Thanks. What a bummer. Funny something that sensitive is still available for money. On Mon, Dec 19, 2011 at 12:36 PM, Betty Ann Tyson <ba_tyson@comcast.net>wrote: > Family Tree Magazine, online, had an article about this. > > RootsWeb Removes its Free SSDI Database > Posted by Diane > > One of the free resources we've recommended for years to search the online > Social Security Death Index (SSDI) has been taken offline. > > RootsWeb's SSDI database is no longer available, with a message that > Due to sensitivities around the information in this database, the Social > Security Death Index collection is not available on our free Rootsweb > service but is accessible to search on Ancestry.com. > > The SSDI is a database of deaths reported to the Social Security > Administration, for the most part since 1962. A subscription is required to > use Ancestry.com's version of the SSDI, and genealogists including Randy > Seaver and Sheri Fenley report that Social Security numbers aren't provided > for deaths within the past 10 years. > > You might think genealogists wouldn't be concerned with such a recent > death, > but someone who died in 2002 might've been born in 1920, and his or her > application for an SSN (called an SS-5) could name parents born in the > 1800s. Plus, the SSDI is useful for tracing family lines forward in time to > find distant cousins. > > Randy lists other sources of the SSDI, which include the free FamilySearch > site. > > If you don't have a deceased person's SSN, you still can request his or her > SS-5. You'll need to provide a birth date, any other names the person used, > and the parents' names, and pay $29 instead of $27. You now can request an > SS-5 online. > > The "sensitivities" RootsWeb refers to are likely related to a recent news > story about criminals using SSNs of deceased individuals to commit tax > fraud. (Couldn't the IRS prevent this by comparing SSNs on tax forms to > numbers in the SSDI?) > > Read more on recent SSDI changes, which include a reduction in the number > of > new deaths that'll be included in this database, here. > > ************************************ > > That one does not exist, and the old one at ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com has > changed. > > On Mon, Dec 19, 2011 at 12:20 PM, Barbara Lynch > <onecrazychick@comcast.net>wrote: > > > have you tried www.rootsweb.com/ssdi? are there other sites that are > free > > by chance? > > > > Barbara > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Vincent E. Summers > > Sent: Monday, December 19, 2011 12:06 PM > > To: philly-roots@rootsweb.com > > Subject: [Phly-Rts] SSDI > > > > I've been deeply involved in a number of things for about a year or two > > that has taken me away from genealogy for the most part. > > > > However, I've been trying to get back into it again--particularly my > > Philadelphia genealogical connections--when I came to discover something > > screwy has happened to the old SSDI index I found so helpful. Figures > that > > anything good has to go, or at least be tampered with. > > > > Is there anywhere on line that this informative database remains intact > > without having to join this or pay for that? > > > > Thanks, > > Vince Summers > > > > > > > > ********* > Visit the threaded archives of this list: > http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/PHILLY-ROOTS > ********* > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > PHILLY-ROOTS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message > -- Vince's AC Contributions<http://contributor.yahoo.com/user/333797/vincent_summers.html>