List of Post Offices in Canada, with the Names of the Postmasters ... 1864

Canada. Post Office DepartmentProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.0

Word count: 159K words
Chapters: 16

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.List of Post Offices in Canada, with the Names of the Postmasters ... 1864Author: Canada. Post Office Department,Language: English, Class: HE: Social sciences: Transportation and communications, Release Date: Dec 18, 2017

Editor's review

This is a directory of post offices and postmasters compiled and issued by the Canadian Post Office Department in 1864, a typical official directory document. Its value lies not in narrative or opinion but in the information itself: it lists post offices by place name with the names of postmasters, and can be used to verify the distribution of postal outlets across Canada in the mid-nineteenth century, the evolution of place names, and the composition of grassroots public officials. For genealogists, if an ancestor served as postmaster or lived in a particular village or town, such a directory may provide key clues; for historians of geography and of transportation and communications, it is primary material for reconstructing the communications infrastructure of the time. As a public-domain ebook, it is laid out mainly as lists and suits lookup rather than continuous reading. Note that place names and administrative divisions in 1864 differ from today's, and the directory reflects only that year's situation and cannot be used to infer changes over a longer period.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Historians studying nineteenth-century Canadian postal history and communications infrastructure.
Genealogists and local historians tracing ancestors who served as postmasters or where they lived.
Researchers in literature and history needing reference on 1864 Canadian place names and administrative divisions.
Readers interested in official directory-type public-domain documents and digital humanities data.

Not a good fit for

General readers seeking narrative history or popular works.
People looking for contemporary Canadian postal service information and practical guides.
Readers expecting authorial analysis, commentary, or systematic historical discussion.

Reading tips

First browse the format and place-name ordering rules, then look up by target place name or surname rather than reading page by page.
Compare entries found with period maps or local gazetteers to verify changes in place names and administrative affiliation.
Genealogists can organize postmaster lists by county and build an index for cross-referencing.
For research, record page numbers and the electronic text source when excerpting entries, to facilitate verification and citation.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

What does this directory contain?

It lists post offices across Canada in 1864 and the names of their postmasters, arranged by place name, and is official in nature. The content consists mainly of entries with no narrative or commentary; it is used chiefly to verify the distribution of postal outlets and grassroots personnel information that year, not to provide a systematic account of postal system evolution.

Can it be used for genealogical research?

Yes, but it depends. If an ancestor served as postmaster around 1864, or if their place of residence had a post office, the directory may provide names and location clues. It reflects only a single point in time that year and must be cross-checked with censuses, local gazetteers, parish records, and other materials; it cannot stand alone as complete evidence.

Are the place names in the book the same as today?

Not entirely. Administrative divisions and place-name spellings in 1864 may differ from today's; some villages and towns were later renamed, merged, or abandoned. When searching, cross-check with historical maps and place-name dictionaries to avoid missing or misjudging entries due to spelling or affiliation changes.

Is this electronic text suitable for continuous reading?

Not really. The book consists mainly of directory lists without connected narrative, so continuous reading is inefficient. A more reasonable approach is to use it as a lookup tool, searching by place name, surname, or region, and then pursuing further verification and reading around the entries found.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Canada. Post Office Department Author

The Canada Post Office Department was the government body responsible for postal affairs in Canada and, historically, systematically compiled and issued postal directories and guides. Six of its works are held in this collection, with representative titles including the Canadian Postal Guide and the List of Post Offices in Canada, with the Names of the Postmasters ... for the years 1864, 1865, 1866, 1872 and 1873. Updated year by year, these works record the distribution of post offices across Canada and the names of their postmasters, serving postal administration, reference and official inquiry; they are distinctly official reference works. As the name is an institutional one, public information is limited, and its internal history and staffing cannot be described in detail. Nevertheless, its publications provide continuous, systematic primary sources for studying the Canadian postal network and local society of the period, possess considerable historical value, and reflect the department's dual character as both an administrative body and a compiler of documentary records.