My grandfather and some of his family and friends worked for the RR and there is no listing anywhere in the SSI for them. They retired by the RR retirement fund which they had paid into all throughout the years. I can find them through a RR web site and that is it, it states when he started and retired and that is all one can find on him. Except for the pocket watch they gave him when he retired which didn't thrill him since they had stopped using pocket watches many a year before he retired. He worked for the RR since he was 16 years old. If the person worked for the Railroad in the US, they are included in Social Security and would be included in the SSDI, provided the death was reported to Social Security. From its inception in the US in 1936-37, a special block of numbers in the Social Security system was reserved for Railroad employees. For Railroad workers, the first three digits of the SSN would be in the 700s. This applies until sometime in the 1960s, I believe. It is the US Railroad Retirement Board that administered the Social Security benefits paid to Railroad workers. When you check the SSDI and find that person's name, it will be noted that they were a long-time or retired Railroad employee. You will be able to click on a link and fill out a form to receive a copy of the person's original application for Social Security (for a small fee). If you go to the website for the US Railroad Retirement Board, there is a link to print/fill out a form to receive copies of their employment and retirement records (the fee is $27). It takes about 2 months to receive these records, but the time waiting, and the $27 fee, were well worth it for the information I got recently. It helps if you have the person's SSN, but they can do a search without it if you have the person's birth/death dates. The Railroad Retirement Board's website gives a very clear explanation of whose records you are likely to find, or not to find. I missed the original posting to the list on this topic, so I hope my response above was relevent. Eileen -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.446 / Virus Database: 269.4.0/759 - Release Date: 4/12/2007 7:58 PM