Collecting Postmarks - Advice

(Forgive me if this is in the wrong place)

Hi all,
The magnum opus of my collection are my (being built) ASFE albums. Recently I decided that I wanted to include Postmarks in this collection. For instance, the period from 1958-1962 when Algeria used French stamps would be represented not just by a French stamp but one with an Algerian postmark from that time period. Similarly, Cote d'Ivoire section wouldn't just include a stamp from French West Africa but a stamp from French West Africa with a Cote d'Ivoire area postmark.

I think the thing I need to make this task easier would be any resources y'all know about that list the various post offices in a place and when they were in operation. My searches are coming up empty. If I could identify partial postmarks that would expand my pool of candidates. Recommendations on finding and buying SON stamps are also appreciated.

Having described my endeavor, any other suggestions or advice are welcome. Except to give up. Need something to spend the rest of my life chasing.

Thanks in advance!

Excellent idea!


I include postmarks as well in my albums/collections.

You will need to look for specialist literature, either in the form of books or journals covering your collecting area. Hunting for this is just as challenging/enjoyable as hunting for the stamps.

Most will be in French, but if you scan and OCR, you can use Google translate (that's what I do).

Bonus: You will end up looking at cheap stamps trying to find identifiable postmarks - which you can get for pennies because very few collect this way

Example of what you can find in old journals:
(this is from France Colonies Philatelist, Nov-Dec 1943:




Enjoy the hunt

Finding the postmark types, opening and closing dates are the "holy grail". It's much easier to just find a list of names.

Like:




(from the same journal)

From browsing that journal around 1950, it seems they did a series of articles with a post office list form the different colonies

Example of how I collect, when I don't want to collect all postmarks.
Pages are size A4, duplex print, with info on the left-side in the album.

Hunting for this info can get pretty crazy (and expensive)

Here are two pages shown together to illustrate:

This book looks like something you want:


(unfortunately, I don't have it)

There's bound to be information here, but you'll need to dig!

https://franceandcolonies.org/philatelist.php

Hi!

Also, you could get your own MPP (Mailer's Postmark Permit) from USPS.
Then you buy that canceler device from Staples.

Oh wow! Glad to see the information is out there even if I have to dig!

French former colonies came to mind when I made the post, but it goes so much further than that! I already spent an evening with my Jugoslavia stamps trying to discern which current country each legible postmark was from - between the Cyrillic alphabet and my sometimes partial postmarks I almost ended up in tears. But I know have Jugoslav stamps with postmarks from half current compository nations, so success overall.

Thanks for the tips and letting me know I'm not alone in my struggle!