Your Ancestors' Letters: Tips for Research (6) Who licked the stamp?

From their first issue in 1840, postage stamps had an adhesive backs but still required wetting or licking. Today, it is theoretically possible - though expensive - to have the back of an envelope or a stamp tested for DNA. To work, the stamp or envelope would have to be carefully preserved and removed from sources of contamination. The DNA would need to checked against that of a living descendant of the putative stamp licker.

Tracing Your Ancestors Through Letters and Personal Writings

Image: Penny Black stamp - first issued in 1840. From Wikimedia Commons.

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