It is the collection and study of picture postcards. And deltiologists and genealogists alike have something to be excited about as we expand our collection of historic postcards.
Postcards got their start in about 1870, and as the new century began, they were all the rage. In fact, for the fiscal year ending in June 1908, the US Post Office reported 677,777,789 postcards mailed.
Our historic postcard collections, with their rich content and high-resolution historical photos, are some of the more quirky collections on our site and offer users a unique look at their ancestral homelands. The original Historic Postcards Collection c.1893-1960 comprises some 95,000 records, with the majority of the postcards containing pictures from within the United States.
We’re pleased to announce we now have the Australia Historical Postcards collection, containing over 400 historical postcards with photos of places in Australia. This collection is primarily useful for obtaining a photograph or picture of a specific place in time. If you do not already have pictures of the places your ancestors lived, historical postcards are a good alternative to personal photos.
We now also have more historical postcards from the following countries:
- Canada
- Italy (in Italian)
- Germany & Austria (in German)
- Sweden (in Swedish)
- United Kingdom & Ireland
These updated collections will accompany our existing collections from France (in French) and Mexico (in Spanish).
These records were keyed as part of the Ancestry World Archives Project (AWAP) which aims to preserve historical records that would otherwise be lost for future generations. AWAP provides the public with indexing software and training support to enable them to contribute in making even more historical records available and searchable online. To date, thousands of Ancestry members across the globe have contributed their time to this project.