Social Security Death Index FAQS
How can I correct errors in the
SSDI?
Why can’t I find the
person I’m looking for?
Who is listed in the SSDI?
Where does the SSDI come from?
What information does the SSDI contain?
What do each of the fields in the database mean?
What do the numbers in a Social Security number mean?
What other information is available from the Social
Security Administration?
How can I get a copy of the original records?
Taken from: Porter, Pamela Boyer. 1999. "Social
Security Sleuthing" Conference in the States Program Richmond VA:
National Genealogical Society.
How can I correct errors
in the SSDI?
If an individual
claims that SSA has incorrectly listed someone as deceased (or has incorrect
dates/data on the Death Master File (the database from which the Social
Security Death Index is generated), the individual should contact their
local social security office (with proof) to have the error corrected.
That local social security office will:
- Make the correction to the main file at SSA and
give the individual a verification document of SSA’s current records,
or - If the local social security office already has
the correct information on the Death Master File (probably corrected
sometime prior), give the individual a verification document of SSA’s
records.
Why can’t I find the person
I’m looking for?
It could be
that the person you’re looking for does not meet the criteria for inclusion
in the database. The index does not include living people. It is not
an index to all deceased individuals who have held Social Security Numbers.
It is not a database of all deceased individuals who have received Social
Security Benefits, or whose families have received survivor benefits.
The SSDI contains basic information about persons with Social Security
numbers whose deaths have been reported to the Social Security Administration.
See the above section on who is included in the SSDI. (Porter 1999)
If the individual
you seek does meet the criteria for inclusion but does not appear in
the index, here are some things you might try
- Try searching by possible alternate name spellings
or Soundex searching. - Change dates around (e.g. instead of searching
for 5 Oct 1954 [10/5/54], search for 10 May 1954 [5/10/54]) - Change years around (e.g. 1984 becomes 1948)
- Use all other possible spellings of the name
(and perhaps some that aren’t so likely). When searching for a name
like O’Hare, or other names with punctuation in them, enter the name
without the punctuation (e.g. OHare). If you are looking for someone
using a first name but don’t find what you’re looking for, try searching
with just an initial. There are also rare instances of what appear
to be middle initials included in the last name field, so you may
want to try this in that field as well. - Switch last name and first name around
- Try searching for a middle name as a first name
- Even if you know a piece of information, try
omitting it (e.g. if you know first and last name and death date,
try leaving off the first name).
If none of these yield fruit, it is possible that
the SSDI has erroneously omitted your ancestor. If this is the case,
see the FAQ about correcting errors in the SSDI.
This
database is an index to basic information about persons with Social
Security numbers whose deaths have been reported to the Social Security
Administration. The death may have been reported by a survivor requesting
benefits. It may have been reported in order to stop Social Security
Benefits to the deceased. Funeral homes often report deaths to the SSA
as a service to family members. Beginning in 1962, the SSA began to
use a computer database for processing requests for benefits. About
98% percent of the people in the SSDI died after 1962, but a few death
dates go back as far as 1937. Because legal Aliens in the U.S. can obtain
a Social Security card, their names may appear in the SSDI if their
deaths were reported. Some 400,000 railroad retirees are also included
in the SSDI.
The Social
Security Death Index is not an index to all deceased individuals who
have held Social Security Numbers. It is not a database of all deceased
individuals who have received Social Security Benefits, or whose families
have received survivor benefits. (Porter 1999)
Where does the SSDI come
from?
The following timeline offers a brief history of
the SSDI:
14 Aug 1935 President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs
the Social Security Act into law.
1936-1937 Approximately 30 million U.S. residents
apply for and receive Social Security numbers.
1 Jan 1937 Workers begin acquiring credits toward
old-age insurance benefits, and payroll tax (FICA) withholding begins.
1947 Application for Social Security number no
longer includes employer information.
1962 Electronic requests for benefits become commonly
used, resulting in what is known as the Social Security Death Index.
1963 Issuance of Social Security numbers beginning
with 700-728 to railroad employees was discontinued.
