Using the Social Security Death Index – George G. Morgan
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
