Genealogy Blog Family History

The Social Security Death Index – Roseann Reinemuth Hogan, Ph.DPosted by Administrator on March 14th, 2005

The Social Security Death Index (also known among genealogists as the SSDI) is a valuable tool for individuals researching the death information of a recently-deceased (after 1962) family member. Approximately 98 percent of the individuals in the database died after 1962.

The fact that the Social Security Administration required proof of birth to issue a number is a boon to genealogical researchers. This requirement has generated a tremendous amount of relevant genealogical data in the Social Security Administration as well as at the state level.

Because early recipients of social security were born in years before civil registration of births was required, many of the delayed birth certificates filed at the state level were a result of needing proof of birth to apply for social security benefits. People also used a variety of other sources to prove their age to the Social Security Administration, such as family Bibles, church records, testimony from friends and family, and the 1880 and 1900 federal census enumeration lists. In fact, it was the frequent use of the federal censuses for birth information that resulted in soundexing the enumerations for easier access.

The application for social security benefits, known as the SS-5 form, contains a wealth of information and is provided in your ancestor’s own words and handwriting. If your ancestor was working in the United States in 1937 or later, there is a good chance he or she completed an application. Once you find your ancestor in the SSDI, you can submit a form to the Social Security Administration, along with a fee, and receive a copy of the application. Visit <www.ancestry.com/ search/rectype/vital/ssdi/main.htm> and follow the steps for obtaining a copy of your ancestor’s application.

Who has a Social Security number?

The Social Security Act was signed into law on 14 August 1935. The Act created a social insurance program that was designed to pay retired workers at age sixty-five or older a continuing income. Under the 1935 law, workers would begin acquiring credits toward old-age insurance beginning 1 January 1937. Benefits were to be based on the wage record of the individual and were of three types: 1) monthly benefits at age sixty-five, 2) lump sum payments, and 3) death benefits to the estates of individuals who died before drawing benefits.

Because the primary, but not exclusive, purpose of the social security system was to provide a retirement income to working people, the prevalence of social security numbers before 1960 was not as widespread as it is today. (Today, it is not unusual that young children acquire social security numbers.) But as the Social Security Administration’s scope grew, more and more people in the United States received Social Security numbers. Beginning in the 1960s, the use of the Social Security number as a national identifier became more prevalent. In 1962, the Internal Revenue Service adopted the Social Security number as its official taxpayer identification number. Similarly, when Medicare was adopted in 1965, it became necessary for most individuals over the age of sixty-five to have a Social Security number so they could obtain medical benefits.

At the outset, many workers were not covered by the program, including farmers, women who did not work outside the home, teachers, municipal employees who were covered by other pension plans, some government employees, unemployed people, and those with a separate retirement plan. The people who fit in these categories did not contribute to social security.

On the other hand, if an individual was self-employed most of his life, he may have taken a job for the minimum number of years to qualify for a pension.

Content in the Index

The Social Security Death Index has some 66 million names in it, but the individuals in the SSDI are only those who had a Social Security number and whose death was reported by surviving family members for the death benefit. In addition, this information has only been computerized since 1962. That year, the Social Security Administration began to use the database to process requests for benefits. If you don’t find a name right away in the index, try spelling variations of the name, use the soundex feature, truncate the name as much as possible, use wildcard searches, and search on different fields.

Generally, a search of the index will yield information in any of six areas: name of the deceased, birthdate, date of death, state in which number was issued, residence, and address of last benefit.

1. Name of the deceased. Be sure to check all names of the deceased, especially if you are searching for a woman. If you don’t find what you expect, do a soundex search to ensure that the name was not misspelled when the information was indexed.

2. Birthdate. This is the birthdate confirmed by the Social Security Administration. As mentioned previously, the person was required to provide a number of documents to prove his or her age. But the date may not match the information you already have in your records.

3. Date of death. This is the date the person was reported to have died. Usually only the month and year shows on the index since only the benefit month is the interest of the Social Security Administration. Before 1988, the death date was not routinely recorded, so these dates may be suspect. Leave the date off entirely if you don’t find a match.

4. State in which number was issued. This is not necessarily the birth state of the individual, it is the state in which he or she applied for a Social Security number. When searching the index, leave the state field blank if the person’s name you are seeking does not show up as expected. For example, I searched for my grandfather’s death date without luck until I decided to delete Kentucky as the state of issuance from the search. His name came up immediately since this field was left blank in the index.

5. Residence. The residence field shows the zip code, city, and county that the Social Security Administration has of the date of the last correspondence with the person. Or it may be the address where the benefit check was sent. Remember that zip codes often change over time, so don’t rely on that information as you search.