1965 President Lyndon B. Johnson signs Medicare
into law. Many citizens over age 65 receive Social Security cards
for the first time.
1967 Department of Defense begins using Social
Security numbers instead of military service numbers to identify Armed
Forces personnel.
1972 SSA is required by law to issue Social Security
numbers to any legally admitted alien upon entry, and to obtain evidence
of age and citizenship or alien status and identity.
1972 SSA begins assigning Social Security numbers
and issuing cards centrally from Baltimore, and the area number assigned
is based on the mailing address zip code from the application.
1989 SSA program enables parents to automatically
obtain a Social Security number for a newborn infant when the birth
is registered with the state.
(Porter 1999)
What information does
the SSDI contain?
The SSDI contains the following information fields:
- Social Security number,
- Surname,
- Given Name,
- Date of Death,
- Date of Birth,
- Last Known Residence
- Location of Last Benefit
- Date and Place of Issuance
The Social Security
number is often a piece of information genealogists don’t have. This
number can enable you to order the individual’s Social Security application
or claims file, leading to a discovery of a birth place, a maiden name,
or parents’ names. Finding a birth and death date and Social Security
number can help in a request for a death certificate or obituary. The
SSDI can provide clues to the person’s residence when he or she first
received a Social Security card, or to a possible last residence. It
can provide a clue about where the lump-sum distribution beneficiary
lived. SSDI searches can help fill in the gaps on collateral lines,
especially for somewhat unusual surnames. (Porter 1999)
What do each of the fields
in the database mean?
Last Name:
Up to 128 characters.
(mckay, ‘smith or smyth’, larsen, …)
When searching for a name like O’Hare, or other names with punctuation
in them, enter the name without the punctuation (e.g. OHare).
First Name:
Up to 128 characters.
(randall, ‘david or dave’, martin, …)
The SSA does not normally include middle name/initial information in
the data, but there are many instances where such information was actually
included. For example, there are many instances of "J Jones"
included in the file. Most of them are initial "J" only, but
some include other names as well.
SSN:
Social Security Number
(###-##-####)
See the section on the meaning of the Social Security number.
State Issued:
Name of the State that issued the SSN.
In most cases, the first three numbers of the SSN are unique to a state
(i.e. they are only used for that state). For example, the number 232-xx-xxxx
was used in West Virginia and in North Carolina. In this case, there
will be a note that indicates that only the numerical series "232-30-xxxx"
was used in North Carolina and any other number except 30 was used for
West Virginia.
Birth Information:
Birth Date:
The date of birth
(01-31)
Birth Month:
The month of birth
Select the name of the month from the list.
Birth Year:
The year of birth (4 digits)
Note that the index contains dates of birth as early as (or perhaps
earlier than) 1800. Because the system was created in 1932, it would
be wise to suspect that birth dates earlier than 1850 or so were in
error.
The index also includes birth dates for several individuals who have
not been born yet (62 are listed as being born after 1995) indicating
the need to search combinations of years that an operator may have
mistyped (e.g. you may want to search in 1986 for someone who you
think died in 1968).
Death Information
Death Date:
The date of death
(01-31)
Note that before 1988, the date of death was seldom recorded (i.e.
only the Month and Year were recorded). Only 25% of the records have
death date information and all but 34,000 of those are after 1988.
This makes any death date before 1988 suspect.
Death Month:
The month of death
Death Year:
The year of death (4 digits)
Note that more than 1,000 entries are listed with a death before 1932
(the inception of the Social Security system) making these entries
suspect.
Just over 1,000,000 entries are listed with a death date before 1963.
This means that the vast majority of deaths listed are deaths after
1963.
Last Residence Location
The Last Residence is the place where the person
was last known to be living when the benefit was applied for.
While 77% of the records contain Last Residence information, a total
of 19% do not contain any Last Residence information.
