Thank you, BJ, for this clarification. Eastman certainly did NOT write up his article in a way that sufficiently explained the issue behind this decision. Linda in Costa Rica Monroe County, New York Genealogy http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~monroenys Monroe County, New York History http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~monroenys -----Original Message----- From: BJ Sent: Monday, 07 November, 2011 9:00 AM To: ftm-tech@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [FTM-TECH] Ancestry down for Maintenance? According to a Social Security Administration fact sheet this is the change and the reason for the change. *Q: What change is SSA making to the Public DMF?* *A: *We began disclosing certain state records on the Public DMF in 2002.**After review of the Public DMF, we have determined that we can no longer disclose protected State records. Section 205(r) of the Social Security Act prohibits SSA from disclosing State death records we receive through our contracts with the States, except in limited circumstances. Therefore, we cannot legally share those State records on the Public DMF. (Section 205r link - http://www.ssa.gov/OP_Home/ssact/title02/0205.htm) *Q: When will this change be effective?* *A:*November 1, 2011. *Q: How will this change affect the size of the Public DMF?* *A:*In 2010, we shared approximately 2.8 million death records, including updates or changes, on the Public DMF. We expect that yearly number to decrease by approximately 1 million. In addition, our historical Public DMF contains 89 million records. We expect that number to decrease by approximately 4.2 million records. You can find this fact sheet at http://ssa-custhelp.ssa.gov/app/answers/detail/a_id/286 At the bottom is a link to the fact sheet. You need to open the fact sheet using word or in my case Open Office. As you can see, it does not have any issues with the accuracy of the data but with privacy laws of the various states regarding release of birth and death information. I would also note that according to the fact sheet the DMF is published as an Annual compiling or as a Historical compiling. I suspect that most companies purchase the Annual compiling and simply update their data base with the new additions. If that is so, there is nothing requiring them to remove the 4.2 million records from their data base. On the other hand if a company loses their historical records and the purchases the SSA's Historical data base, those records would not be in the latest complete copy. BJ On 11/7/2011 1:59 AM, Linda H Gutierrez wrote: > Courtney, > > I think it is something like 4.2 million records that will be deleted from > the SSDI. As I understood it, the reasoning has to do with the new process > they will use for death verification. Apparently state issued death > records > are not sufficient proof and supposedly the 4.2 million records were based > on state death records. > > If you get Dick Eastman's newsletter you could have read it there. > http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2011/11/important-changes-made-to-the-public-death-master-file-dmf-and-the-social-security-death-index-ssdi.html **********************************