Today I received a thick envelope from the National
Personnel Records Center for the civilian records of employment for my
great-aunt, Beryl Johnston Russell Taylor.[1]
It measured at one-half inch think, probably about 125 pages. I haven’t counted
them yet but I have looked at every page.
So how did I get this file? I wrote a letter to the National
Personnel Records Center at the address in Valmeyer, Illinois asking for the
Official Personnel Folder (OPF) of my aunt who worked for the federal
government for about 30 years. I gave all of her names (she was married twice),
her birth and death dates, and her Social Security Number.
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| One of many of the forms in Beryl's file |
I had known little about her work. I knew that she worked a
year or so in Greece after World War II (from her passport) and that she worked
in Sacramento until her retirement (from her obituary). But I didn’t know what
she did for a living.
I will keep the pages in the order in which they came. The
newest pages were on top. These were about her retirement in 1974. She had
worked thirty years and five months total, and had 518 hours of sick leave and
277 vacation hours saved that was paid to her at the rate of $5.61.
All through the papers her title was Secretary
(stenography). Her last position was with the Department of the Interior in the
Office of the Solicitor, and her office was in Sacramento, California.
Some of the treasures found in the file:
- Pay change forms/Salary increases
- Life insurance coverage
- Notification of Personnel Actions
- Civil Service Test
- Performance award
- injury report
- listings all of her previous employment
- signatures
What was interesting was all of the addresses for witnesses
and beneficiaries were redacted with large black marker. I doubt any of these
people from the 1960s and 70s are still alive. I know none of her siblings are.
As I work my way through the file in more detail, I’ll write
more. I’m especially interested in the sheets about all of her previous
employment. This will help with creating a timeline. I have yet to find her and
her husband in the 1940 census. I think once I figure out where she was, I
might have a better chance of finding them.
[1] Official
Personnel Folder (OPF) for Beryl Russell, 6510, National Personnel Records
Center, Valmeyer, Illinois.
The personnel file for cousin Ruth, who disappeared in the early 1950s and never contacted the family again, is similarly informative. She worked for various Federal departments as an economist in an era where not many women worked outside the home. She was actually living in New York less than 2 miles from my family in the 1960s, and we never knew!
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