6. Address of last benefit. This is the last address where a check was directed, but it may be empty if the person did not receive benefits, or if it is the same address as the residence address.

Many people may not appear in the index simply because their relatives did not apply for the death benefit, even if they had a social security number and were eligible to receive benefits.

There are many exceptions to the Administration’s regulations, and your ancestor’s information may fall in that category. My father’s record is an excellent example. Although permanent railroad employees were covered under the Railroad Retirement Act rather than Social Security, my father’s only paid employment was with the C&O railroad, yet he appears in the index. These railway workers were sometimes enrolled in the same social security program, but with different benefits than the general population. Some railroad workers received social security benefits while others did not.

The Social Security Death Index is an incredibly rich data source. And because this information is part of the public record, you can find the index online free of charge at various websites including www.ancestry.com.

Hopefully, the information provided above will encourage you to use the SSDI as an aid in your family research. Remember, as with any record resource, be sure to verify the information you find in the SSDI with other documents.

Roseann Reinemuth Hogan, Ph.D., has been researching her family history since 1978. Her special interests include oral histories and social history.

U.S. Social Security Death Index – Kathi SittnerPosted by Administrator on February 14th, 2005

When Social Security benefits were instituted in 1937, each employed person filed an application for a Social Security number. The application form asked questions concerning birth date and place, parents’ names, spouse’s name, and residence address at the time of the application. To receive benefits, individuals were also required to document their births, even if their birth states had not required birth registration. The 1880 and 1900 census enumerations were partially or fully indexed to help provide this documentation, and, during this time, many delayed birth certificates were issued by counties when individuals submitted family information such as Bibles to the court. The resulting information was kept in the individual’s Social Security files and is now available from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Social Security Administration through the Freedom of Information Act.

Indexes to these records are now accessible through the Social Security Death Index of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Family History Library (FHL) in Salt Lake City and through its branch family history centers, and it is available for purchase on CD-ROM as part of the FHL Family Search program; online on CompuServe; for purchase in nine track tape format on 9- or 12-inch reels from the Social Security Administration; on CD-ROM from Cambridge, Inc.; and through the “Social Security Death Benefit Index” portion of the Banner Blue (BB) Division of Broderbund’s Master Name Index, which is included with their Family Tree Maker computer program, or as “Family Archives,” a separate program on two CD-ROMs.

The FHL’s Social Security Death Index includes approximately 60 million deceased people who had Social Security numbers and whose deaths were reported to the Social Security Administration between 1962 and 1993, soon to be 1994. A few earlier and later deaths are also included, and the list is updated periodically as further information is received.

The index lists names first by the surname, then the given name, then the year of birth. It does not specify the birthplace or provide the names of the spouse or children, so sometimes several entries fit the individual being sought. While the place or residence and year of birth are helpful in determining the correct person, this data is not required to access the index. To find an individual, look for the person’s name as used for legal purposes at the time of death. Thus, married women are generally found under their last married names, and if a person changed his or her name, the final, not the original, name would be indexed. In a few cases, a married woman may be found under her maiden name, especially if she worked only before her marriage and never informed the Social Security Administration of her marriage. Sometimes nicknames are used, but more often the formal, first Christian name is the one found in the index. In cases in which a first attempt to locate the individual is unsuccessful, try alternate spellings, as they may be indexed by different Soundex codes.

You can filter or limit your search to specific selected states. You can search only those states where a Social Security number may have been issued to the person or only those states where the person may have lived at the time of death. Filtering increases the time required for the computer to display the list, but can be very helpful when seeking a common name.

Information on the computer screen shows all persons within the designated search area who have the name you entered, beginning with the birth year you have specified. Each entry tells the birth year, the state where the Social Security number was issued, the year of death, and the last state where the person resided. When an individual’s name is highlighted, further information about this person appears: the birth month and year, the Social Security number, the death month and year (after 1987 the day of death is also included), the state of residence at death, the state where the death benefit was sent, and the postal zip codes of these last two places. If a person died before zip codes were listed (the mid-1960s), the locality information may not be included.

