President Franklin Roosevelt said in a radio address on the third anniversary of the social security act on August 14, 1938 “"Long before the economic blight of the depression descended on the Nation, millions of our people were living in wastelands of want and fear. Men and women too old and infirm to work either depended on those who had but little to share, or spent their remaining years within the walls of a poorhouse. The Social Security Act offers to all our citizens a workable and working method of meeting urgent present needs and of forestalling future need”.
Some of you may or may not realize this but the first Social Security card was issued December 1, 1936 and on January 1, 1937 United States workers began acquiring credit toward old age benefits or retirement. At that time approximately 35 million numbers were assigned to workers who qualified.

One search tool that many may not often think of is the Social Security Death Index. It is one of the largest and actually the easiest databases to access. The information obtained from the database can tell you more about the person you are searching for if he or she is deceased or for that matter family members of the person you are searching form.
The information obtained from the Social Security Death Index is then used to further your research to help you locate a death certificate, find an obituary and/or locate cemetery records as well as probate records.

The one thing to keep in mind when using the Social Security Death Index is that even if an individual had a Social Security number that does NOT mean they will be included in the Social Security Death Index. If relatives didn’t report the death to the Social Security Administration or if the individual died before 1962 then they will probably not appear in the database.

The other important thing to remember is that if the person is not listed in the Social Security Index, this does not mean that he or she is still living. It means that there is no report of the persons death to the Social Security Administration.

Another reason an individual may not be listed in the Social Security Death Index is the lack of his or her occupation. Prior to the 1960’s farmers, housewives, government exmployees, no employed individuals and those with a separate retirement plan more than likely didn’t have a Social Security Number. It wasn’t until 1988 that it became required that all children have Social Security numbers.