To be listed on the SSDI your surviving spouse must have applied for the $255 death benefit. -----Original Message----- From: md-baltimorecity-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:md-baltimorecity-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of GregoryRBurton@aol.com Sent: Thursday, November 23, 2006 5:19 AM To: md-baltimorecity@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [MD-BALTIMORECITY] Social Security Applications Social Security Applications may have been filed any time after Social Security started. SS# are needed now for bank accounts. My Great-Grandmother applied for a SS# in 1966, for a bank account. Someone who died in 1966 may or may not be listed in the SSDI. I have at least one cousin who died recently and is not listed in the SSDI, heard that he will not be listed there because he was on Social Security Disability. ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to MD-BALTIMORECITY-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

The requirements for having a Social Security number have changed over time, and I am pretty sure the criteria for being in the death index has too. Contrary to the message below, a death benefit is not required to be listed in the index. I had a friend who died in 1992 with no living relatives to receive a death benefit, and she is in the index. >From their web site, I believe it is currently a list of all deaths that are reported to the Social Security Administration. If a person received benefits while living, it is mandatory that their death be reported. Most funeral homes now voluntarily report deaths to SSA (I had erroneously thought that was a law.). Reporting requirements were not as stringent in the past, so more deaths are missing from earlier years. The list is kept by SSA as the Death Master File, as a way to verify that someone has died(and therefore their SSN is no longer valid) in order to prevent fraud. And we thought it was for our genealogical use. :-) Ancestry and others buy it from SSA and call it the SSDI. You can read more about it at http://www.ntis.gov/products/ssa-dmf.asp Note that they don't guarantee any of its correctness. John -----Original Message----- From: md-baltimorecity-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:md-baltimorecity-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Gayle Triller Sent: Thursday, November 23, 2006 11:49 AM To: md-baltimorecity@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [MD-BALTIMORECITY] Social Security Applications To be listed on the SSDI your surviving spouse must have applied for the $255 death benefit. -----Original Message----- From: md-baltimorecity-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:md-baltimorecity-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of GregoryRBurton@aol.com Sent: Thursday, November 23, 2006 5:19 AM To: md-baltimorecity@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [MD-BALTIMORECITY] Social Security Applications Social Security Applications may have been filed any time after Social Security started. SS# are needed now for bank accounts. My Great-Grandmother applied for a SS# in 1966, for a bank account. Someone who died in 1966 may or may not be listed in the SSDI. I have at least one cousin who died recently and is not listed in the SSDI, heard that he will not be listed there because he was on Social Security Disability. ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to MD-BALTIMORECITY-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to MD-BALTIMORECITY-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message