SOCIAL SECURITY DEATH FILE by George Pardue 18 Aug 1990 Subject: Satisfying Success with Social Security Death File Yesterday (Aug 16) I received the list of PARDUE decedents from the Social Security Death Master File, which I had ordered from Cambridge Statistical Research Associates, Inc, 110 Southgate Pkwy, Cambridge, OH 43725 Phone (614) 432-6400. It contained 978 PARDUE deaths, and cost me $16 for the full surname search. I am VERY PLEASED with the results. I had been searching for my father's half-brother, CHARLES EDWARD PARDUE (Sr) for a long time. He apparently was a career navy man, and the last I had heard was that he was in Washington state. I desperately need input from his side of the family to fill in missing ancestral links. In the decedents list, I found his wife, Gertrude, and his son Charles Edward, Jr. Both had died in 1978 in San Diego CA. A quick trip to our Clayton Library here in Houston to look at the California deaths microfiche files produced the death records for Gertrude and Charles, Jr. Further sleuthing located the death record of Charles Edward, Sr in 1941, also in San Diego. (He must not have had a SS number, since he was apparently career navy.) I have now ordered microfilms of the San Diego Union newspaper for the appropriate time periods to look at the three obituaries. With just a little more luck, I sincerely hope to learn the names of further descendants, and possibly the married names of Charles Edward (Sr)'s two daughters, ELIZABETH MAE PARDUE (b. ca 1921 in SC) and CYNTHIA PARDUE (b. ca 1923 in SC). I'm guessing that they married in the San Diego vicinity. ANY INFORMATION REGARDING THEM OR THEIR DESCENDANTS WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED. To sum this up, I am greatly pleased with the "genealogical window" that the information I received from Cambridge Statistical Research opened for me. It was well worth the money in my case. They also sent a disk containing a text file printout to disk of the results. It wasn't a database file, but can be converted to one with a little programming. That's the least of my worries right now... Got ancestors to pursue..... Hopefully this will be of help to others..... George Pardue, 5010 Indigo Street, Houston, TX 77096 (713) 667-2783 ------------------------------------------------ 266/587 27 Aug 90 00:40:47 From: Nathan Cheng To: Connie Graham Subj: Re: SOCICAL SECURITY DEATH FILE ------------------------------------------------ Greetings from CSRA! The parameters can be anything that John mentioned. For instance, you can give us a first and last name with a DOB, DOD, or ZIP code, or all of them. Usually a First and Last name and range of birth will do (unless the name is John Smith-- then we would narrow down by state). Right now we are trying to de-emphasize Single Name Searches and emphasize Surname Albums. These are listings of all decedents of a certain last name. If the name is relatively uncommon, a Surname report will work much better than a Single Search. Call us for quotes on Surnames-- we have all of them tabulated (over 1.4 million different surnames). **** NOTE: change of address *** Cambridge Statistical Research Assoc. Inc. 760 Wheeling Ave. Cambridge, OH 43725 TEL: (614) 432-6400 CIS: 74007,3254 FAX: (614) 439-1354 ------------------------------------------------ 261/576 27 Aug 90 00:42:04 From: Nathan Cheng To: James Davis Subj: SOCIAL SECURITY DEATH MASTER FILE ------------------------------------------------ The SSA did not start keeping the Death Records in machine-readable format until 1962. We receive an update from them every 3 months. The update contains not only recent deaths, but deaths before 1962, showing that they are steadily adding in the backlogged records. Currently, however, only about 2 million records from before 1962 are contained in the database. Your search for Gerhard Fast and George Fast would cost $6 plus $2 for the variation. We will take your word for it that they were the same person. ------------------------------------------------ 262/576 27 Aug 90 00:43:18 From: Nathan Cheng To: Paul Delmore Subj: Re: SS DEATH FILE ------------------------------------------------ The ancestors that you are looking for who died between 1910 and 1930 would definitely not be contained on our database. The data that we have comes directly from the Social Security Administration, which did not start computerizing until 1962. There are very few records dating from the late 30's to the 50's (about 2 million of the 43 million). Actually, I doubt there are any from the 30's, as I have never seen one. We receive an update every three months from the SSA that contains recent deaths and death pre-dating 1962. In a few years, I imagine that the SSA will have given us nearly all of their early death records, but for right now we automatically refund any order earlier than the late 50's. For more detailed information about our service, you can look up our ad in the latest "Genealogical Helper." 旼컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� � This file appears on The Source of Magic BBS, Ridgefield, Conn. � � 203-431-4687, specializing in genealogy. � 읕컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� Date: Sun Jan 06 1991 11:05:31 From: Richard Pence To: Wayne Tibbitts Subj: Social Security Death Index Attr: genealogy ------------------------------- Wayne, there are currently two sources for the Social Security Death Index (note: S.S. Death Index has some severe connotations, so I try to avoid that term). Cambridge Statistical Research Associates, Inc., 760 Wheeling Avenue, Cambridge, OH 43725, phone 614-432-6400. This commercial firm will do a search for an individual or a surname for a reasonable fee. The price I saw quoted here for a search for an individual (including at least one surname variation) was $8. I recently ordered all PENCEs from this firm, a total of about 2800, for $18 (Mastercard and Visa accepted; my order was mailed the next day and material received on disk two days after that). Material can be sent on disk or as a printout (higher cost for printout, I was told). My information came as a "standard data file," that is, in 80 columns across a page; included was an explanation of the data, some samples, some statistical breakdowns regarding the name (frequency within states, frequency of given names, etc.). Had I specified that I could use HD (1.2 meg) disks, the material would also have been provided in a "comma-delimited file," that is, a file immediately ready to be absorbed into most any database file manager. Information included on each individual: State in which social security number was obtained, social security number, last name, first name, birth date (mm/dd/yy), death date (mm/dd/yy, days not available before 1988), state of residence, ZIP Code 1 (place benefit payments sent), ZIP Code 2 (place death benefit sent if different than previous). The data in the Social Security Death Index comes directly from the Social Security Administration and is updated quarterly by Cambridge Associates. Included in the S.S. files are all deaths since 1962, but only some prior to that time (when all deaths began to be entered into computer files). There are some records prior to that date; the S.S. Administration is adding these from time to time, but slowly, according to what I gather. The second source for this same information is at Mormon Church Family History Centers. Just this past week, two centers here in the D.C. area received updates of the CD-ROM files for the Family Ancestral Files; these CDs also contain the Social Security death files and these can be downloaded in various formats, although I haven't had definitive word on this. Presumably, though, GEDCOM would be one. Remember, the "memory limitation" of the LDS downloads - maximum of 200 names each save. I am not certain how often the LDS CD-ROMs will be updated. Hope this answers your question. Note to others: Please save this information and post locally. This is the second time in just over three weeks that I have responded to this question!!!! --- * Origin: CPAFUG: MD(301)Colmbia 290-9530 SlvrSpng 989-8960 (Opus 1:109/422)