How do I Order a Social Security Application?

Request "A photocopy of the Social Security Application of________".
Provide full name, date of birth and State
Send a check. Fee is $7.00- if you provide Social Security Number.
Fee is $16.00- if you can't provide the number. (Search the SS Index and you may find the number).

Attention:  Freedom of Information Officer
4-H-8 Annex Bldg.
6401 Security Blvd.
Baltimore, MD 21235

Railroad Pension

To help process your request send as much information as possible including the following:

1.   The Employee's full name, including middle initial.
2.   The month and year of birth.
3.   The year last worked in the rail industry.
4.   The year of death.
5.   The railroad worked for.

    Address all requests to:
U.S. Railroad Retirement Board
Division of Public Affairs
844 Rush Street,
Chicago, IL 60611

Surname Data Banks

1. News and Notes:
------------------
1a. MAXIMIZING SEARCHES ON MESSAGE BOARDS. Click on MESSAGE BOARDS tab
at the top of any RootsWeb page or go to: http://boards.rootsweb.com/


You can search all of the message boards, only a particular category, or
only one specific board by selecting the appropriate button, but it
depends upon your location within the Message Board hierarchy. As your
teachers use to tell you: Pay attention!


To perform a simple search, type in a surname (last name), a keyword, or
a phrase, and click GO!


In all searches, keywords or phrases will be searched for the closest to
the least exact match--in that order. For a more specific search click
on the ADVANCED SEARCH link. A search of all boards is the default.
Complete any or all of the items on the ADVANCED SEARCH form:


--FIND MESSAGES CONTAINING: (list a keyword or phrase)
--WITH SUBJECT CONTAINING: (searches only message subjects)
--BY AUTHOR: (the posters' names will be searched)
--POSTED IN THE LAST ____: (select a time period from drop-down menu)
--WITH SURNAME: (searches only the Surname Box entries) also offers a
  check box to use a Soundex search. (For information about Soundex, a
  special index, see: http://rwguide.rootsweb.com/lesson9.htm).
--WITH MESSAGE TYPE: (Select from the drop-down menu: All, Query, Bible,
  Biography, Birth, Cemetery, Census, Death, Deed, Immigration, Lookup,
  Marriage, Military, Obituary, Pension, or Will).


Searches on the Message Boards support wildcards represented by an
asterisk * or question mark ? following a minimum of the first three
letters of the keyword (search term) or surname. You cannot begin a
search request surname/keyword with an asterisk or question mark
(wildcard) -- you can only use a wildcard after you have started with at
least three letters prior to the asterisk or question mark. An asterisk
is used to denote anywhere from zero to five missing or unknown
characters while the question mark is used only when you are looking for
exactly one unknown character.


For example: a search for joh* will find John, Johns, or Johnson.
However, a search for johns?n will find Johnson or Johnsen but will not
find Johnston (because there is more than one missing or unknown
letters). Searching for johns*n will, however, locate Johnston in
addition to Johnson and Johnsen.


You can show more than one question mark to represent more than one
missing letter, with each question mark shown representing an additional
missing letter. For instance: rob??son  will pick up Robinson or
Roberson but not Robertson. Searching for rob?son will only pick up
Robeson or RObison, while a search for rob*son will find Robeson,
Robson, Robinson, Roberson, as well as Robertson. You can extend your
wildcard searches to include more than five missing or unknown letters
by using a double asterisk **.


Search operators you may use are: the plus (+) sign which may be placed
in front of any word to indicate that this word MUST appear in a message
for it to be considered a match, and the minus sign (-) which may be
placed in front of any term you wish to exclude from a search. Do not
include a space between the plus or minus sign and the word or name to
which it applies. A search for '+jones john -paul' will return only
those hits that contain the word 'jones' -- provided the word 'paul'
does not also appear in the message. The word "john" may or may not
appear in the message. Messages that include both 'john' and 'jones'
would rank higher in degree of match (relevancy) than those that only
include 'jones'.


If you search and get no matches, enter less information or search only
by a surname or a keyword. Regardless of the case (upper or lower) found
in the actual posts on the message boards, if you will type using all
lowercase letters in the search box it will make your search case
insensitive, and therefore yield the maximum number of matches.


Too many matches? Enter additional data on the ADVANCED SEARCH page to
narrow down your results. If the surname for which you are looking is
also a common word (such as HILL) use the ADVANCED SEARCH link and
search on the surname by typing it into the SURNAME BOX. This enables
you to search only message board posts in which this "word" is used as a
surname. Searching only on the surname field eliminates authors' names
from coming up in your search results.

If you find dead links, please let me know: Virginia Crilley.