In a message dated 2/8/2005 8:19:44 AM Eastern Standard Time, tkfarrowwelker@wowway.com writes: 1) Through the SS death index I have identified an individual having died in ohio in 1982. It notes the last benefits were paid in Mt. Dora Florida. Does this mean his wife moved to Florida and is now collecting benefits? 2) I cannot locate his wife including in the SS death index. Can I assume she is living since she is not in the index? 3) I live in Ohio as did the individual I am trying to identify. Though I have a date of death there was no obituary. I would rather not pay $15.00 for a certified death certificate but that is all Ohio offers. Does anyone know of any other means of tracking this without paying for the certificate? Thank you, Teresa Farrow --- Teresa- You can't assume much from the last benefit location. I'd suggest reading the RootsWeb Guide lesson on SSDI on this very topic which includes the following notation about Florida addresses: "Consider the possibility that a person might have had two official residences also; many "snowbirds" do." See: http://www.rootsweb.com/~rwguide/lesson10.htm You might try contacting Social Security--they won't give you someone's address but they WILL forward a letter for you if they have a current address for someone and you send a request to them to forward the letter to the person. Of course, if the person is no longer living, they can't forward the message for you. Just because you haven't found the person in the SSDI is no guarantee that they are still living--the SSDI is not all-inclusive. Again, for more information read the above guide lesson. Joan