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Using Social Security Death Index (SSDI) For Family Tree Research

The Social Security Death Index (SSDI) generally carry the name connected with an individual who has had a SSN and their deaths were recorded to the social security administration. Because most of the social security death records carry millions of names with people who lived within the given area, it is one of the better tools available for researching one’s family tree.

Social security public records are instrumental in helping one to discover the actual location of birth, death and last place of residence. The information will give you access to birth, death and marriage certificates, which could help you determine the maiden name of your female relative. One can also discover the occupation of the individual they are trying to find as well as the past address where their final social security benefits monthly payment was sent.

After finding out the details about an individual, to determine the place of death, you may then look for their obituaries within the news archives to get more leads about the family unit. Additionally, by knowing the actual SSN of an individual, it will be possible to know the place of residence, since the first few numbers of the social security number tend to be an indicator of the actual state the number was initially given in. This can help you to recognise which part of the country to continue the research to be able to search for your family genealogy.

Easy access to the database for social security can be done with the use of one of a number of web sites readily available. To get the information and facts required through the websites, most of them will ask you to fill out an application requesting to search through the records.

In many instances, you only require the surname of the individual to look through the online methods. To limit the list, one can add the first name and estimated age of someone. Most of the internet sites allow free access to the database, although there are some web sites that charge a modest payment for one to gain access to the data source.

A few selected recommendations for searching through the database is to apply the surname of the person. Typically, the person’s middle name isn’t noted in the data source since the first name and last name are generally what are put down within the records. Additionally, for web sites which have a sound search feature (also known as soundex), it is possible to search for misspellings in cases where the surnmame might have been alternate variations. For women who had been married, try looking for both their maiden names and married names. You can also search the data source with the last known physical address of an person along with the last known location of residence. Also, a person can employ the last known place of death of an person to search through the records.

SSDI records usually carry the names of individuals who died since 1937 .

Amy J Woodland is an associate editor with GenealogyKnowHow.com, a family genealogy website featuring access to historic newspaper archives and obituaries. Visit to receive your free copy of the Genealogy Research Checklist to aid your family tree research.

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