Frequently Asked Questions (2024)

Searching the Social Security Death Index(SSDI)in One Step
Frequently Asked Questions

Stephen P. Morse,San Francisco

1. How does your SSDI website differ from the others that are outon the web?

My site doesn't perform the search for you because I don't have asearchengine nor do I have a copy of the SSDI data. Instead I allow youto link to existing sites that do perform the searches. And foratleast one of them I provide added value (see question 11).

2. Why do you link to several different search engines forsearchingthe SSDI?

Because no one search engine supports all the parameters. TheAncestry engine can do a sounds-like search on the last name, but itcan'tsearch for a partial first name of less than three characters.Samefor the Rootsweb engine, but it can do two different kinds ofsounds-likesearches. The Lineages engine can search for a partial first nameof any length but cannot do a sounds like search on the last name andsupportsvery few other parameters. The Genealogy engine can do both asounds-likesearch on the last name and a search for a partial first name of anylength.The FamilyTreeLegends engine cannot search on a partial first name butit is the only one that can search on the age at death.

The FamilyTreeLegends engine and the Rootsweb engine are the onlyonesthat can search on the place that the last benefit was paid. Andthe FamilyTreeLegends engine and the Lineages engine are the only onesthat supports a range of years for birth and death.

So your choice of search engine would depend on the type of searchthatyou want to perform. If you like, you can use one search engineforone search and then easily switch to another search engine for thenext.

If I had to make a recommendation, it would be for RootsWeb Plus(seequestion 11).

[ Second thoughts: The above description of the various searchengines is hopelessly out of date, and I have no intentions of revisingit. And RootsWeb Plus is no longer operational. My newrecommendation for a search engine is the new RootsWeb.]

[Third thoughts: As of December 2011, the new RootsWeb search enginefor the SSDI was pulled from the web. That was a big loss becauseit was by far the best one, and there was no close second. So Inolonger have a recommendation for a search engine, and you mustexplicitly select a search engine on my form (my form used to defaultto RootsWeb)

3. Which search parameters are supported by which search engines?

I created the following chart back in 2002, so by 2010 it hadbecome hopelessly out of date. Thanks to Pamela Boyer Sayre forupdatingit.


	Ancestry	Family Search (note 4)	Family Search 2	FamilyTree Legends	Genealogy (note 4)	Genealogy Bank	Lineages (note 4)	NEHGS	RootsWeb	RootsWeb (new) (note 4)	RootsWeb Plus (notes 1, 4)	World Vital Records
sounds-like for last name	(note 2)	(note 2)	(note 2)	soundex metaphone	soundex	none	none	soundex	soundex metaphone	soundex metaphone	soundex metaphone	none
last name optional	yes	yes	yes	no	yes	yes	no	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
partial last name	at least 1st 3 chars	no	yes	at least 1st 3 chars	yes	yes	no	no	at least 1st 3 chars	yes	at least 1st char	no
sounds-like for first name	none	none	(note 2)	none	none	none	none	none	none	none	none	none
first name optional	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	no	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
partial first name	at least 1st 3 chars	no	yes	no	yes	yes	start of name only	no	at least 1st 3 chars	yes	at least 1st char	no
middle initial	yes	no	no	yes	no	yes	no	no	yes	yes	yes	no
middle name	yes	no	no	no	no	no	no	no	yes	yes	no	no
birth date	yes	year only (note 3)	year only	yes	yes	year only	year only	no	yes	yes	yes	year only (note 3)
death date	yes	year only (note 3)	year only	yes	yes	year only	year only	no	month and year only	yes	yes	year only (note 3)
range of years	no	yes	yes	yes	no	yes	yes	no	no	yes	yes	no
age at death	no	no	no	yes	no	no	no	no	no	yes	yes	no
range of ages	no	no	no	no	no	no	no	no	no	yes	no	no
soc sec number	yes	yes	no	yes	yes	yes	no	yes	yes	yes	yes	no
issuer state	yes	yes	no	yes	no	no	no	no	yes	yes	yes	yes
last residence (domestic)	yes	no	no	yes	state and zip only	yes	state only	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
consulate	no	no	no	no	no	no	no	no	no	yes	no	no
last benefit	no	no	no	yes	no	no	no	no	yes	yes	yes	yes
partial zipcode	no	no	no	no	no	resid only	no	no	no	yes	no	no
shows all matches	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	only first 75	no	yes	yes	yes	yes
displays age	no	no	no	yes	no	no	no	no	no	yes	yes	no
partial SS number	no	no	no	yes	no	no	no	(note 5)	no	yes	no	no
hits/page	50	200	variable (note 7)	10	10	10	75	10 (note 6)	20	variable	variable	25

note 1: See question 11 for a discussion of RootsWebPlus.
note 2: Finds similar names but does not use soundex. Forexample, searching for Mors will find Moore.
note 3: Can specify either a birth date or a death date but notboth
note 4: No longer exists
note 5: Can omit either the second or third fields of social securitynumber but not both
note 6: Can be increased to 25 or 50 after first search
note 7: Applies to first page of results only

