Other reasons letters may be sitting in a post office is that the person has already moved on, passed away or is incapacitated, is incarcerated, has changed their name (happened more often than you might suppose, back then, especially among immigrants), etc. The later list discussed in the video contains names that are mostly Irish or British, which were common in most of the eastern states. Some would have been immigrants, the children of immigrants, or others who were seeking to escape the teeming cities in the east, and where prices for land and homes were much higher than in the west, especially outside of cities. Read about migration history and, depending on the era, commonly used trails across the country or, after the mid-19th century especially, train routes. Find out where the government was offering cheap land deals (usually to those of European descent) and/or homesteading. In the post-Civil War era, for example, many refugees from former Confederate states moved north and/or west to escape the devastation brought by the war. This was especially true of widows and some single women. Also pay attention to waves of migration by ethnic group. Many of these waves were caused by difficulties in their home countries, so knowing about conflicts affecting their places of origin can be helpful; many people of African heritage who had been enslaved moved away from the south, too; check for the years of the Great Migration, in the 20th century, especially during and just after WWI. During the Great Depression and Dust Bowl years, especially during the 1930s, there were movements out of the midwest toward cities, and toward the west coast, where many became migrant workers who traveled north and south, following harvest seasons.
I’ve come across my GGGrandfather’s name on letter lists in the past, but there was not enough information there for me to tell if those listings referred to him or just someone else with the same name. I’ve had the same problem with finding his name on lists of people who have arrived to a hotel. My guy lived in five different states between the end of the civil war and 1890, which I only know because of address changes seen in his pension file. So he could have letters waiting for him in any of those states. I often wish that I could reach inside the digital newspaper images, to the past, pull out the informants for those articles, and ask them for more details! 😊
Other reasons letters may be sitting in a post office is that the person has already moved on, passed away or is incapacitated, is incarcerated, has changed their name (happened more often than you might suppose, back then, especially among immigrants), etc. The later list discussed in the video contains names that are mostly Irish or British, which were common in most of the eastern states. Some would have been immigrants, the children of immigrants, or others who were seeking to escape the teeming cities in the east, and where prices for land and homes were much higher than in the west, especially outside of cities.
Read about migration history and, depending on the era, commonly used trails across the country or, after the mid-19th century especially, train routes. Find out where the government was offering cheap land deals (usually to those of European descent) and/or homesteading. In the post-Civil War era, for example, many refugees from former Confederate states moved north and/or west to escape the devastation brought by the war. This was especially true of widows and some single women. Also pay attention to waves of migration by ethnic group. Many of these waves were caused by difficulties in their home countries, so knowing about conflicts affecting their places of origin can be helpful; many people of African heritage who had been enslaved moved away from the south, too; check for the years of the Great Migration, in the 20th century, especially during and just after WWI. During the Great Depression and Dust Bowl years, especially during the 1930s, there were movements out of the midwest toward cities, and toward the west coast, where many became migrant workers who traveled north and south, following harvest seasons.
I’ve come across my GGGrandfather’s name on letter lists in the past, but there was not enough information there for me to tell if those listings referred to him or just someone else with the same name. I’ve had the same problem with finding his name on lists of people who have arrived to a hotel. My guy lived in five different states between the end of the civil war and 1890, which I only know because of address changes seen in his pension file. So he could have letters waiting for him in any of those states.
I often wish that I could reach inside the digital newspaper images, to the past, pull out the informants for those articles, and ask them for more details! 😊