I found this Article on SSN's...I will be posting it on the website when I complete the table. Cindy The following article appeared in Charleston Chapter's November Newsletter, the Low Country Courier, and as the Editor suggested, this might be a source for research since Social Security has been in operation for 50 years and some who enrolled at the beginning may have been born as early as l837~ How to acquire the information on application for SS enrollees is not given, but it behooves us to "climb every mountain!" (If anyone has used this resource, let us know the steps necessary. Ed.) A Social Security Number Can Help In Genealogy (Extracted from AIR FORCE TIMES, Feb 6 1984, written by Staff Writer Randall Shoemaker) To draw some of this information from the SSN is easy. For the rest, however, you need a step-by- step lesson in how to read the SSN. The easy part is this: Look at the last four digits of your SSN, If the number is any- where from 2001 to 2999 or from 7001 to 7999, then you are part of the sample group, One of these numbers is assigned to every fifth person receiving an SSN, which for practical purposes makes it a random sampling. Now, let's take the rest of it in steps. First, consider the full, nine-digit SSN. Its three parts normally are separated by hyphens. The first three digits are the area number, the next two digits are the group number and the final four digits are the serial number. Only the serial numbers are assigned to individuals on a normal first-come, first-served basis --- and even this normal sequence is interrupted by the special assignment of the 2000 and 7000 series, as indicated. The area numbers are assigned to locations as indicated on the table below, Because a few locations were using up their numbers fast- er than anticipated, additional area numbers have been allocated in recent years. Until1912. the area number indicated the location of the Social Security office that issued the SSN to an individual. which usually - but not necessarilv - was the area where a person lived and worked. Since 1972, the SSNs have been issued centrally and the area code now represents the person's state of residence as shown on theSSN application, Also railroad workers assigned number before 1964 had a separate "area code" - 700 to 728. as the list below shows. The group number in the SSN, the two-digit part in the middle, has no special geographic meaning. Instead, it is a solid indicator of how long ago a person received an SSN - if you are aware of the sequence in which the group numbers are used. Here is the order in which the SSNs in any particular area are issued: For each area number, the group numbers follow a peculiar sequence seemingly designed to discourage, outsiders from thinking about it. The group sequence begins with odd numbers 01 through 09, then goes through even numbers 10 through 98, then even numbers 02 to OS, and finally odd numbers 11 to 99. Each state goes through all of its area numbers with group number 01 and serial numbers 0001-9999 before starting to use group number 03. For instance, the first SSN issued in New Hampshire was 001- 01-0001, the second was 002-01-0001, the third was 003-01-0001 and the fourth was 001-01-0002, The fifth (remember that special sample category for every fifth SSN) was 001-01-2001. After the SSNs reached 003-01-9999, the next issued was 001-03-0001, and so on, Serial number 0000 is never used. This nine-digit system has a capacity for issuing almost a billion SSNs, and less than a third that number have been issued so far. Even at the present rate of issuing about five to seven million a year, it will be a long time before the numbers no longer are available under this system.