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Thomas Cook archives .....

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  • Thomas Cook archives .....

    Has anyone visited or contacted them for research purposes?

    If so, I am curious to know how successful it was.
    (I remember them featuring in one of the WDYTYA programmes - might have been Stephen Fry.
    Anyway that search was fruitful, but it WAS on TV. Don't think they'd have done the segment if there was nothing to find!)

    Jay
    Janet in Yorkshire



    Genealogists never die - they just swap places in the family tree

  • #2
    Originally posted by Janet in Yorkshire View Post
    Has anyone visited or contacted them for research purposes?

    If so, I am curious to know how successful it was.
    (I remember them featuring in one of the WDYTYA programmes - might have been Stephen Fry.
    Anyway that search was fruitful, but it WAS on TV. Don't think they'd have done the segment if there was nothing to find!)

    Jay
    I didn't recall hearing about this on the Stephen Fry prog. but your post prompted me to have a look and here are the details on their site andwhat they have
    Discover the Thomas Cook history & find out how travel has changed
    All very interesting but I suppose you would need to know someone had travelled somewhere or maybe had written a diary they might hold for it to be of use.
    Worth a try though.
    Margaret

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    • #3
      I remember a talk given by a representative of Thomas Cook on this very subject back in 2001. It was extremely interesting and as I had an Aunt in Italy during the Second World war I specifically asked her about possibility of any letters and she wrote me a long explanation part of which I will quote here in case anyone else is interested. The service was referred to as "The Enemy Mail Service":

      "During the Second World War letters were accepted at the British Counter situated in the large booking hall on the ground floor of Thomas Cook & Son Ltd (as it was known then) at their Head Office in Berkeley Street9just down the road from the Ritz Hotel). There were six writing desks(adjacent to the counter) which permitted the writing of letters or, (more often), the rewriting because the regulations had been broken. These regulations were quite strict, no erasures, no mention of war etc"

      She goes on to say how valuable this service was as it was good for relatives to know they were alive in countries such as Italy/Germany etc. She sent me copies of links but it would seem that the correspondence was kept mainly for philatelist interest. However, it is also an insight into how the letters were coded and how long they took to get from Italy to other areas. For example from Italy between October 1940 and March 1941 hree items took 103 days, 90 days and 70days respectively to reach Lisbon from the time of posting.

      I have several pages of history which I cannot reproduce here but it would appear that there may be little in it for the average family historian. I could find nothing with regard to my Great Aunt in Italy communicating with my relatives in London but a fascinating history.

      Janet
      Last edited by Janet; 11-04-09, 15:55.

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      • #4
        It was Sheila Hancocks WDYTYA...But i can not remember how tha info was found out.
        Vanessa Tallon passed away September 2011

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        • #5
          I have also read more of what I have and the following is noted about the First W War:

          "During W War 1 the British Govt had authorised Thos Cook and Sons Ltd the travel agents with offices in many European Cities to act as intermediary for the transmission of private letters to enemy territory. The service began in Sept of 1917 using a forwarding facility in Geneva, Switzerland maintained by Cook's agents in that city"

          It was restarted in 1940 in Amsterdam but hastily dismantled when Holland fell to the Germans and re-established in neutral Portugal at Lisbon.

          Apparently by the end of 1943, some 278,084 letters had been sent to Europe via Lisbon and 151,980 replies received. The only letters that Thomas Cook may have today will be the undeliverable letters or if you find anything whilst stamp collecting.

          The following may help more;





          Janet
          Last edited by Janet; 11-04-09, 16:41.

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          • #6
            Thanks all for your responses.

            My reason for asking is that in 1901/1911 I had 3 brothers who all worked for the Thomas Cook company. (2 were born in Russia and the third in Germany -their mother was Prussian, so they all possibly spoke some German, and had travelled quite a bit in their childhood.)

            I wondered if anyone knew, first hand, about any records of TC employees. (Mine lived in London and started off in a clerical capacity.)
            I think I may mail the TC archivist anyway, and ask him if he thinks there would be any record of their employment.

            Jay
            Janet in Yorkshire



            Genealogists never die - they just swap places in the family tree

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