Post Offices In Canada - Index / List

Blaamand:

I suspect that online lists do not exist due to the sheer magnitude of the job.

Besides the PHSC website, the only comprehensive listings are in paper form. These exist for all provinces (except for Quebec as far as I know) but tend to be somewhat dated as they were published approximately 30 years ago. (But they are still very worthwhile). For British Columbia there is a book by William Topping, and for the three prairie provinces books by William Robinson.

For Canada as a whole, there is book by Campbell listing all post offices to 1895.

In addition I have the postal guide for 1947 which lists all post offices open in late 1945. This runs over 100 pages at roughly 140 per page, so roughly 14.000 open at that time alone. (Of course, not counting Newfoundland).




By my estimates, 30.000 would not surprise me.

Jan

I own the Campbell book referenced by j2186 - my dd had bought it way back !

If we start a community online SQL database, it becomes quite feasible. It is called 'crowd sourcing' by some folks but the idea is that by having a larger group of people all contribute to the data entry a project like this comes within reach.

If there is enough interest (i.e. enough folks say they are willing to join in the online data entry efforts) I am willing to develop the database, write the web browser editing interface code, and host the project.
Don

Very interesting, Don......but I do not catch the terminology of "online data entry effort" and once I do I would be willing to participate but we are talking here of a Country (CANADA) list of P.O.s and the database is already there (why duplicate ?) - thanks
Rene

@Jan - thank you for valuable feedback. Unfortunately it might seem like you are correct, noting available online. Yet, that is...

Wouldn't it be a helpful tool to establish such an index - anyone willing to participate?

Don - about the SQL database you are suggesting - would it be possible to copy lists from excel etc with many PO's into the database in one go, or must each PO be entered one by one?

rene,
The value would be that folks would be able to download the entire thing to use as they wished. Blaamand originally was looking to copy the database into his own custom made Postmark register in Excel. Other might want the list to be able to build their own spreadsheets or databases using it as the foundation. It sounds like what is currently available only allows filtered views, or subsets, of the entire thing.

Blaamand,
Allowing users to upload entire spreadsheets at once is a bit of a headache. First, users would have to format the spreadsheet with a predefined template including cell formatting. Then they would have to ensure that the none of the data is already existing in the database or errors would be thrown during the upload. What I would recommend in this situation would be to send the spreadsheet to me and allow me to import the data, this typically would take me only 10 minutes or so.
Don

Don
I shall wait for Blaamand's response, opinion etc. As for my usage, the available database of P.O.s in Canada is sufficient for my needs. What is great about this Hobby is that there exists a great variety of wants-needs-interests- etc.
Rene

Don - thank you again. A list that can be downloaded from your site sounds terrific - exactly what I am looking for
I fully understand fully the issues with formatting etc when copying from other sources. (I experience this myself when I copy data from the web into my simple excel sheets) Anyway - no worries - you are offering your services for the 'common good'! That is simply brave

So - is any good people out there interested? Anyone have data to send to Don?

No one sent me any data, spreadsheets, or lists so I struck out on my own. Due to the size of this project, I am implementing one Province at a time and I started with Newfoundland.

I am still adding the Newfoundland maps but have the initial database populated with data from the Canadian Government Library and Archives. Why bother if this data is already on their site? First, they acknowledge they have no data for the years 1875-1902 (apparently was lost). Second, they also acknowledge that their records cannot be updated or changed. Obviously this is a significant shortcoming since new info cannot be communicated.

As I add additional Provinces I will be using not only the Canadian Government Library and Archives but also additional resources which will include the 'missing period' in their records.

If anyone would like to contribute by adding/editing data, let me know. If anyone would like to become an Admin of one or more of the Provinces let me know.

Here is a link for the first draft of the Newfoundland data
http://www.stampsmarter.com/feature...iewdata.html


Don

Very interesting, Don. You know I have the book " Canada Post Offices 1755-1895,by Frank Campbell, which lists by Alphabetical order 191 pages of P.O.s Of interest, Newfoundland is not included in this Book.
I looked at the Library and Archives Canada, did a search for Post Offices of New Brunswick and the results give me both Post Offices and Post Masters for a total of 2000 pieces of info. I know there must be a way to have only the Post Offices but my search criteria cannot separate the two. Even if I isolated the P.O. up to 1895 from the Canada list, there would still be missing info (missing period)on New Brunswick.
Rene

Great resource - thanks for doing this Don!

Excellence !!