A 'Swenglish' journey through family photos, notes and postcards
from the early 20th century.

2019-06-08

G.024.3 - Christmas 1903


The Universal Postal Union (UPU) (French:  Union postale universelle), established by the Treaty of Bern  of 1874, is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) that coordinates postal policies among member nations, in addition to the worldwide postal system. [Wikipedia]

It's a Christmas card to Gustaf from his (unmarried) sister Ester in Sweden.  Judging by the print on the back, it's not likely to be any of their own family or friends on the photo.

The card still provides some valuable information from family history research point of view, as it can be concluded from the writing and the postmarks on the back that in December 1903, Gustaf moved from Port Allegany to Galeton (also in Pennsylvania) - where he was to remain living until he returned to Sweden in 1911.

(The previous card in the album shows that he was still in Port Allegany at the end of November.)

The postmarks on this card show that it arrived at Port Allegany Dec 25, 1903, at 3 pm; and was sent on  to Galeton at 6:30 pm the same day; to arrive there the next morning (that postmark is a bit blurry but I think it says Dec 26, ?? AM). No Christmas holiday for those handling the postal services, it seems! 

(I do wish that the stamps on all these cards had not been removed by some fanatic stamp collector in the past... whether that was Gustaf himself, or someone else!)

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