If you are not familiar with the social security death index also known as SSDI then you may be a little confused. In this article I am going to talk with you a little bit more about the social security death index as well as some other issues that may affect you.
The SSDI is a database that contains the death records of most people that have died since 1962. It can only list those people that have had a social security number and whose death was reported to the Social Security Administration.
The information on the SSDI is gathered from the United States Social Security Administration’s Death Master file and this information, unlike that off the Death Master file is available online for free through several different popular genealogy websites. This tool is most commonly used by genealogist and biographers since it contains genealogical data which is very valuable.
You will be surprised at the amount of information that is available through the SSDI. The given name and surname, their birth date, the month and year of their death, their social security number, state their social security number was issued and the last place they resided before their death according to zip-code.
If you are searching through the social security death index you may find it a little frustrating since it is such a big index and there are many people that could have the same name as the person that you are looking for.
There are a few different tips that will be able to help you find the information on the person that you are looking for so that you will be able to get the information that is needed and get on with your life.
When you are searching it is important that you do not include the middle initial of the person that you are searching for. You may think this is going to narrow down the records but it will not allow any records to show up unless they are from the 1990s and later since this is when they started to put the initial into the database.
If you are searching for a female you should look for her under her maiden name.
It is important that you do not narrow your search down too much to start with. You should start with decently wide search criteria and then you can narrow it down later. Starting with just the birth date and the name could be enough for some people but if it is not you can add a little more information at a time. If you add too much information you may not return any results.
There is also a helpful feature that will allow you to locate names that sound like in case you are not sure about a name that could have been misspelled. This is called “Soundex Search” and since there could have been a filing error it is very helpful when you are searching for someone in the social security death index.