I do know this. A friend of mine had not known where her mother was for about 20 years. I helped her find that her mother had a Social Security #. Thus, we found out that she could contact Social Security, explain the situation and they would find out if her mother wanted to hear from her. Her mother did. She was living w/one of her sons, in a wheelchair and was in an abusive situation. My friend brought her to her home. She took care of her mother for some years until her mother died. Jeannie from OR

Your friend was very lucky. My sister tried using my grandfather's SS# to find his place of death. But was told by SS that they did not give out information on living persons. My sister then told them that the family had received word of his death in the 1960's. She further asked after several contacts with SS if they would forward a letter to the person using his name and SS#. They refused. We did some further searching and I was able to track down via the Department of Vital Statistics in California that he had indeed died in 1950...some 10 years prior to someone calling my mother and her siblings asking for money to bury their estranged father. My sister notified SS of our proof of his death via his death certificate...she has not heard from them again... Lys ----- Original Message ----- From: <Jeannabee@aol.com> To: <IL-OBITS-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Monday, May 30, 2005 3:14 PM Subject: Re: [IL-OBITS] RE: So Sec death index >I do know this. A friend of mine had not known where her mother was for > about 20 years. I helped her find that her mother had a Social Security > #. > Thus, we found out that she could contact Social Security, explain the > situation > and they would find out if her mother wanted to hear from her. Her > mother > did. She was living w/one of her sons, in a wheelchair and was in an > abusive > situation. My friend brought her to her home. She took care of her > mother > for some years until her mother died. > > Jeannie from OR