When I sent away for my grandfather’s railroad retirement files I did not know what to expect. One surprise that provided a neat bit of new information were copies of his Social Security applications (SS-5).
There were two of them: the original one from 1936 and a second one in 1953. It took me awhile to figure out why there was a second SS-5 form:
 Then, I read lines 1 and 2 more closely:
The second application was filed to correct a misinterpretation of handwriting in the original 1936 application. Apparently someone’s v’s looked too much like r’s:
The v is more apparent in his signature on that application:
The neat new bit of information was my great-grandfather’s middle name. I now know his full name was John Samuel Garrison.
