It would have been nice if all of our antecedants could have been born after Social Security (or any other country's counterpart) had come into existence. Social Security applications are filled out by the recipient of the number applied for. One would think that the information on them would certainly be correct. However, if a person has a tendency to fudge, I suppose it can be done on those records, too. I have not, nonetheless, found information in those records to be in error. But I have found errors on both birth and death records, as well as marriage and census records, but actually more on death records than birth and marriage ones. I thought it might have to do with a parent giving the data for the birth, and the happy couple supplying marriage data, while a death, especially when the decedent is elderly, is left to the mercy of grandchildren or children who are not always very perceptive about facts or spelling. Good Luck, Jeanne