eAdventist used to include a link to Ancestry.com that provided free searching of the Social Security Death Index. This was a very handy tool for clerks. Several clerks noticed that it is no longer available and wondered why.
The data in the Social Security Death Index is public data provided by the government. Ancestry.com provided a web search of that data. As of December 18, 2011, they chose to move the service behind a “paywall” because of its potential use for identity theft (ABC News).
Ancestry.com still offers SSDI searching, you just have to pay for an account to access it. At this point, they only offer single-user accounts so we will not be able to purchase a “group” account for eAdventist users. We aren’t aware of any other sites that offer a similar service.
This is a link to the website I have started using in place of the SSDI.
http://www.genealogybank.com/gbnk/ssdi/?kbid=9064&m=9
Thank you for finding this, Norma. It looks like GenealogyBank is trying to sell subscriptions, too. Are you able to get enough helpful information for free? You had to create an account on their site to see the information, right?
So far I have been able to get the information for free and don’t believe that I had to even create an account.