Finding Postmasters both Past and Present

If you're looking for historical information on postmasters and post offices, you find find it -- surprisingly enough --the US Postal Service Site. The Postmaster Finder, at http://www.usps.com/postmasterfinder/, offers ways to search for both postmasters and post offices.

This page gives you several searching options, including postmasters by city, a lookup for postmaster names and where they served (there are a bunch of Ben Franklins in there) and postoffices by state, county, and zip code. There's also some information on discontinued post offices.

While the site emphasizes that its information on postmasters before 1986 and discontinued post offices is not complete, there's still a lot of information here. The postmaster list for Chicago Illinois goes back to 1831, for example. There is a page on local postal history that instructs the reader about how to find information on old post offices and past postmasters.

Posted to Government-US