Paper Trail: Postcards

What’s the official name for postcard collecting? Deltiology. Postcards are the third-largest collectible, behind coins and stamps according to the Flea Market Style magazine. Postcards reflect history and cultural customs with pictures that depict buildings, travel destinations, advertising, and photographs of people like your ancestors.

To date old postcards, therefore getting the approximate date your ancestral photograph might have been taken, this list gives the general times as to when these types of cards became available or were popular.

US Post Cards -- to 1898

Private Mailing Cards (1898-1901)

Undivided Back (1901-1907)

Divided Back (1907-1915)

White Border (1915-1930)

Linen (1930-1945)

Chrome (1939-Present)

Real Photo Postcards (1900-Present)

~~ <> @ <> ~~

I guess what instigated my interest in postcards was my Oklahoma grandparent's postcard collection. They had a wonderful card collection that they kept in a big shoebox upstairs in a closet in their old two-story home. I loved looking through it when they lived there. Many of the postcards were from extended family members who sent Christmas postcard greetings, vacation "wish you were here" notes, and some were postcards they had collected from gift shops while on vacation as little mementoes of their trips. Sadly, the whole collection was stolen from the old house just after they moved into their new house in the 1960s while they were shopping in town to pick up groceries. The closest town was 18 miles away, so the thief had plenty of time to get in, look round and take what he/she wanted. 

I compiled a "Paper Postcard Unit Study" for our son when he was homeschooled. Click here if you would like to review it.

I learned while researching people for my History Nut of Missouri blog, that the Kansas City Library was gifted a postcard collection from Mrs. Sam (Mildred) Ray, a newspaper columnist who often told a story from a postcard in her collection. 

(2017): My hubby and I went to a Postcard Convention in Lenexa several years ago and I could not believe the variety of postcards that were being sold. In addition to the historic genre, they had artsy postcards and papers as well. Check out this website for other shows being held near you. You might just find a missing relative's photo, a photo of their business, the church they attended, or an event they participated in just like the postcard we found on vacation below. This mountain in Colorado was named for one of my hubby's distant Stout cousins, Zebulon Montgomery Pike. To read a short biography of his life, click here.

(2018): I ran across this YouTube video of postcards from Fitchburg, Massachusetts where a girlfriend grew up! 

(2022): I contributed to Jim Miller's website some time ago called PHILGEN or Philatelic-Genealogy. It was down for a little while, getting an update to the software. It's back up now. 

(2022): Postcard History website

D. Noble. Cooper Post Card Co., Colorado Springs, CO, USA.

~~ <> @ <> ~~

Compiled by Dolores J. Rush, Updated: 5/9/2022

Missouri Cemetery Law

Here is the current Missouri Law concerning protection of cemeteries and the consequences of defacing or destroying any part therein:

From the Missouri Revised Statutes -- Chapter 214, Cemeteries, Section 214.131 (passed into law in 1987); Section 214.385; and, 214.455. 

Tombstones, fences, destroying or mutilating in abandoned family or private cemetery, penalty--abandoned or private burying ground, is defined as

214. 131. Every person who shall knowingly destroy, mutilate, disfigure, deface, injure, or remove any tomb, monument or gravestone, or other structure placed in any abandoned family cemetery or private burying ground, or any fence, railing, or other work for the protection or ornamentation of any such cemetery or place of burial of any human being, or tomb, monument, or gravestone, memento, or memorial, or other structure aforesaid, or of any lot within such cemetery is guilty of a class A misdemeanor. 

For the purposes of this section and subsection I of section 214.132, an "abandoned family cemetery" or "private burying ground" shall include those cemeteries or burying grounds which have not been deeded to the public as provided in chapter 214, and in which no body has been interred for at least twenty-five years.

If the operator of any cemetery or another authorized person moves a grave marker, memorial or monument in the cemetery for any reason, the operator or other authorized person shall replace the grave marker, memorial or monument to its original position within a reasonable length of time. 

