Hi Lists,
Following up on yesterdays tip, to locate your ancestor's
involvement in the Social Security system (and remember, except for
results on living SocSec members found by yesterday's tip (partially
reproduced below), it is generally only deaths that have been reported
to the SSA that can be located, and railroad pensioners are usually not
included in SocSec), go to the RootsWeb site below to enter the given
and surname of your ancestor to determine the birth and death date, as
well as other information (Name, Birth, Death, Last Residence, Last
benefit, SSN, Issued, and Tools).
http://www.rootsweb.com
One nice feature is that the site will automatically generate a
letter to the SSA to help locate further information.
Good Luck.
Barry (Witherington, Dare, Easterling, Fitchett-L)
Barry Wetherington previously wrote:
... send an unaddressed letter in a prestamped, unsealed envelope
(intended for the missing person) to the Social Security
Administration with info about the person including name, ss#, etc.
The SSA will look up the persons current address and forward the
letter to them. This is done free of charge. (The writer is then
quoted:)
I did it myself earlier this year and found my long lost uncle,
whose
whereabouts weren't even known to my parents as of several years ago
(parents are dead now). I was quite shocked and surprised when I
received a telephone call about 3 months later from him! I had
included my full address and phone number in the letter, so obviously
the SSA forwarded it. I did have his SSN, and of course it's easier
to track a male relation since the last name remains the same most of
the time. As long as you provide as much information as you can about
the person, perhaps even potential surnames (if you know them), they
may be able to find them.
You can find more information at
http://www.ssa.gov Enter "lost
relative" in the search field and click on the link for the
"Frequently Asked Questions Social Security Online Services".
Also, search your List archives for your brick wall:
http://searches.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl