I’m trying to order my spouse’s father’s military replacement medals and records. They ask for the Social Security Number and Service Number. I ordered this for someone in my family five years ago, and I got the SSN from Roots Web for free, but the site is no longer providing this service. I can’t even recall them asking for the service number, and if they did, I have no idea how I came up with it. Any tips on that would be helpful, but I’ll deal with that later if I have to.
Does anyone know where I can get the ssn for someone that died in 1999? I think I found the last four on one site, but they blocked the first five…I don’t feel like paying for something that used to be free and is supposedly a public record.
I also tried searching this forum if case anyone had asked before, but I only got “website cannot display this page,” so sorry if this has been asked and answered before.
Have you tried phoning the Social Security Administration directly - with his full name, birth date and death date in hand? They might not just give you the number over the phone, but surely they could tell you what your next (free) step should be to find out.
You just need the Social Security Death Index. It’s available through a ton of pay services you can get through many libraries and such, or in a few free spots. If you need help with it, PM me the details and I’m sure I can find it for you.
The SSDI is not a complete list. I know this because I contacted the SSA to find out why my father is not listed on such indexes. Their reply was that those lists are nowhere near being complete, not official, and that the actual complete list is not released by the SSA to any private entity.
I found what I needed on this site. This site uses the Death Master File edition of 30 November 2011. You can search by name, you select first letter, then you have to click from “last name” to “last name” that your last name falls between until you’ve narrowed down to one page with the entries then you can ctrl-f your person.
I tried the ancestry link above from another poster, but that only gave me what you could get basically get on find-a-grave, no ssn. This index gave the ssn and the last four matched with what a pay site teased me with.