The Social Security Death Index (SSDI) was a database of death records created from the United States Social Security Administration's Death Master File until 2014. Since 2014, public access to the updated Death Master File has been via the Limited Access Death Master File certification program instituted under Title 15 Part 1110. Most persons who have died since 1936 who had a Social Security Number (SSN) and whose death has been reported to the Social Security Administration are listed in the SSDI. [1] [2] For most years since 1973, the SSDI includes 93 percent to 96 percent of deaths of individuals aged 65 or older. [3] It was frequently updated; the version of June 22, 2011 contained 89,835,920 records. [4]
Unlike the Death Master File, the SSDI is available to the public at many online genealogy websites. The SSDI is a popular tool for genealogists and biographers because it contains valuable genealogical data. It is also useful for medical research such as clinical trials and epidemiology, because where survival data is missing from medical records (for reasons such as loss to follow-up), the SSDI can be used to backfill it.[ citation needed ]
Data in the Social Security Death Index include:
Once a deceased person is found in the database, the person's application for Social Security card (Form SS-5) can be ordered from the Social Security Administration. The SS-5 may contain additional genealogical data, such as birthplace, father's name, and mother's full maiden name or that information may be blacked out.
A recent government audit revealed that the Social Security Administration had incorrectly listed 23,000 people as dead in a two-year period. These people have sometimes faced difficulties in convincing government agencies that they are actually alive; a 2008 story in the Nashville area focused on a woman who was incorrectly flagged as dead in the Social Security computers in 2000 and has had difficulties, such as having health insurance canceled and electronically filed tax returns rejected. This story also noted that people in this situation can be highly vulnerable to identity theft because of the release of their Social Security numbers. [5]
In November 2011, due to privacy and identity theft concerns, the Social Security Administration redacted and no longer included death data derived from State sources. This resulted in an approximately 33% drop in reported deaths. [6]
On December 18, 2011, Ancestry.com, changed access to the SSDI by moving the SSDI search behind a paywall, and stopped displaying the Social Security information of people who had died within the past 10 years. Some of their originally free information is now available via paid subscription only. [7] However, other sites still provide free access.
In March 2012, the entire Death Master File, edition of November 30, 2011, was made available for download. [8] A more recent version was made available May 31, 2013. Updates are also available by a subscription service. However, prices for both the full file and the updates are in the business-only range, not what most hobbyists (such as amateur genealogists) would be willing to pay.
A review by the Government Accountability Office in 2013 found that the Social Security Administration and other federal benefit-paying agencies that use data from the Death Master File are potentially vulnerable to making improper payments due to errors or processes that could lead to errors. [9]
Genealogy is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigrees of its members. The results are often displayed in charts or written as narratives. The field of family history is broader than genealogy, and covers not just lineage but also family and community history and biography.
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an "independent federal agency of the United States government within the executive branch", charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It is also tasked with increasing public access to those documents which make up the National Archive. NARA is officially responsible for maintaining and publishing the legally authentic and authoritative copies of acts of Congress, presidential directives, and federal regulations. NARA also transmits votes of the Electoral College to Congress. It also examines Electoral College and Constitutional amendment ratification documents for prima facie legal sufficiency and an authenticating signature.
FamilySearch is a nonprofit organization and website offering genealogical records, education, and software. It is operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and is closely connected with the church's Family History Department. The Family History Department was originally established in 1894 as the Genealogical Society of Utah (GSU) and is the largest genealogy organization in the world.
A one-name study is a project researching a specific surname, as opposed to a particular pedigree or descendancy. Some people who research a specific surname may restrict their research geographically and chronologically, perhaps to one country and time period, while others may collect all occurrences world-wide for all time.
The Death Master File (DMF) is a computer database file made available by the United States Social Security Administration since 1980. It is known commercially as the Social Security Death Index (SSDI). The file contains information about persons who had Social Security numbers and whose deaths were reported to the Social Security Administration from 1962 to the present; or persons who died before 1962, but whose Social Security accounts were still active in 1962. As of 2018, the file contained information on 111 million deaths.
