Mother Paterson 31 Dec 1837, Part II

"Mother Paterson" is really Jane Eliza Neilson Paterson (1788-1858.) J.E., as she signs off, has left at least three letters for us today. There probably are other letters located at Princeton, the New Jersey Historical Society or at William Paterson University. JE is the daughter-in-law of William Paterson, signer of the Constitution and Supreme Court Justice, and wife of William Bell Paterson, Justice Paterson's son.. She is writing her son William, who did not go by William III, or William Jr. Jr., but simply William. This makes research even more fun. Not.

Before I go on, I am wondering in my young "career" as a researcher why genealogy is shunned by historians. I am finding valuable primary pieces within the genealogy database Ancestry.com than going ways which would leave this avenue untouched. Yet very few people using Ancestry seem to have an interest in a historical perspective. I'm not sure it's their fault. After all, very few are aware that these stampless letters are floating around. Historians are no more aware.

Even fewer are aware that these letters float in the world of philately. I don't think it has ever been discussed much, but archivists apparently are not much interested in the postal markings that bring these letters iuto the possession of postal historians, and postal historians are vis-a-vis  in the content of the letter, only the markings. Which has a stronger claim to the object at hand? Both do. Now we have a medium in which both could cooperate with each other. Will they, given the opportunity?

More tomorrow. I will leave w/ an unabashed plug for this Mother Paterson sfl currently on eBay. 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170647772142&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT

Mother Paterson Letter of 31 Dec 1837

I am new to this blog stuff, so please laugh!  I do.  And it's 3:30am, ugh.  But 3:30 makes me think of Planet Clare-  something about "she shines at 3:30 in the morning" or something.  Anyway, as you can see, this blog tends to wander from a serious academic subject to a non-comprehensible unrelated ramble, but then that's me.  My family just shrugs their shoulders.

Stampless Letters have no dedicated forum or group.  We see many articles and other writings within other magazines and clubs or societies or online sites, but nothing exclusively encompasses this area of postal history.

I do, in fact, have plenty to say about Stampless Letters that has not been discussed. There are interesting observations that can emerge about the time, place and society in which they were written; yet, it may be that the studier of these letters will become the studiee.  Huh?  Well, OK, I am a historian and a librarian and a philosopher and some say an as@#... never mind.  But all this talk is really in full swing on a couple of sites I follow where the subject is postal history:

http://www.philamercury.com/

http://philgen.org/

First, Philamercury.  It contains many of the big names in stamp collecting- otherwise known as Philately.  However, since my ego will not fit on that board, I started this blog.  Really I just want to emphasize the stampless letter, that's all.

Philgen is the child of Jim Miller, who is a philatelist and a genealogist. Like me, Jim sees postal history as history, and this history needs to be captured in digital form to share w/ the public.  Jim sees the value of each cover, letter, manuscript and folded letter in an overlapping genealogical sense.   Both Philgen and Philamercury are open source sites and encourage the public to contribute in order to digitally capture the multitude of material that is floating around the world- American letters do simply reside in America.

Each letter is usually written by one individual and is, of course, unique. So say 175-200 years have passed and one wonders who the heck the person is that wrote it?  For example, I am working on one letter of about 3 I have found from a woman in Pocotaligo, SC. One heck of a story emerges. ...more later.