Dear Mary and all,
After I sent the previous URL's to Mary, I read my daily newsletter from
Ancestry.com for today. I am attaching the following article which
amazingly is all about how to do railroad research. It is a long article,
but VERY good. Carrol in Michigan
GEORGE G. MORGAN: "ALONG THOSE LINES . . ."
"Researching Old Railroads"
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The westward growth in the United States was accelerated by the
introduction and expansion of railroads. People no longer had to
depend on moving exclusively by horse or wagon; they could travel
more quickly by rail. Coincident with the westward population
expansion was the growth in business of all types. Population growth
demanded increases in products and services, and the increase in
farming, mining, business, and other financial opportunities helped
fuel the movement of people westward to seek a better life.
Among the business opportunities, indeed, was the growth of the
railroad industry itself. All sorts of lines developed, hundreds of
them, and new employment opportunities opened up to support this
burgeoning transportation industry. Railroad jobs included gandy
dancers who laid tracks, linemen who installed telegraph poles and
strung lines, stationmasters, porters, loaders, telegraphers,
engineers, firemen, conductors, maintenance personnel, and a host of
other occupations. With all these people employed by the railroads,
there were personnel records created and payrolls maintained. How,
then, can those of us whose ancestors were involved with railroading
locate the records that might be of genealogical significance?
Scarcely a week goes by that I do not receive e-mail from readers
asking how they should go about locating records from the old
railroads. In "Along Those Lines . . ." this week, let's discuss
railroads, methods for tracing the old railroads' records, and some
Internet-based resources that may be of help.
TRACING RAILROADS' RECORDS
The process of locating a railroad's records is completely dependent
on tracing its history. A number of my ancestors were employed by
what was the Southern Railway running between Alabama and Georgia.
The "Southern News Bulletin" dated April 1923, (a publication of the
Southern Railroad) published an article commemorating the fifty years
of service of a relative of mine, Jared G. Weatherly. The article
states:
"The Weatherly family has produced Southern Railway employees in two
generations. J.G. Weatherly, Jr., deceased, was an agent on the
Birmingham Division and another son, M.S. Weatherly, was employed for
a number of years as operator on the same division. A.M. Weatherly,
Sr., deceased, brother of J.G. Weatherly, was for years an engineer
on the Mobile Division. His son, A.M. Weatherly, Jr., D.S.O., is
chief clerk to the master mechanic at Atlanta, and another son, W.C.
Weatherly, now assistant secretary and treasurer of the White
Furniture Company, at Mebane, N.C., formerly was in the train service
on the Mobile Division."
This publication, found among my Grandfather Weatherly's papers, was
a valuable pointer toward records for both the Birmingham and Mobile
Divisions of the railroad. Perhaps you, too, have documents, service
awards/testimonials such as a pin or a watch, or family traditions to
lead you toward your ancestors' area of employment. If so, let's
discuss a possible methodology for your research.
Keep in mind as you begin your search that there were a number of
types of railroads. These included freight lines, passenger lines,
livestock and grain carriers, commuter lines, streetcar lines, and
others. Their scope of coverage may have focused on a specific
municipality, one or more states, on a specific region, or they may
have crossed much or all of the country. The smaller railroads
developed relationships with other lines to accomplish the economical
transfer and movement of people and freight from one place to
another. Remember, too, that railroads formed, operated, were sold to
or merged with other lines. They may have suffered destruction during
the U.S. Civil War, and/or they may have gone bankrupt. Finally, most
of the railroads that survived into the latter half of the Twentieth
Century may have become part of Amtrak.
Begin your search by determining the time frame during which your
ancestor would have worked for a railroad. Next, determine the
geographical area in which he would have worked. At this point, you
must become a railroad historian. You will need to learn which
railroads operated in that geographical area at the time. If you have
been told that your ancestor worked on "the Hiwasee Route," you may
not know where to begin. Fortunately, the Railroad Retirement Board
has a Web page at
http://www.rrb.gov/funfacts2.html that reveals the
Hiwasee Route to have been on the Atlanta, Knoxville & Northern
Railway Company's line. Another such site is the "Fun With Railroad
Names" page at
http://home1.gte.net/stumpie/rrnicks.htm where you can
locate nicknames for many of the U.S. railroads.
Your next step is to learn as much about the railroads in the area as
possible, including their years of operation, the locations of their
lines, their routes, the stations they served, and any affiliations
they may have had with other lines. Timetables may even be important
in your research. Use the Internet to search library catalogs in the
areas where the railroads operated to determine what books or records
a library may have in their collection. Remember that there may be
papers in a library's vertical files which are not included in their
catalog, so you may also want to contact each library along the
railroad's route to ask if there are such uncatalogued items.
