Workday Wednesday - The United States Postal Service

1847 5-cent stamp depicting Benjamin Franklin, First U.S. Postmaster General,
appointed by the Continental Congress on 26 Sept 1789.
Public domain image from Wikimedia Commons.

Have you checked out NARA Microfilm Publication M841 Record of Appointments of Postmasters, 1832-September 30, 1971 to see if any of your ancestors served as postmaster?

Jean Wilcox Hibben of Circlemending has written an excellent series of blog posts exploring these records and describing the types of information that can be found. Click here for the first post which provides an overview of the record group, where to find the microfilms, etc.

I have discovered two ancestors who served as postmasters:

• My great-grandfather Ambrose B. Martindale was appointed postmaster at Carmona, Polk County, Texas, on 16 February 1894. [Source: Jim Wheat, Postmasters & Post Offices of Polk County, Texas, 1847-1930 (http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~txpost/polk.html : accessed 28 May 2010), Ambrose B. Martindale, 16 Feb 1894.]
• My 2nd great-granduncle Arad W. Franklin was appointed postmaster at Ostrander, Delaware County, Ohio, on 13 April 1893. [Source: "Postmasters 1842-2003," Delaware County, Ohio, Ostrander and Scioto Township History (http://www.ostscioto.com/Post%20Office.htm : accessed 20 Sept 2011), Arad W. Franklin, 13 April 1893.]

More recently, my uncle, William H. Yawman, worked for the post office (not sure in what capacity) and my sister is a postal clerk in Denton, Texas.

© 2011 Denise Spurlock, Ancestral Trees Research

And the Winner is.......

Kristin

My Cleages and Reeds

For the Workday Wednesday Challenge posted last week, Kristin wrote about the occupations of her paternal great-grandfather, Lewis Cleage.

For participating in the challenge, honorable mention goes to these bloggers:

Dee at Ancestrally Challenged

Sierra at Up In The Tree

Take a few minutes to read these posts about what they learned from the census about their ancestors' livelihoods!


© 2011 Denise Spurlock, Ancestral Trees Research

Workday Wednesday Challenge: Occupations in Census Records

Yesterday was my lucky day! I was one of the five GeneaBloggers who won a one-year Archives.com  subscription in Geneabloggers' Archives.com US Federal Census Contest. As explained in Workday Wednesday - Labor Day Edition - Ancestors' Occupations and the Census, I already have a subscription so I am "re-gifting" it by offering it as the prize for this Workday Wednesday Challenge.

Keeping in the spirit of my entry post, here is the challenge:

1. Select an ancestor whom you have found in at least three censuses.
2. Review the occupational information found on each census and write a blog post (or a comment to this post) giving at least the following information:

• Name of the ancestor and your relationship
• The occupation recorded in each census year
• Other information you find such as the industry in which the ancestor worked, whether they were unemployed, etc.
• Do you know of other occupations your ancestors engaged in, but are not reflected in census records?

3. If you are writing a post on your own blog, paste a link in the comments below.
4. Deadline for entries is midnight (Pacific time) Wednesday, 14 September 2011; winner will be selected at random from all entries and announced on Thursday, 15 September.

Here's mine as an example:

Ambrose B. (A.B.) Martindale, my paternal great-grandfather (1844-1918)

• 1880 - Works in saw mill - Jackson Twp., Carter Co., Missouri 
• 1900 - Saw mill owner - Nacogdoches Co., TX
• 1910 - Operator, saw mill - Nacogdoches Co., TX - census indicates he is an employer

In 1894 Ambrose was appointed the first postmaster in Carmona, Polk Co., TX; at the time I believe he was also managing a saw mill.



© 2011 Denise Spurlock, Ancestral Trees Research