New Member, Tying In To Family History

Complete DDR collections in albums pop up frequently in European online auctions. Catawiki is one. They do not bring a lot of money.

Then again, if it is your intention to collect Germany after 1948, why refrain from doing so if you cannot collect the DDR?

Here are the operating dates of the three different Clear Creek post offices in Tennessee.



Information from Jim Forte's Post Office website and list.

Oh I wasn't very clear, NSK. I do not want to try to collect West Germany after 1948 or US before 1930, as the cost analysis guarantees frustration for me. GDR I could try, because it is 1/4 as expensive as West Germany to build a comparable collection and I have the family connection to there. I have looked at albums for the German areas and cannot afford the albums for the areas I am considering, tbh. I need to know more before trying to make my own album, therefore the dilemma, lol!

Mml1942, I hadn't connected that Clear Creek had more than 1 location, even if the other locations were not in that county. So it is not correct for me to say DS Lavender was the only postmaster of Clear Creek. It does support my point about it being confusing though. I call the town my family started 1st Montgomery. The 2nd Montgomery is considered a "lost" town , so what does that make the first one across the county? I may contact the historical society in Wartburg and see if they know anything more. #128512;

DefinitiveStampr:

Many states have multiple post offices with the same name, occasionally in the same county, sometimes elsewhere. The policy of the USPOD was that no state could have two post offices with the same name at the same time, EVEN IF they were in different counties. They believed it would confuse the sorting and routing of the mail (and probably were correct).

Lots of possibilities. Consider the following....

Mr. AAAAA proposes a post office named AAAAA in county XXX, and is approved. Five years later, Mr. BBBBB is appointed postmaster and he wants the post office renamed BBBBB, so he applied for a name change and it is granted.

Now over in county YYY, someone wants a post office named AAAAA, so he applies and because there is already a post office called AAAAA, the Post Office Department tells him to submit an alternate name, and he chooses QQQQQ, and it is approved.

Later, he learns that there is no longer a post office with name AAAAA, so he proposes a new name change back to AAAAA, and is approved, and then QQQQQ becomes AAAAA.

Often, when one sees multiple instances of post office AAAAA in the same county, it means that there was a period where the community was not able to find a postmaster, and the post office was idle. It would often restart with the same name and new postmaster once one was approved.

Another possibility is that the physical location of the post office was moved within the county, and the postal historians might designate the two post offices distinctly so that others would understand there weas a change. You might see this is postal history state lists were a post office was indicated like

AAAAA(1) XXX County 1820-1840
AAAAA(2) XXX County 1841- 1901

Sometimes the same actual office would be shown in two adjacent counties during different time periods. This might mean it was physically moved, or it could mean that the county boundaries changed or a large county was split into two or more new counties, and that post office was located within the boundaries of a new county..

Most of these types of changes occurred in the 19th century. By 1900, the post office structure was pretty stable, and number of post offices on the decline because of Rural Free Delivery.

Your ancestor, DS Lavender, was THE ONLY postmaster of Clear Creek, Morgan County, Tennessee, and that is the way to present it when writing up his biography or family history. It might be appropriate to mention that the "Clear Creek" post office name was used elsewhere in other counties in Tennessee at other times, but those post office had no relationship to your ancestor.

Occasionally, this created unusual post office names. In Texas, once upon a time, a Mr. Walker proposed a post office by the name of WALKER, but was turned down because we already had one post office called WALKER. So he reversed the letters in his name, and his post office name of REKLAW was approved.

Interesting stuff! The intro to the book states that the appointments and requests don't necessarily match each other, or the actual dates of service. For example, there is a Genesis office referred to that isn't in the book, and the Wartburg office appointed a postmaster in 1866 but no report was requested from that office until 1872.

"I have looked at stamp clubs, with the nearest being about half an hour away. Based on what Rileysan and Collector Kent are saying though, it would be worth it to go to a meeting and see what they are like."

I'm in a very active coin discussion group (the EveryCountry group) that holds its monthly meetings via Zoom. I wonder if there are any stamp discussion groups that use Zoom, Teams, FaceTime etc. for meetings? I'd be more interested in that than in driving to an in-person stamp club.

Doug

This is not from your period of interest, but here is a postmaster commission issued by Postmaster General Alexander W Randall for one William J Keith as postmaster at Montgomery, Morgan County, Tennessee, dated Sept 25, 1866.



That I have this in my collection is pure, random, chance. You simply don't find these documents when looking for a specific post office.



MikeL

That is a great find! There are is a county genealogy group if you do want to find out more. I can ask them about the post offices and see what they know.