Search out books about railroads, local histories, military
histories, and commercial histories for businesses that may have used
the railroads you are researching. Even locating photographs and
picture postcards depicting a railway station and showing a train
with a name on the side may be a clue.
Another excellent Web-based resource for researching railroad history
is that of the University of Connecticut Libraries, located at Storr,
CT. The Railroad History Collections Web page at
http://www.lib.uconn.edu/DoddCenter/ASC/raillist.htm is the portal
into their own collection of railroad materials. In addition, the
library has compiled an exceptional compendium called "Sources for
Railroad History Research in the United States" at
http://www.lib.uconn.edu/DoddCenter/ASC/BLC/Railroadlinks.htm.
Likewise, you can locate a multitude of railroad history sites on
your own using your Web browser and a search engine such as Google
(
http://www.google.com). I wanted to learn more about railroad
history in Alabama and therefore entered the following search:
alabama + "railroad history"
Among the results I found were the Web pages of the North Alabama
Railroad Museum (
http://www.suncompsvc.com/narm/restored.htm), the
Railroad History page (
http://members.nbci.com/generanch/rails/), and
the Railroad History Links by State
(
http://www.trainweb.org/wyomingrails/rrhist.html), among others.
USING MAPS - PRINTED AND ELECTRONIC
There are many map collections available for your research, and
railroad lines are common features of many topographic maps. Check
with libraries and archives of all types for atlases containing
historical maps showing railroads. Don't overlook military histories,
which include maps. Railroads were key military targets and
landmarks, and they are usually clearly identified in these period
maps. Scanned images of maps are abundant on the Internet, and can be
located using search engines. The historical maps in the
Ancestry.com
subscription databases can be invaluable for pinpointing railroads
too (
http://www.ancestry.com/search/rectype/reference/maps/main.asp).
LOCATING WHAT RECORDS MIGHT EXIST
Your historical quest should next include learning the disposition of
the railroad itself. If all or part of it was sold to or merged with
another railroad, try to determine the identity of the new railroad.
One of the railroads would have ended up with personnel records at
the time of the combination. You want to keep asking the question,
"What happened to the personnel records?" They may have moved from
one company to another, and even to yet another; they may have gone
into storage; they may been lost or destroyed; they may have become
the property of an historical or genealogical society; they may have
been donated to a state library, a public library, or an archive; a
railroad enthusiast or club may have them in their possession. The
point here is that you should leave no stone unturned, and you should
always use your creative instincts to determine where records may
have ended up.
RECORDS AFTER 1936
All of the research described above applies to old railroads' records
before the mid-1930s. However, the same technique can be used to
trace more recent records. I recently wrote about requesting records
from the Railroad Retirement Board. Copies of your more recent
ancestor's railroad service may reveal his employment history with
various railroad lines, therefore making it easier to trace the
disposition of the records. Check the RRB's genealogy Web page at
http://www.rrb.gov/geneal.html for details about obtaining copies of
their records for your ancestors.
DON'T EXPECT MIRACLES, BUT DO WRITE THOSE LETTERS!
When searching for your railroading ancestor's personnel records, set
your expectations realistically. The older the records may be, the
greater the chance that they have been lost or destroyed. Newspapers
and gazettes, particularly those published by the actual railroad may
provide information to you. However, the failures, sales and mergers
of railroads increase the possibility that records may no longer
exist.
Don't be disheartened, though. When you have thoroughly traced the
history of the railroad line, write letters to the old AND new
railroad(s) to request any records that might exist for your
ancestor. In addition, express your interest in the history of the
railroad and ask for copies of whatever materials are available. You
will find that many railroads have published brochures or bound
commemorative histories not ordinarily found in libraries, and these
may be additional resources for your research. Even if you don't find
actual documents, you will have learned a great deal about the
railroad for which your ancestor worked, the history of the area and
the people, and gained valuable insight into what your ancestor's
life must have been like. And that can be the most valuable
information of all.
Happy Hunting!
George
__________________________________________________________________
George G. Morgan is a proud member of the International Society of
Family History Writers and Editors, Inc. (ISFHWE) at:
http://www.rootsweb.com/~cgc/cgc2.htm. He would like to hear from you
at mailto:atl@ahaseminars.com but, due to the volume of e-mail, he is unable
to answer every e-mail message received. Please note that he cannot
assist you with your individual research. Visit George's Web site at
http://ahaseminars.com/atl for information about speaking
engagements.
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