{"id":25203,"date":"2017-09-15T10:10:04","date_gmt":"2017-09-15T14:10:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=25203"},"modified":"2021-04-02T13:56:12","modified_gmt":"2021-04-02T17:56:12","slug":"using-recent-obituaries-the-social-security-death-index-to-find-missing-information","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/using-recent-obituaries-the-social-security-death-index-to-find-missing-information.html","title":{"rendered":"Using Recent Obituaries & the Social Security Death Index to Find Missing Information"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lawrence E. Lincoln\u2019s life was filled with American history. He and his wife Shirley were both Mayflower descendants, he served in the U.S. Navy as a radar man on the USS Huntington during WWII, he attended Brown University, and he belonged to several Masonic chapters in New England.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Source: GenealogyBank, Cape Cod Times (Hyannis, Massachusetts), 25 October 2007<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I discovered Lawrence\u2019s life story using GenealogyBank\u2019s U.S. Obituary Search<\/a>. This handy search tool archives obituaries from 1977 onward, and is a great resource for finding family obituaries \u2013 or, in this case, finding the stories about recent Mayflower descendants.<\/p>\n

I began by searching GenealogyBank using the keywords \u201cMayflower\u201d AND \u201cdescendant.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Source: GenealogyBank<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lots of obituaries matched this search, but Lawrence\u2019s caught my eye because it had so many other interesting details in the headline: he was a WWII vet, a Freemason, and a Mayflower descendant.<\/p>\n

I did notice, however, that Lawrence\u2019s obituary didn\u2019t give me his exact birth and death dates, so I went back to GenealogyBank<\/a>, this time to the Social Security Death Index<\/a> (SSDI). There, I entered Lawrence\u2019s information from his obituary.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Source: GenealogyBank<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sure enough, this SSDI search pulled up Lawrence\u2019s record.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
Source: GenealogyBank<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lawrence\u2019s obituary gave me his age and hometown, but now, thanks to the Social Security Death Index record, I now have his exact birth and death dates, as well as his last known residence.<\/p>\n

Genealogy Tip:<\/em><\/strong> Using the Social Security Death Index<\/a> in conjunction with the other records in GenealogyBank can be a great way to find missing information about close family members, including exact dates of birth and death.<\/p>\n

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