a great deal of fun with my stamps and with my genealogy!
Posted 03/31/2013 01:54 am
