http://stephendanko.com/blog/15164 Changes to the Public Death Master File (DMF) and the Social Security Death Index (SSDI) Posted on November 1, 2011 by Steve Effective today, 01 November 2011, the Social Security Administration (SSA) changed its policy on what records it will use as source material for adding new entries in the Public Death Master File (DMF) which, in turn, is used to create the Social Security Death Index (SSDI). The Agency decided that it can no longer use state death records to add new entries to the DMF. Furthermore, the SSA will remove approximately 4.2 million records currently on the SSDI because those entries were made based on information from state death records. (more info on website) *************************************** I can't say for sure if this relates to the SSDI database on Ancestry, but if they also have to remove 4.2 million records, or just replace their current database with a new smaller one, and then remove any former links, I can see how it would present a BIG problem ! Courtney sitnah@cox.net

Ancestry buys the SSDI complete with index from the US government every month, so all they will do is replace the Old SSDI with the new one the government issues just like they replace them every month. No extra work for Ancestry at all. What may be a problem is all those links to the SSDI that people have added to their trees because if the link goes to one of the people that will be deleted from the government issued SSDI then there won't be anything to link to. -----Original Message----- From: Courtney <sitnah@cox.net> To: ftm-tech <ftm-tech@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sun, Nov 6, 2011 7:39 pm Subject: Re: [FTM-TECH] Ancestry down for Maintenance? http://stephendanko.com/blog/15164 Changes to the Public Death Master File (DMF) and the Social Security Death Index (SSDI) Posted on November 1, 2011 by Steve Effective today, 01 November 2011, the Social Security Administration (SSA) changed its policy on what records it will use as source material for adding new entries in the Public Death Master File (DMF) which, in turn, is used to create the Social Security Death Index (SSDI). The Agency decided that it can no longer use state death records to add new entries to the DMF. Furthermore, the SSA will remove approximately 4.2 million records currently on the SSDI because those entries were made based on information from state death records. (more info on website) *************************************** I can't say for sure if this relates to the SSDI database on Ancestry, but if they also have to remove 4.2 million records, or just replace their current database with a new smaller one, and then remove any former links, I can see how it would present a BIG problem ! Courtney sitnah@cox.net ********************************** List information page http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/other/Software/FTM-TECH.html Online Support for Family Tree Maker Version 16 and earlier http://pastftm.custhelp.com/ Version 2008 - 2011 http://ftm.custhelp.com/ ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to FTM-TECH-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

I think there are more connections also. When I go to a "hint" there is usually a sentence on the top right side of the page that says "These records may also be relevant to xxxxx" which has a list of link(s) to info that may connect to that person. Who knows what problems that could cause? Courtney sitnah@cox.net -------------------------------------------------- From: <aghatchett3rd@aim.com> > > Ancestry buys the SSDI complete with index from the US government every > month, so all they will do is replace the Old SSDI with the new one the > government issues just like they replace them every month. No extra work > for Ancestry at all. What may be a problem is all those links to the SSDI > that people have added to their trees because if the link goes to one of > the people that will be deleted from the government issued SSDI then there > won't be anything to link to. > > > >