Thought I would share these 2 great tips ....quoting from Ancestry.com.......always learning new avenues of research. 1) "When I find a potential ancestor in the Social Security Death Index, I will send a letter to the public library in the county in which the ancestor died and request a copy of the obituary. If the obituary is the ancestor I am looking for, then I will request a copy of their Social Security Application. If it is not them, then I have saved myself that $7.00 charge." 2) "We knew the S.S.# of my husband's grandmother, but were unable to find one on her husband who died in 1941. Then I ran across a hospital insurance form listing her Medicare number with "B" after it. This indicates the wife is covered by her spouse's account, so we took a chance, requested his SS-5 with that number and finally were able to learn his mother's maiden name. We received it in the same amount of time it took others we have requested (and saved some money).