Thanks for the good info., William Something else folks may not know about the SS index.. If you cannot find your people on the Soc. Sec. death index. They may not have been on Soc. Sec. because they were farmers, teachers, railroad workers, military etc., especially before the 1950's when those occupations did not pay into the Social Security fund. Some of these occupations had their own pensions and were not eligible. NOT farmers, though and that is one of the reasons for social security being started. Also, some people never did file for pensions, or whose deaths were never filed, for whatever reasons and aren't on the the list. ( for instance, deaths in a foreign country are not on the list, in some cases.) The rest of the story is that the Soc. Sec. death index uses only one name for the person. I have found first names, middle names and even nicknames, used. I even found one of my uncles with the wrong death date. SO... use these records the same way you would any other secondary source, VERIFY, VERIFY, VERIFY. They are good as far as they go. Just a little cheery note, to start your Monday morning <VBG> Sue