City, County, State
While we believe that the majority of this information is correct,
there have been reports of incorrect cities being associated with
various zip codes. Also, since ZIP codes are subject to change over
time, please be sure to verify city names with other sources before
relying heavily upon them in further research efforts.
Here is another place you can go to look up ZIP codes and cross reference
them to names of neighboring cities/towns: http://www.usps.gov/ncsc/lookups/lookup_ctystzip.html
Last Benefit Information
City:
The city/town of either the Last Residence or the Lump Sum Payment.
County:
The county of either the Last Residence or the Lump Sum Payment.
State:
The state of either the Last Residence or the Lump Sum Payment.
What do the numbers in a Social
Security number mean?
A nine-digit
Social Security number is composed of three parts: the area number,
the group number, and the serial number.
The Area Number: The first three digits in a Social
Security number comprise the area number. Before 1972, this number identified
the state in which the applicant’s original Social Security card was
issued. Since 1972, all Social Security numbers have been assigned and
issued from one office in Baltimore, and the area number identifies
the mailing address zip code of the applicant. An applicant’s mailing
address, either before or after 1972 may not be the same as the residence.
The area number is merely an indicator that an applicant resided in
or used an address in a particular state at the time the Social Security
card was originally issued. A list of area numbers and corresponding
states is available on the SSA’s Internet web site at http://www.ssa.gov/.
The Group Number: The middle two digits of a Social
Security number range from 01 to 99, but they are not issued in consecutive
order. The SSA Internet site contains a frequently updated list of the
latest Group numbers issued within each area.
The Serial Number: The last four digits of a Social
Security number run serially from 0001 through 9999. (Porter 1999)
What other information is
available from the Social Security Administration?
The Social Security Administration has a microfilmed
copy of every individual’s original Social Security application (known
as the SS-5), as well as claims files. These documents contain additional
information not available in the SSDI such as birth place, maiden name,
and parents’ names. (Porter 1999)
More specifically, The application form (SS-5) contains
the following information:
- Full name
- Full name at birth (including maiden name)
- Present mailing address
- Age at last birthday
- Date of birth
- Place of birth (city, county, state)
- Father’s full name "regardless of whether
living or dead" - Mother’s full name, including maiden name, "regardless
of whether living or dead" - Sex and race
- Ever applied for SS number/Railroad Retirement
before? Yes/No - Current employer’s name and address
- Date signed
- Applicant’s signature
How can I get a copy of
the original records?
The Social Security
Administration makes copies of the original Social Security application
form (the SS-5) available to third parties who request information on
a deceased individual.
A standard letter
to the Social Security Administration is available with the search results
on the Ancestry.com Social Security Death Index. To generate the letter
simply click on the “write letter” link available with all search results
in Ancestry’s SSDI. This letter may be printed and mailed to the Social
Security Administration to request a copy of your ancestor’s SS-5 form.
The Social Security Administration charges $27.00 for each individual
copy ($16 for an abbreviated NUMIDENT form as opposed to the SS-5 itself).
Note:
Note: Not everyone who has, or has had, a Social Security card will
appear on the Social Security Death Index (SSDI). Many enrolled persons
are not listed either because their death was not reported to the SSA
or they are still living. If you haven’t found your deceased ancestor
on the SSDI, but he or she was likely enrolled with the Social Security
system, it may still be possible to get a photocopy of his or her original
SS-5.
To request this information, you will need to send
the name and Social Security number of the person you’re researching.
You might be able to locate the person’s Social Security number in the
following places:
- personal papers
- death certificate
- funeral home records
- records held by financial institutions
- voter registration rolls at county courthouse
- former employers of the individual
If those sources
don’t produce the number, you may request a "SSN search" with
the Social Security Administration. To request this service you must
send $29 and provide the following information: full name, state of
birth, and date of birth to:
Social Security Administration
OEO FOIA Workgroup
300 N. Green Street
P.O. Box 33022
Baltimore, Maryland 21290-3022
Providing names
of parents are also helpful, especially with common surnames. Be sure
also to provide proof of death, as the records of living individuals
are not publicly available.
