​​

You can now search a free index of 1.5 million US Railroad Retirement Board pension records on the Midwest Genealogy Center (part of the Mid-Continent Public Library in Independence, Mo.) website.

​

The Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) administers a federal retirement benefits program similar to Social Security, but for railroad workers. The RRB index covers records from 1936 to the early 2000s . The program started in 1936, so these records don’t cover earlier railroad workers, or workers for local streetcar or interurban lines. Those who worked for railroads on a short-term or casual basis also might not have participated in the program.

​

Start your RRB index search on the Genealogy Quick Look website (http://quicklook.midwestgenealogycenter.org/index.php) and choose "US Railroad Retirement Board" from the Collection drop-down menu.

​

The results give you the last name and usually just a first initial, along with dates of birth and death (month and year for birth and death, and occasionally the day). Once you find a relative, you can order copies of the pension records for about 80 cents per page from the National Archives Atlanta office. Use the provided link on the search results to Print This Page and then click on Submit Your Request, which gives instructions on how to request copies.

​

Before this index, you had to pay $27 to have RRB staff check their index to see if your ancestor was part of the retirement system. The Midwest Genealogy Center’s RRB index saves you the $27 and gives you the flexibility to do further research on potentially relevant search results.

​

[This article was written by May Ann Boggs for the South Suburban Genealogical and Historical Society. The Midwest Genealogy Center at the Mid-Continent Public Library in Independence, MO has the index on their website. (See above link)  We thank all of them for allowing us to publish this article on our website.]​

​