In Ancestry.com‘s “Indiana, Death Certificates, 1899-2011,” the Social Security numbers have been “removed” from the images of the death certificates. I’m not certain this really helps cut down on fraud, but that’s a topic for another post.

What is irritating is that in some cases the “removal” makes the remaining information difficult to see.

The 1984 death certificate for Joseph Neill who died in St. Joseph County, Indiana, has the Social Security number “white-ed out.” The only problem is that this made the place of birth difficult to see.

I wouldn’t be bothered by this as much if I really failed to understand the necessity of removing a Social Security number from a death certificate from 1984.

Any bank, credit card company, etc. that gives credit to someone using an identity of a man born in 1901 (as this man was) based on an application in 2018 does not deserve to be in business.