Social Security Disability Insurance is a payroll tax-funded federal insurance program of the United States government. It is managed by the Social Security Administration and designed to provide monthly benefits to people who have a medically determinable disability that restricts their ability to be employed. SSDI does not provide partial or temporary benefits but rather pays only full benefits and only pays benefits in cases in which the disability is "expected to last at least one year or result in death." Relative to disability programs in other countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the SSDI program in the United States has strict requirements regarding eligibility.
Thomas Steven Moldvay was an American game designer and author, best known for his work on early materials for the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons (D&D).
The Master Genealogist (TMG) is genealogy software originally created by Bob Velke for Microsoft DOS in 1993, with a version for Microsoft Windows released in 1996. Data entry was customized through the use of user-defined events, names, and relationship types. Official support for TMG ceased at the end of 2014. Informal support continues through a number of online user groups.
A government database collects information for various reasons, including climate monitoring, securities law compliance, geological surveys, patent applications and grants, surveillance, national security, border control, law enforcement, public health, voter registration, vehicle registration, social security, and statistics.
Family History Centers (FHCs) are branches of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The centers supply resources for research and study of genealogy and family history. As of 2020, there are more than 5,100 FHCs in 145 countries.
SharePoint is a web-based collaborative platform that integrates natively with Microsoft Office. Launched in 2001, SharePoint is primarily sold as a document management and storage system, but the product is highly configurable and its usage varies substantially among organizations.
Customer Account Data Engine (CADE) is the name of two Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tax processing systems, used for filing United States income tax returns. Work on the original CADE, designed to replace the Individual Master File (IMF) system, was begun in 2000 and stopped in 2009. The original CADE is in active use; for instance, in 2009, it was used to process over 40 million tax returns.
FreeBMD is a UK-based charitable organisation and website founded in 1998, and established as charity in 2003 to create a free transcription of the indexes to Births, Marriages and Deaths (BMD) for England and Wales from 1837 to 1983. It also provides on-line access to images of the pages of the BMD indexes. Since 2014 FreeBMD has been part of Free UK Genealogy.
Findmypast is a UK-based online genealogy service owned, since 2007, by British company DC Thomson. The website hosts billions of searchable records of census, directory and historical record information. It originated in 1965 when a group of genealogists formed a group named "Title Research". The first internet website went live in 2003.
Heritage Microfilm, Inc. is a preservation microfilm and microfilm digitization business located in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
TheGenealogist is a family history website that provides subscriptions for researchers to help search genealogy records in the United Kingdom. The site is run by Genealogy Supplies (Jersey) Ltd which is part of the S&N Group. Among its accomplishments, the company has completely transcribed the England and Wales censuses from 1841 to 1911 inclusive. The site has been identified as among "the most prominent" subscription-based genealogy websites.
National Death Index (NDI) is a United States resource available to researchers from the USA National Center for Health Statistics to obtain death status or cause of death for deaths of USA citizens occurring within the USA.
GenealogyBank.com is an online subscription genealogical service that provides access to records useful in family history research. GenealogyBank is one of the largest collections of digitized U.S. newspapers, dating back to 1690. In addition to digital newspaper archives, GenealogyBank also offers other online genealogy resources including the Social Security Death Index, obituaries, government publications, and historical books.
WikiTree is a free, shared social-networking genealogy website that allows users individually to research and to contribute to their own personal family trees while building and collaborating on a singular worldwide family tree within the same system. Chris Whitten, developer of the WikiAnswers website, set up WikiTree in 2008; the site is owned and hosted by Interesting.com, Inc.
Reclaim The Records is a non-profit organization and activist group that advocates for greater transparency and accessibility for genealogical, archival, and vital records in the United States. They use state Freedom of Information requests and lawsuits to force government agencies, archives, and libraries to provide copies of previously inaccessible records to the public. Reclaim The Records then digitizes and publishes the records online for free public use, without any copyrights or usage restrictions.
These websites may require subscription/registration to search or get results