4. What is soundex?

Soundex involves assigning a numeric code to a name based on itspronunciation.Names that have similar pronunciations would be given the same code. Asoundex search would return all names having the same soundex code asthedesired name. So such a search would return the all names thatexactlymatch the desired name as well as all similar sounding names.

5. What is metaphone?

Metaphone is an alternate sounds-like search that is supported bysomeof the search engines. Unlike soundex which encodes on aletter-by-letterbasis, metaphone encodes groups of letters. As such, it moreaccuratelyembodies the rules of English pronunciation.

6. My aunt died a few years ago but I can't find her record inthedatabase. Is this a complete list of everyone who died?

When a person dies, the funeral home or the family sends in a formtonotify the Social Security Administration about the death.Usuallythe person is entered in the SSDI database at that time. Howeverevery month the Social Security Administration runs a program to checkfor all death certificates issued that month. If it finds outaboutthe death from this program prior to being notified about the death bythe funeral home or family member, then the person's name will neverappearin the SSDI. I know, this sounds very strange, and the logicbehindit escapes me. But I have been told this by a Social Securityemployee,and I have no reason to doubt him.

Of course even if the proper notification was made to the SocialSecurityAdministration, it might take a few months before the online versionsofthe SSDI database are updated to include that death.

7. My father died in 1950 and the Social Security Administrationwas notified punctually, but I can't find his record. Are theearlierrecords missing?

Many deaths in the 1950s are not in the SSDI because they wererecordedin an old format. However you can obtain these records by callingthe Social Security Administration directly on their toll-free numberat1-800-772-1213.

8. Are the databases used by the different search engines thesame?

In theory the answer is yes since they all get their data from thesamesource -- namely the Social Security Administration. Of coursetheremight be a different delay in the various search engines in when theyupdatetheir database, so one might be more recent than another (see question10 for more details). But that's only temporary. Other thanthe updating, the only difference between the search engines is theparametersthat they search on.

9. Once I find the record, how do I obtain the actual document?

You can obtain the original social security application by writingtothe Social Security Administration at the following address:

Social Security Administration
OEO FOIA Workgroup
300 N. Greene Street
P.O. Box 33022
Baltimore, Maryland 21290-3022

You can obtain either a photocopy of the original application(currently$27, used to be only $7) or an abbreviated printout ($16).

10 How frequently is this data updated and how recent is it?

The Social Security Administration generates updates monthly.Of course it's up to the individual search engine as to how frequentlythey chose to update their database. To get an idea of howfrequentlyeach one does it, here is some empirical results based on searching forSMITH at the date of this writing (May 19, 2005). The most recententries that I found for each search engine are as follows:


Ancestry	April 2005
Family Search	January 2005
Family Tree Legends	September 2003
Genealogy	November 1997
Lineages	-- no longer online --
NE Ancestors	April 2005
RootsWeb	April 2005

11. What is RootsWeb Plus?

As discussed in questions 2 and 3, no search engine isperfect.Each has a different flaw. RootsWeb Plus is my attempt togenerateone search engine that combines the desirable features of all theothers.

I used the RootsWeb search engine as my starting point.HoweverRootsWeb has the following failings:

Requires at least three characters for a partial first nameor partial last name
Does not allow you to search on a range of birth years or a range ofdeath years
Does not allow you to search on age at death
Does not allow you to specify a foreign last residence
Does not allow you to specify the day of month for the death (doesallow it for birth)
Does not allow you specify how many hits you want displayed per page
Does not display the age as part of the results

So I developed my own software that modifies the behavior of theRootsWebsearch engine in order to rectify the above defects. I call thatRootsWebPlus.

However a caveat is in order. The way my software searches onbirth and death ranges is to do repeated searches for each year in therange. Same for partial first and last names of less than threecharacters.If you use too many of these features together, the number of repeatedsearches can get quite large and the time taken might getprohibitive.So use these combinations prudently.

[Second thoughts: Rootsweb started blocking my IP address so I am nolonger able to offer RootsWeb Plus.]

-- Steve Morse