I saw yesterday on Facebook that a new lineage society is forming called the National Society Descendants of American Railroad Workers (NSDARW). I signed up to be on their mailing list and learned that they will be completing their paperwork and hoping to begin starting to accept applications by the end of February 2021. Their Facebook page is here: https://www.facebook.com/nsdrail/
The membership is a one-time fee of $225 which includes standard insignia and a certificate. To join you must prove your direct lineal descendant to a railroad worker who worked between 1 Mar 1825 – 27 Jan 1914. Railroad service includes urban transit rail systems like the MTA.
I made a custom MyTreeTag on Ancestry awhile ago for “Railroad” and have been marking people in my family tree that worked for the railroad. Currently 9 search results come back for railroad workers and two of them are direct ancestors: Charles Whittaker (1869-1933) and Patrick Larkin (1854-1926).
I think it would be fun to join the society under Patrick Larkin as we have a family photo with him on a train. We are not completely sure which guy he is, but we all feel pretty confident that he is the gentlemen on the far right as that person looks like Uncle Jimmy Carlson.
The back of the photo has some markings. At the there is an 1896 which was the year that Albert and Ernest Larkin (Patrick’s twin sons) were born. There are a few other numbers that I would assume are for the photo studio and then in a big box is some handwriting saying: “year 1883 Dad between 25&30.”
Having that somebody wrote “Dad” on the back and the photo was found in Ernest’s home makes be believe he might have been the one to sign in. I guess I could try to find other handwriting to help compare. Secondly, it helps us feel more confident in our family lore assumption that Patrick was really in the picture.
The 1883 date matches Patrick’s age as well. He was born in 1854, so in 1883 he would have been 29 which fits the age range between 25-30.
I’m looking forward to joining this new railroad lineage society and I hope that can under my 2nd great-grandpa Patrick Larkin.