Source: "History Spotlight: MoSGA Fights to Protect Abandoned Cemeteries." By Martha Henderson, MoSGA Historical Director. Show Me State Genealogical News, Columbia, MO, Spring 2014. Vol. 35, No. 1.

Heritage Crafting Supplies

 

Brand: Craft Smart #409173

Found this tombstone rubber stamp in the bargain bin at our local Michaels Craft Store this afternoon. Must be a leftover from last Halloween. 

You'll have to copy and paste these brand names into your search engine to find their websites and/or YouTube Channels. Their product works beautifully for heritage scrapbooking. 

Brand: Highlander Celtic Stamps

Brand: Seven Gypsies

Brand: Kiwi Lane Scrapbooking

Brand: Tim Holtz Products

List Compiled by Dolores J. Rush, Updated: 4 May 2023.

Ancestral Sayings for Crafts and Scrapbooking

1. A birth certificate shows that you were born, a death certificate shows that you died, but a scrapbook shows that you lived.
2. All in the Family
3. A man is born with his relations; he picks out his friends for himself.
4. Ancestors Activist
5. Ancestors run in my family
6. Ancestors R US
7. Any family tree produces some lemons, some nuts and a few bad apples.
8. Ask me about my ancestors!
9. Beware! Genealogy Fever is Contagious!
10. Blessed is the man who hears the gentle voices call him grandfather.
11. Born to be an Ancestor!
12. Clan Chronicler
13. Days gone by.
14. Every family is a history in itself and even a poem to those who know how to search its pages.
15. Families are like fudge – mostly sweet with a few nuts.
16. Families are tied together with heart strings.
17. Family faces are magic mirrors. Looking at the people who belong to us, we see the past, present, and future. 
18. Family History: A Neverending Story!
19. Family Skeleton
20. Finding my roots bit by bit
21. Folk Finder
22. Forebears & Heirs Genealogy’s Law = The one document you need to prove your ancestor’s line is lost due to fire, flood, or war!
23. Genealogy: A Celebration of Heritage
24. Genealogy: A Key to the Past.
25. Genealogists are ancestrally challenged!
26. Genealogists are into Relative Riches
27. Genealogists are pioneers into the past!
28. Genealogists are Time Travelers
29. Genealogists are Tree Tracers.
30. Genealogy is my cup of tea!
31. Genealogy Detective
32. Genealogy Fever: It's Inherited!
33. Genealogy: Life in the Past Lane!
34. Genealogists Haunt Cemeteries
35. Genealogy is a Past-time.
36. Genealogy -- Piecing together the Past
37. Genealogists Invest in Family Bonds!
38. Genealogists look for lost leaves.
39. Gone Ficheing!
40. Grandma's are antique little girls.
41. Hangin’ with the Family.
42. Have Roots, Will Travel
43. Heritage Hunter
44. =HEIR+MAIL=
45. He who has the most surnames in the end "WINS!"
46. How blessed I am, how fortunate I've been that you are my Daughter-in-law and also my friend!
47. I'm the crazy aunt everyone warned you about
48. In Loving Memory.
49. It’s all in the Genes!
50. Leaves of Time
51. Love and laughter makes a happy family.
52. Love the people God gave you because one day he’ll want them back.
53. My family tree is full of nuts.
54. My life in a nutshell.
55. My Roots.
56. One Big Happy Family.
57. Our family is like fudge sweet with a few nuts in it.
58. Our family is a patchwork of memories and love.
59. So Many Ancestors, So Little Time!
60. Success is relative. The more success, the more relatives!
61. The best antiques are grandparents.
62. There are many treasures in Grandma’s attic, but the old button box is my favorite.
63. This is our branch of the family tree.
64. This is what an awesome dad (brother, uncle, granddad) looks like!
65. Treasured Times
66. When A Child Is Born, So Is a Grandmother
67. When someone you love becomes a memory, the memory becomes a treasure.
68. Years Gone By
69. You can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your relatives.
70. You won’t make a place in the sun by sitting in the shade of the family tree.

See corresponding Descendant sayings here.

Compiled by Dolores J. Rush. Updated 4 May 2023.