"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
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