Early in the history of Social Security, people who were farmers or otherwise self-employed were not required to have SS numbers, hence you may not find the death of your ancestor/spouse in the death index if (s)he fell in one of these two categories. RR had their own, and somehow got exempted from SS, unless the person had worked elsewhere as well. Those groups are now required to have SS numbers and have had to for several years. For awhile, if a person died and no one claimed the death benefit, or if they hadn't been old enough to collect SS, they may not have appeared on the index. Someone told me recently that everybody is now showing up, but I think it's because the Funeral homes are becoming very diligent about turning in the form for families. Karen