Railroad Retirement Board Files

By agilchrest on Tue, 11/01/2022 - 18:47

Forums

As has been discussed NARA is not particularly efficient at including citation information. I received a Railroad inactive claim file. I did search the Forums and found the following on the Railroad Retirement Board file.  https://www.evidenceexplained.com/content/railroad-retirement-board-file

The result of the discussion was the following citation:

James John McCarry pension file, SS no. 716-09-2211, 1954; NIA: 5743080, Textural Records; Inactive Claims Folders; RG 184: Records of the Railroad Retirement Board; National Archives–Atlanta, Morrow, Ga.

This citation seems to me to be missing information that is required by the National Archives Atlanta to find the file. Here is a link to the page about requesting a file. https://www.archives.gov/atlanta/public/railroad-retirement-board-records

The page says.
"Please provide as much of the following information about the claimant or pensioner as possible:

  • First Name, Middle Name/Initial, Last Name
  • Railroad Retirement Board Claim Number
  • Social Security Number
  • Year of Birth
  • Year of Death"

If I need a claim number to request the file and the person's DOB and DOD wouldn't I want to include that information in my citation? I am thinking at the very least I need to include the claim number. The file year does not seem to be not necessary to find the record. 

This is what I have so far. I am not sure if I should include the year the application was filed or his DOB and DOD. The application was filed in 1941. The application is in the last of the five pdf files that were emailed to me. There are 214 pages in total. None of the pdf files contains an image of the folder that contains the paperwork.

John H Douris pension file, claim no. A178264, SS no. 701-12-5793; Records of the Railroad Retirement Board 1934-1987; National Archives at Atlanta, Morrow, Georgia, Inactive Claim Folders, Record Group 184.

Thanks,
Ann Gilchrest

 

Submitted byEEon Wed, 11/02/2022 - 09:18

Oh, what a tangled web we must punch through when working with records from the U.S. National Archives.  NARA, of course, has a great online site, which includes a wonderful outline of its records. We can Google for “Record Group 184” and get this helpful page describing the contents of that RG: https://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/184.html.

That guide breaks down the holdings into sub-authorities and series.  But, of course, it does not discuss this particular set of files, which constitute a major segment of RG 184. The guide provides some details on major record sets held at the Chicago branch of NARA, but not those at Atlanta.

So, we’re “on our own here” in figuring this out and, as usual, you’ve applying sound logic. EE would make two tinkers:

  1. Apply the Velcro Principle (matched pairs should stick together because, when separated, they don’t work right). This helps others more easily understand what we're citing.  “Records of the Retirement Board, 1934–1987” is the name of Record Group number 184.” The two are one and the same, so the two different ways of identifying them should stick together. To do that, we cite the RG number, add a colon, and then cite the name of that RG.
  2. Move the identification of the archives to the last layer so that the progression of elements is consistently from smallest to largest.

The result:

John H. Douris pension file, claim no. A1782264, SS no. 701-12-5793; Inactive Claim Folders; Record Group 184: Records of the Retirement Board 1934–1987; National Archives–Atlanta.

In that second layer, “Inactive Claim Folders,” there should almost certainly be additional detail, given NARA’s structure. But when we order records from NARA, we can only cite whatever details are given us by the “record-puller.”