Discussion Board

 Where can I find records pertaining to the shipping of a casket, from VT to NH in April 1917?

These are known as Transit records and the town clerk where the place of death occurred makes them out and the town clerk of the gaining town then completes the Transit record and returns the copy to the originating town clerk.  Sadly many of these transit records are no longer in existence. 

Alison Franks

Archivist, Rawson Family Association

agfranks@comcast.net

Since I have only ever seen Railroad employment records I would imagine this would be a difficult task.  There may be a record in the town hall where the body was received.  In Boston there are books of "Out of Town" burials, which are similiar to what you seek.  Railroad records of this event are no doubt long destroyed from the manifests.  The other place that may have a record would be the funeral home or the Cemetery.  My ancestor's uncle who was brought from Chicago to Cambridge via rail in 1895 had a bill of lading for the casket.  This was in the file at the cemetery office at Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge.

David Allen Lambert, NEHGS Online Genealogist

I have several ancestors who worked for the railroads in Cambridge, Somerville and Watertown, MA during the late 1800s and early 1900s. 

The US Railroad Retirement Board website indicates that they only have records for people who worked for the railroads from 1936 and after.  Do you know where I should search for any records that might exist for ancestors who worked for the railroads prior to 1936?