Posted 7 months ago
MishMasher
(35 items)
I picked this up at an estate sale yesterday. It brings me to tears now so I can only imagine how the recipient felt. It hasn't been opened and I'm guessing that the recipient read the message through the envelopes window and knew the news was bad so he/she couldn't open it. It says... Please accept my heartfelt sympathy in your grea (the rest is out of frame. The next line reads.. Catherine Hollingsworth (The Nurse)
Should I open it? Would you
MishMasher, Yes, very sad. :-(
In days of yore, the telegraph office could call a telegram recipient on the telephone, and read it to them; however, certain kinds of telegrams never were 'telephoned,' and this is a prime example.
A messenger from the telegraph office would deliver this kind of telegram in person.
I imagine that you're right about the recipient not opening it, either because they were able to read enough content through the window to know what it was, or because they were already expecting sad news.
I wouldn't open it if I were you. I think it has more historical value unopened.
I believe you are mistaken about the telegram being unopened.
The clear window portion of the front of the envelope is where the intended recipient’s name and address showed.
The telegraph office folded the message paper in such a way as to only show the recipient’s name and address….the actual message would not have been visible.
An envelope as you have would have been impossible for the delivery person to know where he was to take it.
Yours likely was carefully opened but returned to the envelope backwards or folded differently.
Telegrams did not arrive in the mail….they were hand delivered by the Western Union delivery person.
Watchsearcher, D'oh! >8-0
You are of course right about that little window on the envelope. I must have been having one heck of a senior moment not to realize it.
The recipient opened the envelope carefully, read the telegram, and then put it back into the envelope, but not oriented the original way.
They then stowed it away somewhere, and over time the glue residue semi-resealed the envelope.
Keramikos, no worries…I have plenty of those senior moments, sometimes stretching into senior days.
;^D
Hi, I tried to take good close-ups of the envelope. I'm still wondering about If it had been opened. how could it have resealed without any creases or other paper tares or evidences. Sorry. I only have a cell camera so pics aren't the best.
A very touching memento of the war years. As your title says, one can only imagine the heartbreak of losing a loved one. I think it would have been more thoughtful of the military on land to call on the loved one in person to deliver the news, such as the police do
MishMasher, Based on the closeups, I think it had been opened.
What you can try is the old-fashioned steam kettle method of re-opening it, so that you can read the entire contents, and date it.
Is it dated ,,what year is it from
Newfld, I doubt that this telegram is from the military. It's more likely to be a civilian notification.
I don't know how the military handles notification nowadays, but during WWII a military representative did indeed notify in person the family of the deceased.
Qualifying military members can still get a military funeral and burial on request:
https://www.choose.va.gov/burials-memorials
https://www.va.gov/burials-memorials/what-to-expect-at-military-funeral/
My own father used to serve on some of those funeral details. He said that sometimes his arms would ache from standing there holding out the folded flag, because the bereaved family member was too broken up to receive it. :-(
I think during the Vietnam war notification was by Western Union
I just finished scrapbooking my uncle’s WWII AirForce memorabilia that my grandparents saved. My uncle was copilot of a B17 which was shot down during a bombing mission over Germany in 1944.
I can attest to the fact that the US military did indeed notify families by Western Union telegrams of their loved one’s death.
I have the telegram informing my grandparents that their son (my uncle) was missing in action.
Several days later, another telegram arrived telling them that their son was confirmed dead.
In the chaos of WWII, personal visits to families were impossible because of the enormous number of service members killed.
My grandparents received several follow-up letters from the military. One was a letter of apology and condolence for the loss of their son.
Another letter explained why a personal visit by a chaplain to notify them of their son’s death had not been possible.
Subsequent letters notified them he had been buried in Holland and how/when they could request his body be shipped back to USA for interment in the cemetery of the family’s choice.
When I get time after Thanksgiving, I’ll post those telegrams so you can see them.
The date was not on the Western Union envelope….the date was on the paper inside the envelope.
I seriously doubt Western Union would have made such a mistake as placing the telegram in the envelope as it is now. And even if that did happen, there’s no was possible that the message could have been delivered.
With no name or address showing, how could it have been delivered???
Watchsearcher, Thank you for looking into your family archives for concrete examples. That would be great if you were to post some.
And yes, how could the telegram have been delivered if the address wasn't showing in the envelope window?
I did some more poking around, and the methods the U.S. military has used for death notifications has changed over time, probably because of a variety of factors, such as the volume of the casualties, accessibility of the deceased's family, technology, public perception -- and timeliness. The last thing the military would want is for the family to find out from another source.
The current policy:
https://www.military.com/spouse/military-life/how-military-conducts-death-notification.html
Some more interesting links:
https://www.npr.org/2013/05/27/186452175/a-grim-task-military-death-notification
https://www.nytimes.com/1972/06/23/archives/grim-army-assignment-informing-the-next-of-kin-of-a-death-if-i-ever.html
https://www.quora.com/It-is-my-understanding-that-death-notifications-during-WWII-were-done-by-telegram-and-in-the-Vietnam-War-by-officers-How-many-officers-were-assigned-to-that-duty-and-for-how-long
MishMasher, I still think that your telegram is not about the death of an active duty military member, if only because the notifying person was a nurse.
That doesn't make it any less sad.
Huh. I just noticed a curious error in the text of the telegram: "HEARTVELT" instead of "HEARTFELT."
If you do open it please post
I am curious of date
Vynil33rpm, If this telegram is as old as the 1945 ones I posted, the date might have faded away by now.
On mine, I could barely see a few numbers of the date. The date/time stamp was apparently in a different ink and not nearly as bold as the lettering of the actual message.
MishMasher, It turns out that there is a simpler method of unsealing an envelope than steaming it:
https://www.familyhandyman.com/article/why-you-should-put-an-envelope-in-the-freezer/