27 August 2013

SSDI Death Benefit Not Where They Really Lived

When using any of the online versions of the "Social Security Death Index," remember that the location of the last benefit may not be where the person lived in their final days or even the last few years of their life. The benefit could have been sent to an heir or someone overseeing the estate some distance from where the deceased actually lived.

3 comments:

  1. I came across exactly this scenario. I was researching someone who lived most of her life in New Jersey, but noticed that the SSDI had her final address as near Boston MA. I assumed that she had gone to live with her son towards the end of her life, as this was where he lived. In fact, she died in NJ, and the SSDI address was purely because the final benefit was sent to the son, as her executor.

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    Deb Stock
    UK

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  2. The same thing can happen with the census mortality index. Henry Edwin Rice died April 6, 1880 at some sort of quack cancer clinic in Rome, New York. The family lived in Barre, Worcester, Massachusetts where he had been born. Many on-line trees list his place of death as Barre, citing the mortality index.

    Alison McIntyre

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  3. This is so true. My uncle lived in Florida, but died in a car accident hundreds of miles from home. The last residence is usually the last residence, but not everyone dies at home.

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