Even More About Social Security Records – George G. Morgan

Since the first column about Social Security and Railroad Retirement on 11 June,
readers of this column have inundated me with e-mail concerning the unusual
occurrences they have run across while working with these records. The column
of 27 June, More About Social Security and Railroad Retirement provided some additional examples of the types of these records and
experiences trying to obtain and work with them.

I received several more e-mail messages containing interesting information
that might be of interest to you as you work with Social Security records, so
this week’s column is one final edition of Social Security information. As you
will see, there are lots of unusual things to be learned from other researchers’
experiences.

Military Records
One reader wrote to tell me about another scenario that might throw researchers
off track when attempting to match relatives and their Social Security numbers
with their birth place. She wrote, “In the early part of 1950, the military
(at least the Air Force) changed from their own set of identification numbers
to Social Security numbers. Prior to the early 1950s, military members were
not part of the Social Security System. When the active duty military started
to pay into the system they were given a Social Security number according to
the state where they were based at that time. Although my husband was born in
Massachusetts, his first three digits are for the state [of] Louisiana, where
he was stationed. You can imagine how much confusion this could cause family
members if they tried to look for a number that they thought was issued in Massachusetts
and could only find one for Louisiana. When the surname is a common name, that
makes the search even more difficult.”

Suffix Letter On Social Security Number
Another reader wrote that her grandfather’s death certificate had a Social Security
number followed by a letter. She wanted to know what that signified or whether
it was a mistake. I did some research on the Internet, searching for the terms
“social security number” + suffix. I located a comprehensive Web site at members.aol.com/rechtman/ssafaq.html
containing a great many Frequently Asked Questions. Quoting from that site,
“Not until the mid-1970s, did SSA routinely assign SSNs as part of the benefit
application process for dependents of the worker, such as spouses, widows, and
dependent children without an SSN. Dependents had a claim number, which was
the worker’s SSN plus a letter suffix. Thus, the husband’s SSN sometimes appears
on the death certificate of a wife or widow who never had one.”

I suspect that the appearance of the suffix letter on the Social Security number
of the writer’s grandfather’s death certificate was an error. The person providing
the information for the death certificate, perhaps even her grandmother, may
have taken the number and suffix from a Social Security record for the wife.
My advice to the woman who sent me the e-mail was to search for her grandfather’s
records under the simple Social Security number, and for any records of her
grandmother under the number with the suffix.

Rate Increases
One reader wrote about how appalled he is at the Social Security Administration’s
increase in the price of SS-5s. He wrote, “I recently received some SS5s from
the SSA with a notice that as of 1 July 2001 the fees have changed from $7 to
$27, that’s almost a 400 percent increase. I’ve been reading all my e-zines
and watching the BBs but haven’t seen any comments on this excessive increase.
If any other service quadrupled their rates there would be a major riot. Just
because you can, doesn’t mean you have to.”

I would agree that the price increase is astronomical. However, this is not
the only governmental entity to raise its prices for copies of records. The
Railroad Retirement Board, another governmental agency, clearly states that
“Effective October 1, 2000, the fee for searching our records increased to $21
for each employee on whom records are requested. The fee is payable before any
search is attempted.” Therefore, this group preceded the SSA in increasing its
costs. As readers of the Ancestry Daily News and frequent users of the
National Archives and Record Administration’s research and copy services will
have noted, prices have increased in that organization as well. While agreeing
that the price increases are staggering and especially burdensome to genealogists
on limited incomes, I know that a typical search for records, pulling and copying
them, replacing them in a file, addressing an envelope, and paying for the envelope
and postage is a substantial personnel expense. And let’s face it, none of our
government employees doing this work is making minimum wage. Therefore, some
increase may certainly be merited, especially at NARA where files may consist
of many physical pages or microform images.

Railroad Retirement: Pass The Word
One reader wrote to say, “Another very good article, (Railroads). Some of the
younger researchers do not know much about the things you have written in this
article. Great work. THANK YOU.” She is certainly correct. Railroad Retirement
has been in the process of being phased out for almost thirty years, and younger
genealogists need to know about this segment of the federal retirement security
system.

Father Isn’t in the Social Security Death Index (SSDI)
One gentleman wrote that his father died in 1953 and that his mother received
benefits from Social Security for herself and her two children. He reported
that there is no record of his father in the SSDI, and he thought there should
be. He asked how he would go about solving this problem as his father had a
Social Security number issued to him and he knows the number.

I wrote back to suggest that if his father died before he collected benefits
himself, i.e., prior to a normal retirement age and without receiving a benefit
payment, his name will not be included in the SSDI. The conditions for inclusion
in the SSDI are: 1) the person had to have paid into Social Security; 2) the
person has to be deceased; 3) the person had to have filed for and collected
a benefit prior to death; and 4) the SSA had to have been advised of the person’s
death (at which time benefits would have ceased). If a person paid into Social
Security and died prior to receiving a benefit, his or her spouse (and/or children)
may have been entitled receive benefits based on the deceased individual’s earnings.
If there is an omission in the SSDI, however, you can always contact the SSA
to discuss it with them.

States’ Old Age Pensions
Another reader wrote, “I have been doing genealogy for several years and have
been to many seminars, but I have never heard any mention of the State’s Old
Age Pensions that were inaugurated in the 1930s to help old people until Social
Security kicked in. Both my grandparents, one in Texas and one in Louisiana,
drew these pensions. It was short lived for sure, but surely those records were
kept somewhere. I am just curious as to what information was contained and where
to go to find it. Just mention it in your column someday as I am sure other
people could be interested. I am 74 years old and I remember the 1930s fairly
well.”

This lady is correct. There apparently were some state-sponsored retirement
security programs, although I have read little about them over the decades I’ve
been involved in genealogy. A search of the Web using the terms Texas + “old
age pension” yields results describing the transfer of funds from the earlier
pension fund created in the 1930s into another account and the payment of interest
on the monies there. Using the same search, substituting Louisiana for Texas,
yields search results concerning that state’s old age funding from 1935. There
have been transcriptions of Old Age Pension lists placed online at RootsWeb
for such areas as Monroe County, Iowa, and other places. An article posted at
the “Free Republic” Web site on 10 April 2001 titled “Life
Before Social Security,” by Sandra K. Gorin, states that “30 states had
some form of old-age pension program by 1935. However, these programs were generally
inadequate and ineffective. Only about three percent of the elderly were actually
receiving benefits under these states plans, and the average benefit amount
was about sixty-five cents a day.”

A good place to begin searching for records from these early pension plans
would be with a state’s archive or library, with the state’s comptroller, or
with the state government department responsible for state retirement plans.
You may find some additional information in these pensions’ records.

Thank You, Readers!
Although it is impossible for me to respond to the many, many e-mail messages
I receive each week, I sincerely appreciate the kindness and generosity with
which so many are filled. You can probably tell that the people whose information
I’ve included this week are eager to share their knowledge and experiences.
This is certainly one of the joys of doing genealogical research — you meet
the nicest people. Let me extend a sincere thank you to the hundreds of readers
who wrote in regard to the columns about Social Security and Railroad Retirement
records. I have learned much from you and thank you for your kind words about
the column and your generosity in sharing information.

Happy Hunting!
George