The Social Security Death Index (SSDI), available free from Rootsweb, can help you trace your family tree. It will tell you the month and year a person died, their birth date, where they were living when they died, and the state where they got their social security card. But with over 83 million records, finding a specific person can, at times, be like looking for that proverbial needle in a haystack.
A few hints can help make it a much more productive (and less frustrating) tool.
Recently I was using GenSmarts (a program I wrote about recently). It suggested that I check the SSDI for Margaret Kathryn Bristow, my 1st cousin twice removed. She was born on 24 Sep 1905, married Robert Stephens Collette when she was about 20 and died on 24 Nov 1984.
The basic SSDI search for Margaret Collette found 16 possibilities. However, none were born in 1905. It was time to move the search to the ‘advanced’ level.
There are two reasons to do an advanced search – which doesn’t require any ‘advanced’ skills but does benefit from a little strategy.
First, the basic search may give you too many records to look through. Second, it may have given you no records at all.
For example, search for ‘John Smith’ and you’ll 17,499 of them – not very useful when you’re trying to find a specific person. On the other hand, searching for ‘Margaret Collette’ alone did not find my cousin.
First I took out her first name and put in the year of her birth. That search returned 33 possibilities. If a search comes back with more 20 results, I find it’s faster to narrow the search more. The advanced search form is at the bottom of the page and all the information you entered is still there. Just add another piece of the puzzle and hit “Submit” again.
The new advanced search came back with only two names. I knew the one for Robert wasn’t my cousin. But the other, for “M Collette,” hit the nail on the head. She was born on 24 Sep 1905 and died in Nov 1984. Her last residence matched what I had for my Margaret’s place of death. Bingo. I found her.
Sometimes it’s a little more difficult. In fact, sometimes no matter what you try, you can’t find the person you’re looking for. Most of the deaths in the index were after 1962. And, of course, it won’t include someone if they didn’t participate in the Social Security system.
After my maternal grandmother died in 1922, my grandfather married Frances Valentine Austin. Her brother was Charles Owen Austin. When I searched just for “Charles Austin” there were 593 possible results. He was born 1 Aug 1905 in Ontario, Canada. Most records say he died ‘about 1977′ in Vancouver, Washington. I’ve not been able to figure out why no one knows the date more specifically or why the online Washington state death records don’t show any record of his death.
I started narrowing the search by using just his name and the year of his birth – 6 people met those criteria but none were him. How about looking for a Charles Austin with a last residence in Vancouver and no dates? Nothing. How about searching for any Austin born in 1905? That spit back 756 results. Whoops! Too many. What if I narrow the search to people with the last name Austin who were born in August 1905 and who died in 1977? Three results – but none were him. Hmm. I then tried other variations. How about any Austin who died in 1977 in Washington state? Any Austin born in 1905 who died in Washington? Maybe he was actually living across the river in Oregon? Nothing. Nothing. And nothing.
Maybe he never had a social security card? Maybe he changed his name – perhaps he was in the witness protection program or something? Well, that’s research for the future. Sometimes you win. Sometimes you lose. But it’s always worth playing with the SSDI advanced search. Keep it as general as you can. Then add one variable at a time until you narrow the list to where it’s small enough that you can see if the person you’re looking for is on it. Get rid of first names. And remember that the index is based on the person’s name at the time they died – if a woman remarried and changed her name, look for that name.
Happy hunting! For more information and help on searching for family roots, check out the FamilySearch website of the LDS Church.
Sphere: Related ContentRelated articles from WalterBristow.com:
Loading ...
