Setback - Wrong Railroad

Well, research does take the wrong turn sometimes ... I got the following feedback from Craig, the Genealogical Archivist of the C&NW Historical Society: "I could not find him in our "Retired Personnel" file, our "Work Record Cards" of the 1920 - 1940 period, or in the 1936 - 1970 Social Security Applications file we hold. It is most curious that, if Mr. Ludde did work for the C&NW in 1936 and 1937 he would have had to have signed a Social Security Application to remain employed. We do not have that application. He certainly should have been in our "Work Record Card" file if he were an C&NW employee. He may have simply been an "as needed" day laborer for the C&NW. Sorry"

Still, we did get to see those remakable railroad pictures & postcards and got to know a great railroad - just the wrong one! I have since found more historic photos of Chicago and of what it looked like on West Chicago Avenue. Due to the fire of 1871 the buildings had to be made of stone, but the roads were still pretty muddy.

Craig was kind enough to point me to some other options: " Mr. Ludde could have worked for the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific - the noted "Milwaukee Road", for the Chicago Great Western Railroad, or the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad in those years. There were over a dozen other railroads in Chicago in that time which started with a corporate name "Chicago". Also, there were "traction (electric) roads which were called by such names as the Chicago, North Shore and Milwaukee".

So - no reason to give up!