Is there a list of official Postmasters for local offices somewhere?

Ancestry has some postmasters stuff on there; otherwise you might have to turn to a microfilm roll.

Hi Wendy -

Here are a few things I was able to find.

Within NARA, Record Group (RG) 28, Records of the Post Office Department, is probably your best bet. You can see all the series in our catalog for that here.

One series that looks like it might be of particular interest is at NAID 609176, Records of the Commissioning and Appointments of Postmasters, 1889-1908. These records are located at the National Archives in Washington, DC. You can contact reference there at Archives1reference@nara.gov

Also, the Smithsonian's National Postal Museum might also have something. They tend to specialize in philatelic history, but they may have something of note. Contact information can be found here: Appointments to Research Objects.

I hope that helps!

Wendy,

Additionally some records for the Postmaster General have been microfilmed on three series. M1131 Records of Appointment of Postmaster, 1789-1832, M1126 Post Office Department Reports of Site Locations, 1837-1950, and M841 Records of Appointment of Postmasters, 1832 thru Sept. 30 1971.   These rolls are available for research in  most of our genealogy research room across the country.  Additionally M841 has been digitized and is available online at Ancestry.com a paid site. Ancestry is available for free use at all our facilities nationwide.

The Official Register of the United States will list the postmasters for at least some of the years within the time period you are looking for.  It is not a comprehensive list of everyone that served as postmaster during that time period, but it does provide a list of everyone who was serving as postmaster at the specific times covered by any given edition.

Catalog Record: Official register of the United States | Hathi Trust Digital Library

The USPS website has a searchable database of Postmasters at: http://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postmasterfinder/welcome.htm

Ancestry, as mentioned above, also has a searchable database: http://search.ancestryinstitution.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=1932

NARA at St Louis has all of the Post Office Department OPFs and the Postmaster Briefs. To request a search please email us at stl.archvies@nara.gov and give the city you believe that the individual was a postmaster of. Thank you!

Cara Moore

Archives Technician

National Archives and Records Administration

St. Louis, MO