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Social Security Death Master File: Introduction In the summer of 1935, President Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law. Since that time, over 370 million Social Security cards have been issued to the citizens and residents of the United States. The present-day Social Security Administration (SSA) is now larger than perhaps even Roosevelt envisioned. Origin of the Social Security Death
Master File To assist in keeping track of individuals, the government assigns a numerical identification to each person involved in the program. Though it was originally intended for use within the Social Security Administration only, its value as a unique identifier has promoted its application in other areas of society, such as drivers' license ID numbers, state and federal tax programs, motor vehicle registration, military ID (starting with Vietnam era), etc. As a by-product of this vast recordkeeping system, the SSA developed a file of those individuals in the program reported as deceased. This file is the Social Security Death Master File. Its present version contains over 50 million entries, which ranks it as one of the largest computer indexes with genealogical application, and certainly one of the most valuable for twentieth century research. Titles Often Add to Confusion In the past some commercial entities have estimated the number of actual entries in the file to be several million records larger than stated in the original government specifications. Comparison between two or more versions of the index from different companies have often been made using dissimilar updates of the data, whereas each company at any given point actually receives exactly the same information from the government. A similar misrepresentation occurs when a publisher touts the index as a research tool for more than just the twentieth century. Though it is certainly true that statistically the index contains some entries whose birth dates are as early as 1800, individuals born before 1860 in the index comprise less than 0.00006% of the total. Most of these entries are for persons who supposedly lived well past age 100, and are perhaps the result of data-entry errors. Yet promotional literature for the product states, "This summary of potential research uses of the Social Security Death Benefits Index shows that it is an invaluable resource for anyone born within the last 200 years." (Platt, 1996.) Figure 1. Births per Year in the Death Master File Most importantly, close to 98% of the entire index contains individuals who died after 1962 (when the SSA began keeping the database on computer). Genealogically speaking, family documents, reminiscences, oral interviews, and other close-at-hand material usually provides much more information than the average entry in the Master Death File, especially for those individuals who have passed away in the last generation. Figure 2. Deaths per Year in the Death Master File It is important that the index be analyzed with a view towards its actual research value. Its major benefit at present may lie in its ability to serve as a steppingstone to further research or as a verification of other sources. Though it is certainly true that the index can be of immense value for those who are for some reason unfamiliar with their parents or grandparents, the majority of researchers do not find themselves in this situation. The Scope of the SSA Master Death
Index The index also contains many individuals who were U.S. citizens, but who were not living in the United States at the time of death. Individuals in this category might include consular employees around the world, employees of U.S. companies or subsidiaries working abroad, or those serving in the armed forces. The first initial rush to record and distribute Social Security cards occurred in the first two or three years of the program's existence. At least 35 million numbers were assigned to workers who qualified before 1 January 1937. Since that time, however, various other groups of individuals not originally classified as eligible have been included in the program. In 1951 we saw the inclusion of individuals in U.S. territories like Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, as well as employees working abroad for American companies. Conditional and temporary government workers, farm and agricultural labor, the self-employed, certain short-term railroad workers, and domestic workers (those earning wages in a household setting) also gained Social Security eligibility the same year. Employees working for a subsidiary of a U.S. company abroad or self-employed farmers became eligible for Social Security in 1955. Materially participating farmers (those who owned the land and took at least a managerial role in the farming) became eligible in 1956. Self-employed lawyers, dentists, medical professionals (except medical doctors), and other professional groups received coverage in 1956. It was not until 1965 that medical doctors began receiving coverage. The latest groups to be included in the Social Security umbrella were employees of nonprofit companies, who had been excluded from coverage in 1951, and federal government employees hired after 1 January 1984. Both were granted eligibility in 1984. It should be noted, however, that eligibility only implies the legal right of coverage under Social Security for a group, not de facto inclusion in the program. In a class by themselves, long-term railroad employees earn retirement under the Railroad Retirement Board, though they as a group also have Social Security cards. Originally granted special numbers in an exclusive range, those applying after June 1963 received numbers according to where they lived when they applied. About 430,000 of these pre-1963 railroad employees are presently included in the Master Death File. What the Social Security Master
Death File Can Tell You The government allows for twelve letters in the last name and nine characters in the first name, with any additional characters simply left off. Death dates in the vast majority of cases before 1988 contained month and year only. The zip code of last residence may not be the actual place of death, especially if an individual died in an out-of-town hospital, on vacation, etc. Why You May Not Find Your Ancestors
Using the File as a Stepping Stone
to Further Research The Freedom of Information Act has made available copies of the original applications of those Social Security card holders who have passed away. Researchers must send $27 (if SS number is known) or $29 (if number is unknown or incorrect) to the address below [an abbreviated NUMIDENT form is also available for $16]: Social Security Administration For further information on using SSA records, refer to Kathleen Hinkley's article "Locating the Living: Twentieth-Century Research Methodology" in the National Genealogical Society Quarterly, vol. 77/3 (September 1989). Effective research is easiest when the researcher has a correct knowledge of the tools and sources available. As concerns the Social Security Death Master File, understanding the time span of the index and the inherent limitations of the data will help the genealogist better evaluate any search results. Selected Bibliography
Jake Gehring is a resident of Provo, Utah, where he lives with his wife and daughter. He has lectured widely on computer and Internet genealogy and is presently the editor of Genealogical Computing and the UGA News. Jake can be reached by e-mail at [email protected]. |
