If you are talking about W.Va. counties, you do not need a SSN to get a death certificate. I do believe that you need an approximate date of death. To find a SSN for a deceased person, check the SSDI featured on a few different websites, including rootsweb.com and ancestry.com. The information given depends when the person died, but in W.Va., you can expect to find the person's name, date of birth, place of birth, names of parents, cause of death and name of death informant. NOTE that not ALL this info is always given--it depends on how much the death informant knew. Later death records give more info, such as spouse, funeral home, and cemetery.