What information does the SSDI contain?
• Social Security number, • Surname, • Given Name, • Date of Death, • Date of Birth, • Last Known Residence • Location of Last Benefit • Date and Place of Issuance The Social Security number is often a piece of information genealogists don’t have. This number can enable you to order the individual’s Social Security application or claims file, leading to a discovery of a birth place, a maiden name, or parents names. Finding a birth and death date and Social Security number can help in a request for a death certificate or obituary. The SSDI can provide clues to the person’s residence when he or she first received a Social Security card, or to a possible last residence. It can provide a clue about where the lump-sum distribution beneficiary lived. SSDI searches can help fill in the gaps on collateral lines, especially for somewhat unusual surnames. (Porter 1999) What do each of the fields in the database mean? Last Name: Up to 128 characters. (mckay, ‘smith or smyth’, larsen, …) When se
