Works Progress Administration

Application for a Social Security Number
Note that the employer was Works Progress Administration at 309 Washington Street in Newark, New Jersey

The Depression of the 1930s resulted in high unemployment rates, including my own family.  My grandfather worked for the Works Progress Administration, a government sponsored program that was part of President Franklin D Roosevelt's New Deal.  Specific to genealogy, the WPA catalogued and indexed records of vital events and cemeteries.

An article in the summer 2012 newsletter of the Genealogical Society of New Jersey alerted us that we may request employment records for people who worked for the WPA.  You may write to:

National Archives and Records Administration
Archival Programs
PO Box 38757
Saint Louis, MO  63138
or email stlarr.archives@nara.gov

I wrote to them and will let you know about any promising returns.  If you can obtain employment records on an ancestor or relative, proceed.  You never know what surprises await you.