SSDI's New Companion: U.S. Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007

Good morning!

Last week, Ancestry.com released a new companion database to the Social Security Death Index. The U.S. Social Security Applications and Claims Index includes abstracts of application claims. Some of the information included valuable for genealogists are parent's names, birthplaces and birthdates.

RS

More about the Social Security Death Index

More about the Social Security Death Index...read what the Connecticut Ancestry February eNews has to say:

On a different topic, one of the important record sets used by

genealogists nationwide is under threat. Both the House of

Representatives and the Senate, have introduced bills which supposedly

are aimed at curbing identity theft. However, they contain incorrect

information about the role that the Social Security Master Death File

(known to genealogists as the Social Security Death Index or SSDI) is

playing in identity theft. The Subcommittee for Social Security of the

Committee for Ways and Means of the House of Representatives held a

hearing in early February on the subject. The committee allowed

testimony at the hearing only from people they invited to speak. Every

single speaker declared, with no documentation, that the SSDI was a

major cause of identify theft and that it needs to be closed to the

public. Not a single voice was permitted to state the facts: the SSDI

was created to prevent identity theft, that the financial institutions

and the Internal Revenue Service are not using it properly, that proper

use (comparing SSNs for tax returns or new bank accounts to the SSDI

will identify SSNs that have already been used) will prevent fraud, that

these institutions must follow the rules that are already in place and

the misuse of SSNs will no longer be a problem.



We in Connecticut know that having open records does not contribute to

crimes of identity theft. The rate of such crimes is no higher here than

elsewhere in the country. It is very important that we, the genealogy

community, express our opinions about this outrageously skewed idea of

where the problem actually lies. The Records Preservation and Access

Committee (RPAC) has created a kit to help us understand the problem and

take action to prevent restrictions on open records. You can find the

information here. http://www.fgs.org/rpac/sddi-call-to-action-kit/



This is extremely important. If this database is closed, I believe it

will be just the beginning of closing multiple resources to us. We

cannot let it happen. Please sign the petition (which would take the

matter out of the hand of Congress and put it into the hands of the

Executive Branch). The deadline is March 8, so please act immediately. I

have heard reports of some technical difficulties with the petition, but

please be persistent. Also, contact your congress member and your

senators.



We should not be persuaded by Congress's incorrect information. The SSDI

is not a major tool for identity theft, and any few incidents could be

prevented by tightening the rules. We, and all the members of the

public, have a right to use this resource as it was originally intended.

RootsWeb no longer has social security death index

When you access the Social Security Death Index from our databases page, you get the following:

"Due to sensitivities around the information in this database, the Social Security Death Index collection is not available on our free Rootsweb service but is accessible to search on Ancestry.com. Visit the Social Security Death Index page to be directly connected to this collection"

When you link to "Social Security Death Index page" from that page, you go into ancestry.  You can search.  I looked for my mother and got the following:

Beatrice Porter date dd mm 2008 city, Harris, Texas

If you click on anything, you are asked to join.

You can still find the death index on the http://www.familysearch.org/ site.  Looking for my mother found the following:

U.S. Social Security Death Index for Beatrice Porter


First Name: Beatrice

Middle Name:

Last Name: Porter

Name Suffix:

Birth Date: 4 May 1912

Social Security Number: 456-80-0951

Place of Issuance: Texas

Last Residence: Houston, Harris, Texas

Zip Code of Last Residence: 77057

Death Date: 27 March 2008

Estimated Age at Death: 96


Jane

Important Changes Made to the Public Death Master File (DMF) and the Social Security Death Index (SSDI)

November 02, 2011
Important Changes Made to the Public Death Master File (DMF) and the Social Security Death Index (SSDI)

Effective yesterday, 01 November 2011, the Social Security Administration (SSA) changed its policy on what records it will use as source material for adding new entries in the Public Death Master File (DMF) which, in turn, is used to create the Social Security Death Index (SSDI).

The Agency decided that it can no longer use state death records to add new entries to the DMF. Furthermore, the SSA will remove approximately 4.2 million records currently on the SSDI because those entries were made based on information from state death records.

You can read a lot more about the new changes in Steve Danko's blog at http://stephendanko.com/blog/15164 as well as from a Fact Sheet from the Social Security Administration’s website at http://ssa-custhelp.ssa.gov/ci/fattach/get/601/

JMR

Deceased Individuals Social Security Applications

Social Security Applications for deceased individuals can now be ordered on-line with a credit card. Go to:
https://secure.ssa.gov//apps9/eFOIA-FEWeb/internet/main.jsp

Thanks to Lynna Kay who provided this information and website for our patrons use.

Susan