Lines Large And Small Kept Records

‘From the Midwest to the Northwest: The Records of the Great Northern and Northern Pacific Railroads” was the subject of Paula Stuart Warren’s top-notch presentation during last September’s Federation of Genealogical Societies annual conference in Seattle.

Our ancestors migrated west as the railroad tracks extended west, Warren said, so tracking folks back often involves using railroad records.

Records for those working on the railroads vary by time period, railroad and record type: payroll, personnel, accident, employee newsletters, land records, drawings of railroad stations and photos of locomotives.

Railroad material is scattered in libraries large and small all across America’s railroad routes.

The Minnesota Historical Society in St. Paul has many records for the Northern Pacific and the Great Northern railroads as well as their smaller subsidiaries. There are about 12,000 boxes of Northern Pacific records and 6,000 boxes for the Great Northern.

That’s the good news.

That bad news is that few have indexes and most have not even been microfilmed.

The Northern Pacific was chartered in 1864 to run from Lake Superior to Puget Sound. Financial backers received free land along the route from the federal government. Backers expected to build the railroad and make a profit through the sale of these land parcels.

On Aug. 23, 1883, the line was completed from St. Paul and Duluth, Minn., to Seattle - a mostly straight line across the northern tier of the United States.

The Great Northern Railroad began in 1856 as the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad. Purchased in 1859 by James J. Hill, it was renamed Great Northern and extended along a more southerly route across the continent.

For more railroad history, consult Thomas Tabers’ “The Railroad History Index, 1921-1984.” This is an index to a periodical that carried articles on railroads, equipment, records and history.

To find employment records for your ancestor, Warren said you must know the exact railroad your ancestor worked for. Railroad names changed frequently, small lines merged with larger lines. The line great-grandpa worked for in 1909 might be called a totally different name today. And, there are not just two or three railroad names, but pages and pages of branch line names.

There is no substitute for personally visiting the Minnesota Historical Society if you are serious in your search. Because most of the material is unindexed (and apparently still in boxes), and because its staff is limited, it cannot do much research by mail. However, St. Paul and the Minnesota Historical Society are wonderful places to spend a day or a week, Warren said. There are 38 binders of information for the Great Northern Railroad and 47 for the Northern Pacific - inventory guides to the large room of boxes - that can be used only at the Minnesota Historical Society.

To listen to Warren’s 50-minute recorded talk, order the $9.50 tape, postpaid, from Repeat Performance, 2911 Crabapple Lane, Hobart, IN 46342; or call (219) 465-1234. Ask for Tape F-92, with the title given above.

For a copy of the four-page syllabus of handouts from Warren’s presentation, a bibliography for further research, send me a $1 and a stamped, self-addressed, legal-sized envelope.

, DataTimes MEMO: Donna Potter Phillips welcomes letters from readers. Write to her at The Spokesman-Review, Features Department, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210. For a response, please include a self-addressed, stamped envelope.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Donna Potter Phillips The Spokesman-Review