The Social Security Administration has issued more than 392 million numbers, and more than five million new numbers are assigned each year. An excellent source for 20th century genealogical data, the Social Security Death Index (SSDI) can provide you with birth and death dates, last residence, and benefit information.

The SSDI is generally available to search free of charge, and can be found at RootsWeb, Ancestry, and other genealogy portals on the 'Net. I particularly prefer to use the one on RootsWeb, which offers a unique Post-Em feature which I will describe later.

The bad news is that NOT everyone with a Social Security number who died is listed in the database. There are several reasons for this, some examples include: the surviving relatives or funeral home did not report the death to the Social Security Administration; or the person died before 1962 when the records were first computerized.

There are a couple of useful ways to utilize the SSDI database. The first, and most common, is to simply type in the first and last name of the individual. A place is also provided for their Social Security Account Number, if you know it. This will generally not be the case, because if you are close enough to the individual to know their number, you probably already know the information that's in the database.

I used a ficticious ancestor, STUART BLUEBLOOD, below as an example. Pay careful attention to the first table that appears as a summary. The data there will tell you how many people with that last name appear in the database. This can be useful for subsequent searches.

Field	Value	Records	Results
Last Name	BLUEBLOOD	366	366
First Name	STUART	11481	1

The next table reveals the results of my search. As you can see, I have found Stuart's date of birth, date of death, and last known residence. The Last Benefit column shows 'none specified', meaning no address location was entered. I also get his Social Security Number and the state where it was issued.

Results 1 thru 1 of 1

The last columns, Tools, provides you with the power to get even more information. I previously mentioned the Add Post-Em feature, unique to RootsWeb, without explaining it. Here is where you can identify an individual, post a note about them to the database, including your name and email address as a point of contact. Click on Add Post-Em and complete that form. The next time someone researches this STUART BLUEBLOOD they will get my name and email address to correspond with. Now, that's a Power Tool!

The SS-5 Letter feature builds a formatted letter to request a copy of the actual application completed to get the SSN. Note that you need to be connected to a printer to use this feature.

Are you ready to try the SSDI yourself? The form below links directly to the database on RootsWeb, courtesy of the friendly folks who operate the site.

Selecting the 'Advanced Search' button allows you to specify more descriptive information about the individual. This is another great way to use the database. Using this feature, I can get ALL the Blueblood's in Alabama by omitting the first name and putting in the state.

For more interesting facts about Social Security Numbers and the SSDI, check out the links below:

A Guide To Using The SSDI. Part of RootsWeb's guide to tracing family trees.
'The First SSN' and 'The Lowest Number'. Who received the first Social Security card, and who got the lowest number? Find out by reading this interesting piece of Social Security history.
Social Security Cards Issued by Woolworth. The story of the most misused number of all time. . .