Month: July 2015

Citing Social Security Items, Part II: Citing SSDI With No Social Security Number

My grandmother’s entry in the “Social Security Index (1935-2014)” at Ancestry.com does not include her Social Security number because her death took place in 2008. Suggested citation form for various incarnations of the “Social Security Death Index” (generally created from the Master Death File maintained by the Social Security Administration) include the Social Security Number and […]

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Casefile Clues Sale

From now through 11:59 p.m. 3 August 2015, a subscription to 52 issues of Casefile Clues is only $17. Your subscription can be processed here. Easy to understand, well-written, and genealogically sound, see records discussed and “next steps” planned out. We have updated our list of back issue topics here. 

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War of 1812 Pensions on Fold3.com

War of 1812 pension records from the National Archives are currently in the scanning process and are being posted online at Fold3.com. Users will need to set up a free account to view these records (no credit card required). Pensions can be browsed by veteran or searched. The full text search is not complete yet. […]

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A 1942 Mortgage that Wasn’t

We’ve mentioned affidavits from land records before, but this one from 1942 is a real gem. James Edward Rampley documents three generations of ownership of the farm he owned, going back to his grandfather, James Rampley. Death dates are included along with relationships and additional family information. I’m not certain why this is recorded with […]

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Citing Social Security Items: Part I

Since I’ve been playing with the “Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007″ at Ancestry.com, I’ve been thinking about citing various databases and records created from Social Security Administration records. All citations are created in the spirit of Evidence Explained. The first post in our “Citing Social Security Items” will focus on the SS-5 form. It seems fairly straightforward to […]

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Get the Weekly Blog Update

Every week, I send out a blog update with a summary of postings to all my blogs, links to those postings, and some extra content not found on the blog, including: photo scan with documentation document citation example “does it really say that?” Handwriting sample Letter of the week The blog update (view the latest […]

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Place of Birth Truncations in “Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007″

Place names in the “Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007″ at Ancestry.com  have been truncated in a variety of ways. Some of these truncated places may come up correctly using the drop down list of locations at Ancestry.com.  Others may not. Searches of the  “Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007″  at Ancestry.com using the location field should […]

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