On a Social Security number listed on a death certificate from the 1970’s, what do the letters “JI” refer to? Example: “123-45-6789 JI”?
Here’s a start, perhaps. Usually SSN suffixes are used to create a medicare number, no clue if this is completely unrelated since it’s on a death certificate.
Interesting…I checked the death certificate again and it’s definitely a typed “I” rather than a typed “1”, as examples of both appear elsewhere on it.
The SS Death Index gives no other information to add…
I took your question and ran with it using what Net Fu I have access to. Closest I can figure is it probably means the person listed on the certificate was a J-1 “short term scholar” student visa holder. Traditional social security numbers are structured in a pretty explicit manner, so it’s probably not an actual SSN. Some other forms of ID resemble SSNs and may have appended information.
Oh the number is real; my ancestor is in the SS Death Index under that same number. It’s possible the JI is some internal code used by the State or the hospital. They were in their 90’s when they died and had been in the country 80 years so the scholar angle is less likely.
Then it’s likely a typo by the clerk who filled out the form.
Back in the 1970’s, many of them had learned on typewriters which had no number 1, uppercase I or lowercase L was used instead, and they continued those habits. And it didn’t matter on paper forms; it wouldn’t confuse humans reading the document (not back then). It was only when these became computerized that the difference between characters became more significant.
Sorry we haven’t been able to help you find a definitive answer so far, Una, but I can definitely say for my part that amateur sleuthing of your question has been very fun and informative. What I’ve learned so far:
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Apparently, correcting a death certificate, such as using white out, is verboten. I’d wager this provides a disincentive to correcting a document once you’ve started, so the typo angle is a real possibility. Here’s the cite.
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This one blew my mind: The SSA didn’t require SSNs on death certificates until 1996. From their chronology. If that’s the case, it might be conceivable that there’d be extra information attached on the death certificate to identify it as a non-SSN form of ID. Incidentally, I thought to look this up because there are a bunch of relatively fresh looking death certificates scanned as .pdfs from the state of California floating around on teh Intarwebs and none of the ones I looked at had SSNs on them.
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In light of fact 2, one possibility is that the recorded number might be an ITIN (some form of tax ID issued by the IRS). You’d be able to tell if it’s an ITIN if the first digit is a 9 and the fourth is a 7 or an 8. So, it’d look like 9xx-7x-xxxx. Citation goes here.
This certainly isn’t the kind of question I’d feel okay prying for more answers about, being that it’s private documentation for one of your relatives, but my next line of inquiry would be to check out the state death certificate guidelines to see if they have a standard “Jx”-type entry and also to see when they might have started using SSNs on their death certificates by state law.
Was your ancestor possibly receiving Special Age 72 benefits from Social Security (SSA)? I worked for SSA in the 70’s and this class of beneficiaries was identified in our computer records by their SSN, followed by the letter “J”, plus an additional alpha-numeric character.
Holy crap, that may be it. From your link:
That fits them - they were born in 1899. You may have it - any idea what the “I” might have meant?
From what I remember from 30+ years ago, J1 would represent the primary beneficiary (i.e., the one to whom the SSN belongs) and J2 would be for the spouse. I don’t remember what, if anything, JI would represent.
OK…thank you very much, and thank you as well to everyone else who took the time to post.