Two Berthas With No Socials in the SSA Applications and Claims Index

A genealogist is usually sufficiently happy to find someone in a database once. Census records are one record type where one regularly encounters individuals listed twice. I wasn’t expecting to find someone twice in the “Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007″. But I did. There are two apparent entries in this database for Bertha Ensminger Clark.
bertha-clark-twice

It’s clear that they refer to the person as the dates of birth, names of parents and first and last name are the same. The main difference is that one entry has the middle name of Ensminger and the other has the middle name of Louise. bertha-clark-twice-two

Neither entry has a social security number as a part of the record. bertha-clark-twice-one
There is no entry for this Bertha Clark in the “Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014” at Ancestry.com. Bertha is a first cousin of my grandmother Ida (Trautvetter) Neill, but I do not know when or where she died or if her name at death was Clark or something else.

A search of the SSDI was conducted searching only for Berthas born on the date for this Bertha and no result “struck me” as being the right one. But since I know little about Bertha, she could be in that results list and I don’t even know it.

Interesting that these two entries have no Social Security Numbers.

All of which means I have more questions on these two entries than I do answers.

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2 thoughts on “Two Berthas With No Socials in the SSA Applications and Claims Index

  1. Several of my ancestors are also listed twice but usually their names differ slightly. I thought it was caused by them filing additional paperwork or changing addresses or something.

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