Because the BB program is presently the most commonly used alternative to the FHL version, I would like to point out that, while the information provided on the BB program is similar, the programs are very different. On the positive side, although generally very time-consuming unless the name is extremely unusual, the BB program allows a search for a female individual by a first name and a known birth date but unknown death surname or for a known Social Security number, such as for a child under 18 who was adopted and whose name was subsequently changed. The FHL program does not have these features, which can be extremely useful in locating “lost” family members who may have useful information about your ancestral family. The BB program also includes quite a few names from the original Social Security lists which did not meet the criteria to be included in the final Social Security Death Index. However, compared to the FHL index, BB’s index is not Soundex indexed, is slow, and requires an exact spelling of the name as entered in the index. This is a problem, since the index often truncates long names such as “Johnso” instead of Johnson, skips spaces such as “Gbb” for Gibb, and includes some incorrect spellings such as “Dgnohue” instead of Donohue. These problems can be partially avoided by using wild card entries, but the result is a cumbersome list of names which take a long time to search. If a state is specified for an individual but no zip code is available for that state, BB” program will not find the individual, whereas the FHL program does not depend on the zip codes and if an exact match is not found, it will simply list all people by that surname as alternatives. Similarly, if a “known” death year is specified when using the BB program but the year is actually incorrect or not listed, that individual cannot be found. An individual found in the BB program, cannot be placed in a holding file, and an attempt must be made to find the individual’s death place by going to a separate Zip Code Directory, whereas the FHL index provides immediate information simply by entering on the name and does allow for storage in a holding file.

If you find a person in the Social Security Death Index, you can order copies of the Social Security file from the Social Security Administration. Send a copy of the information or a letter which provides the Social Security number and information and a check to:

Social Security Administration

4-H8 Annex Building

6401 Security Blvd.

Baltimore, MD 21235

Attn: Freedom of Information Officer

Responses take about three months.

If you don’t find an individual in the file, you may still be able to obtain copies of the Social Security file by locating his or her death certificate which often includes the Social Security number. This can then be used to request the records. Remember that the individual may not be in the index because he or she never received a Social Security number, because relatives did not report the death to the Social Security Administration, because the individual died before 1962 when the records were computerized, or because of an error in issuing or reporting the Social Security number.

Using the Social Security Death Index – George G. MorganPosted by Administrator on January 14th, 2005

For many years, the Social Security Death Index (SSDI) has been a valuable tool
in my research of twentieth-century relatives. At one time, it was only
available on CD-ROM. Today, however, you will find the SSDI at several Internet
sites.

In “Along Those Lines . . . ” this week, I want to discuss several ways you can
use the SSDI in your research. If you have never used the SSDI, you are in for
a treat. However, even if you are an old hand at using this resource, please
take this opportunity to review how you use it.

What is the SSDI?

The SSDI is a compilation of information about deceased persons who filed for
and received Social Security numbers, who were paid Social Security benefits at
some point in their lives, and whose death was reported to the Social Security
Administration (SSA). There are several very key points you should understand
and bear in mind.

1) Usually, a person whose name appears in the SSDI was employed, paid money
into Social Security and, at some time, applied for benefits of some sort. The
two most typical benefits paid were old age pension or disability benefits. If
the person paid into Social Security but never collected benefits, you will not
find him or her in the file.

2) The spouse of someone who paid into Social Security, but who never worked and
contributed to Social Security, will not be included in the file unless he or
she received their spouse’s benefits after the spouse’s death, and even this is
not a 100 percent certainty.

3) Persons who worked for the railroad exclusively and did not work in another
public sector will not be included in the SSDI. Those persons, instead,
contributed to Railroad Retirement, a separate retirement security fund
specifically for railroad workers and collected benefits from that organization.
Only if the person also worked for a company not affiliated with the railroad
will they appear in the SSDI, and they will appear with their unique number
assigned to railroad numbers (beginning with a 7).

4) If a person collected benefits at one time and his or her death was not
reported to Social Security, that person will not be included in the SSDI.

The SSDI contains almost 63 million records at the time of this writing, and the
information in it is, for the most part, reliable and accurate. Remember,
though, that information concerning addresses and date of death may be
incomplete or inaccurate owing to information supplied by the person who
reported the death.

Contents of the SSDI

As I mentioned before, there are multiple places on the Web where you can find
recent SSDI information. For purposes of this discussion, let’s use the SSDI at
the Ancestry.com Web site.
As an example, I
entered the name of a friend’s father, Carl Johansson, who I know lived in
Chicago, IL. Ancestry.com’s SSDI allows me to enter as much or as little data
as possible and search for matches. The search results are displayed and
contain the following fields of information:

Name -This column usually contains the name by which the individual was
registered under Social Security and under which the benefit was issued. (The
SSDI record for my aunt, whose married name was Nita Elizabeth FRANK but who was
always known as “Beth” is listed as Nita Frank. Had I not known her first name,
it might be very difficult to locate the SSDI record for her.)

