UpFront with NGS: Railroad

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30 October 2015

FREE Index of 1.5 Million National Railroad Pension Records Now Available

Some great news from the Midwest Genealogy Center ...

Midwest Genealogy Center Launches New Research Resource
Public Index of 1.5 Million National Railroad Pension Records Now Available

Thursday, October 29, 2015--A free index to over 1.5 million pension records from the U.S. Railroad Retirement Board can now be located online for the first time ever through the Genealogy Quick Look from the Midwest Genealogy Center in Independence, Missouri.

“We are very excited to offer this free service for genealogy researchers throughout the United States in association with the National Archives and Records Administration,” said Cheryl Lang, manager of the Midwest Genealogy Center. “This is the first time this treasure trove of genealogical information is publicly available to search by name or date.”

Everyone can access the Genealogy Quick Look by visiting the MGC website at midwestgenealogycenter.org and clicking on the “Genealogy Quick Look” link.

The Genealogy Quick Look is a new online service from MGC that allows users to search the indexes of various genealogical resources. These indexes include the large volume of pension records which are housed at NARA’s Atlanta offices, as well as some materials held by MGC. A list of the additional materials is available on the Genealogy Quick Look website.

While it does not provide direct access to the pension records, Genealogy Quick Look can provide researchers with important information to locate a pension record held by NARA, and then it directs users to the NARA website to make their requests.

“Providing this public index of national railroad pension records has been a project in the making for more than three years,” Lang said. “This is a collaboration with NARA to make indexed information available to the public. Also, our staff and volunteers have been compiling indexes of various materials held by MGC that we would like to make searchable by the public. With the Genealogy Quick Look, we can now provide this service.”

In addition to the national railroad pension records which span the United States and range from 1936 through the early 2000s, Genealogy Quick Look provides an online name index to obituary, birth and marriage records from the Independence Examiner newspaper 1900 through 1959; obituaries and memorials from the Kansas City Call newspaper from 1995 to 2001; obituaries from the Kansas City Star in the 1970s; and a number of books. Outside of the railroad pension records, all of these materials are available in print, microfilm, or microfiche at MGC. Staff can provide digital copies of articles free of charge.

The materials indexed on Genealogy Quick Look represent a small portion of MGC’s almost three quarter of a million genealogy-related holdings. For example, the Kansas City Call newspaper for the African-American community is available on microfilm at MGC from 1919 through the present. For more information about how the Midwest Genealogy Center can help your family research, visit the website at midwestgenealogycenter.org.

Editor’s Note: The Genealogy Quick Look link is in the right side navigation panel.

Editor’s Note: Learn more about the U.S. Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) here.

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Unless indicated otherwise or clearly an NGS Public Relations piece, Upfront with NGS posts are written by Diane L Richard, editor, Upfront with NGS.

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27 January 2014

Ramblings from a train ... using travel as an opportunity to "see" the world as it is now and as it was!

I am writing this piece as I sit on a train. Literally, I am on the Carolinian (train 79) and we are between Fredricksburg and Richmond in Virginia.

I love riding the train – there is a tranquility when I see so much untouched landscape. I know that so much history has taken place along this route. Every time I take this train, I see new things and have a greater appreciation for all that there is to see.

I am surrounded by individuals who are reading books (print or digital), listening to music, napping, working on their laptops (and often listening to music). All I hear is the sound of the heat flowing into the rail car and the whistle blowing as we approach a crossroad. It is very quiet and that often leads to contemplation.

How often in our hectic world do we take the time to notice and appreciate the roads we travel or the places we go? Do you think of what life was like in earlier times? Whose ancestors may have lived or died at that same spot? History and people are all important to our research.

On a train, I get to see the new, the abandoned and the historic. I get to see the cultivated, abandoned or virgin forests along the way. I have traversed many water bodies (small streams to pocosin (fancy word for a type of swamp in NC) to larger rivers) that we so effortlessly cross on the train. What we cross in seconds were huge obstacles (and time consuming to cross) for those living in the 18^th century.

Most of my fellow travelers have not even looked out the windows as we journey! There is so much to see ... much to contemplate ... much to learn.

Its one thing to know about the great Dismal Swamp (at the VA/NC line just east of where the train runs) and it’s another to cross mile after mile of pocosin and really gain some insight into what an obstacle this landscape was and continues to be both as one tries to navigate the terrain or to farm.

As you cross disused and abandoned rail spurs, often leading to long abandoned or now nonexistent structures, you are reminded of industries that used to exist and employed many.

You pass through small towns where once-proud railroad stations used to sit, now converted to restaurants, offices, or something else as the trains no longer stop in these communities.

You pass what once were vibrant main streets and now are mostly composed of abandoned storefronts. You see efforts to revitalize these once busy locales in hopes of making them again an important hub in people’s lives.

You see wonderfully restored historic houses that preen in the sunlight whose neighbors have fallen into complete disrepair. You see new condominiums being built next to old cottages.

You see such untouched beauty! I imagine some of it was just as it was in the 1700s when settlers first moved into the area or earlier when the

Besides the above, here are some of what else I have observed on my journey today – water towers of all sizes, a Civil War monument (Fredricksburg), ramshackle barns and buildings, cotton and other crop fields, abandoned factories, freight trains, main streets, college campuses, quaint country churches, dilapidated farm machinery, a colorful sunset, graffiti, lots of barren trees, railroad crossings, piles of railroad ties, trailer parks, cemeteries (from large and orderly to abandoned and un-kept), etc.

Next time you are traveling – whether by bus, train, car, airplane, boat, etc – try to not just view your journey as a means to get from point A to point B. Use it as an opportunity to really look at the landscape that you are passing through. I think you will find that you will gain a new appreciation for those who have and do live along your travel route.

I don’t care how many maps I have looked at, how many documents I have examined or the countless county histories I have read, every time I take this train and look out the window, I gain an invaluable and intimate view of an ever changing and yet often the same landscape. A priceless experience ...

Editor's Note: Yes, the photos are not crisp. Yes, they were taken by a cellphone camera. Yes, they capture the often grimy windows and imperfect nature of taking images from a moving train. And, most importantly, they provide a literal window into all that can be experienced by just really "looking" out at the world as we travel it.

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31 May 2011

Railroad Retirement Board Records Now in Atlanta

Records from the Railroad Retirement Board are now available at the National Archives, Southeast Region/Atlanta in Morrow.

The board was founded in 1936 and its records include applications that provide a retiree's career history, date and place of birth, parents, spouse and children. These records represent railroad retirees from all over the

U.S.

, not just the Southeast, and were brought to Morrow from the Chicago headquarters of the board.

To have a file pulled for research, you must supply the person's full name, date of birth and, if possible, Social Security number…

Read the full article.

Learn more about the Railroad Retirement Board (RRB).

Editor’s Note: Thanks to Dick Eastman, EOGN, for bringing this to our attention.

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Think your friends, colleagues, or fellow genealogy researchers would find this blog post interesting? If so, please let them know that anyone can read past UpFront with NGS posts or subscribe!

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