There is an old saying that states that the only two things that one can be certain of are death and taxes. Clearly, no one is going to get out of paying their taxes. Death, however, might be another story. The Social Security Death Index doesn’t always have correct information. This can lead to a lot of confusion for genealogists, and big problems for those listed as dead who are actually quite alive.
The Social Security Death Index, also known as the SSDI or the Social Security Master Death List, can be a useful resource for genealogists. This index can be used to help you confirm information about your relatives and ancestors that you uncovered while working on your genealogy research.
Finding your relative in the death index can allow you to confirm some facts. This index will have the death date of your ancestor, which you can compare to the other research or documents that you have already found. It’s nice to have multiple resources tell you the same fact. The index could also give you some clues about the last known residence of your ancestor. This could give you some ideas about where to dig up more information about that relative.
Sometimes, though, the Social Security Administration gets things wrong. There have been situations where the Death Index listed a person as dead when that person was still very much alive. This is obviously problematic to the people who put their social security number on a job application, only to learn that the person who is connected to that particular number, (themselves), has already died.
Scripps Howard News Service did a little bit of research about the accuracy of the Death Index. Scripps looked at copies of the federal death file from three specific years: 1998, 2008, and 2011. Overall, Scripps found that 31,931 Americans were listed as dead in 1998 or 2008 who were not actually dead. The Social Security Administration took those names off the lists when the errors were realized.
In other words, although death is something that will happen to everyone, reports of that death could be “greatly exaggerated”. You cannot assume that everything you see on the Death Index is entirely the truth. Much of it will most likely be accurate, except for those times when things are listed wrong. Genealogists need to think about the information they see on the Death Index. Does the death date match the information that you found? Did the index list a relative that you truly thought was still alive?
Does it make sense that your ancestor died in the year that was listed in the Social Security Death Index? Check your research and see if you have documents that prove that this relative either gave birth to, or fathered, children after that date. Does that relative’s marriage certificate have a year printed on it that was later than the death date you found in the index? Think about what your other research tells you is most likely the truth of the matter before you assume the Death Index got everything absolutely correct.
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