Born -This is the birth date confirmed to the SSA at the time the application
was filed to collect benefits. This date may disagree with other information
you may have seen elsewhere. However, the applicant was required to present
several legal documents or sworn affidavits to prove his or her birth date. In
a pinch, I would place heavy emphasis on this being an accurate birth date and
go looking for evidence to corroborate this date.

Died -This is the date the person was reported to have died. In many cases,
this will be shown as month and year. The SSA is only concerned with the last
month for which benefits were paid, and they terminated benefits based on the
reported date of death. This date may or may not be 100 percent accurate, based
on what information they received from a reporting person or agency. However,
this will get you into the ballpark.

Residence -This column shows the zip code, city and county that the SSA had on
file as of the date of the last correspondence with the person. In other words,
this was the person’s official mailing address in the SSA file. If the person
moved and did not notify the SSA, this information may be inaccurate.

Last Benefit -This is the last address to which a benefit payment was made.
This column is often empty, not because the person did not collect a benefit,
but for other reasons. These include:

1) The benefit check was direct-deposited into a financial institution, or
2) The address was identical with the Residence address.

SSN -This column contains the Social Security number of the individual under
which contributions were made to SSA and under which benefits were paid.

Issued -This column indicates where the SSN was issued and when. The location is
usually a state abbreviation but, as in the case of Carl JOHANSSON, the code RR
appears. This indicates that the number was issued by the Railroad Retirement
Board. The date shown will often be stated as “Before 1951.” After that date,
the year in which the SSN was issued is shown.

Write Letter -In the Ancestry.com SSDI database, there is a facility provided to
allow you to automatically generate a letter to the SSA requesting a copy of the
SS-5, the application for a SSN completed by the individual whose record you are
viewing.

Ways to Use the SSDI

As you can see, there are a lot of components to the SSDI record. Let me
suggest some ways to use the SSDI information in your research.

Write Letters for SS-5 Form -The most obvious activity is to use the
letter-generation facility and send off for the SS-5 form. In my column of 2
July 1998, I discussed
in detail the vast amount of information available from the SS-5, including the
site where the application was made, parents’ names, date and place of birth,
employer, occupation, and other great details that may point you in other
directions.

Locating Lost Relatives -I have had success locating lost branches of the family
and information about them by using the SSDI. For example, I found a letter
from my grandmother’s brother from the 1940s in which he said he was moving his
family to Dayton, OH. A search of his name and Dayton, OH, located a number of
records and, by checking the birth date, I was able to confirm his presence
there and his date of death.

Confirming Dates -I have often used the SSDI to search for a person of whose
name and place of residence I was certain. When you locate their record, you
can then check the birth date for the person and compare it against what, if
anything, you already have. You can also check death date. If you need
corroboration, you can write to the SSA for the SS-5 and/or write to the vital
records agency in the Residence location’s county and seek a copy of a death
certificate.

Dates of Birth and Death -You can use these dates to search for birth
certificates, death records, obituaries and other materials. Using the
Residence and Last Benefit (if any listed) will help you home in on specific
locations.

Residence -I have often used the SSDI to locate the last residence of a specific
relative, especially if I knew his or her date of birth. I simply enter the
surname and given name, along with date or year of birth, and execute a search.
This usually provides me with records to help me isolate the last residence
address in the SSA’s files. If not, I broaden the search. (TIP: If you don’t
get a match the first time, there may be a given name problem where the person
may have gone by a middle name. Leave the given name blank and try again.
Likewise, try alternate spellings of surnames. JOHANSSON may have been spelled
as JOHANSON or JOHANNSON or some other way. Be persistent!)

In addition, the Residence information may point you to other materials in a
specific geographic area, such as land records, tax rolls, voter registration
rolls, licenses, court records, newspapers, school records, church records,
employment records, probate records, obituaries and a variety of other record
types.

Place Issued -The state shown in the SSDI as the one in which the SSN was issued
may be a surprise to you. A check of the person’s SS-5 form will confirm the
place where the application was made and the SSN was issued. I have one
ancestor whose Issued location was shown in the SSDI as PA when I expected it to
have been NC. On receipt of his SS-5, I found that he was working in PA in the
late 1930s at the time he was required to obtain a SSN. This provided me with
more details about his movements and employment history, and pointed me toward
research in another geographical area I would never have known to check.

Summing Up

As you can see, there are many ways to use the SSDI to expand your research and
to corroborate or verify facts already in evidence. I hope you will learn to
use the SSDI as another important and free Web-based Internet tool.

Happy Hunting!

George