1. How does your SSDI website differ from the others that are out on the web?

My site doesn't perform the search for you because I don't have a search engine nor do I have a copy of the SSDI data.  Instead I allow you to link to existing sites that do perform the searches.  And for at least one of them I provide added value (see question 11).
 

2. Why do you link to several different search engines for searching the SSDI?

Because no one search engine supports all the parameters.  The Ancestry engine can do a sounds-like search on the last name, but it can't search for a partial first name of less than three characters.  Same for the Rootsweb engine, but it can do two different kinds of sounds-like searches.  The Lineages engine can search for a partial first name of any length but cannot do a sounds like search on the last name and supports very few other parameters.  The Genealogy engine can do both a sounds-like search on the last name and a search for a partial first name of any length.  The FamilyTreeLegends engine cannot search on a partial first name but it is the only one that can search on the age at death.

The FamilyTreeLegends engine and the Rootsweb engine are the only ones that can search on the place that the last benefit was paid.  And the FamilyTreeLegends engine and the Lineages engine are the only ones that supports a range of years for birth and death.

So your choice of search engine would depend on the type of search that you want to perform.  If you like, you can use one search engine for one search and then easily switch to another search engine for the next.

If I had to make a recommendation, it would be for RootsWeb Plus (see question 11).
 

3. Which search parameters are supported by which search engines?
 

	Ancestry	Family Search	FamilyTree Legends	Genealogy	Lineages	NE Ancestors	RootsWeb	RootsWeb Plus (note 1)
sounds-like for last name	soundex	(note 2)	soundex, metaphone	soundex	none	soundex	soundex, metaphone	soundex, metaphone
last name optional	yes	yes	no	yes	no	yes	yes	yes
partial last name	at least 1st 3 characters	no	at least 1st 3 characters	yes	no	no	at least 1st 3 characters	at least 1st character
first name optional	yes	yes	yes	yes	no	yes	yes	yes
partial first name	at least 1st 3 characters	no	no	yes	start of name only	no	at least 1st 3 characters	at least 1st character
middle initial	yes	no	yes	no	no	no	yes	yes
birth date	yes	year only (note 3)	yes	yes	year only	year only	yes	yes
death date	yes	year only (note 3)	yes	yes	year only	year only	month and year only	yes
range of years	no	yes	yes	no	yes	no	no	yes
age at death	no	no	yes	no	no	no	no	yes
social security number	yes	yes	yes	yes	no	yes	yes	yes
issuer state	yes	yes	yes	no	no	no	yes	yes
last residence (domestic)	yes	no	yes	state and zip only	state only	state only	yes	yes
last residence (foreign)	yes (city and/or country)	no	no	yes (continent only)	no	no	no	yes (city and/or country)
last benefit	no	no	yes	no	no	state only	yes	yes
displays all matches	yes	yes	yes	yes	only first 75	no	yes	yes
displays age	no	no	yes	no	no	no	no	yes

note 1:   See question 11 for a discussion of RootsWeb Plus.
note 2:  Finds similar names but does not use soundex.  For example, searching for Mors will find Moore.
note 3:  Can specify either a birth date or a death date but not both
 

4. What is soundex?

Soundex involves assigning a numeric code to a name based on its pronunciation.  Names that have similar pronunciations would be given the same code. A soundex search would return all names having the same soundex code as the desired name.  So such a search would return the all names that exactly match the desired name as well as all similar sounding names.
 

5. What is metaphone?

Metaphone is an alternate sounds-like search that is supported by some of the search engines.  Unlike soundex which encodes on a letter-by-letter basis, metaphone encodes groups of letters.  As such, it more accurately embodies the rules of English pronunciation.
 

6. My aunt died a few years ago but I can't find her record in the database.  Is this a complete list of everyone who died?

When a person dies, the funeral home or the family sends in a form to notify the Social Security Administration about the death.  Usually the person is entered in the SSDI database at that time.  However every month the Social Security Administration runs a program to check for all death certificates issued that month.  If it finds out about the death from this program prior to being notified about the death by the funeral home or family member, then the person's name will never appear in the SSDI.  I know, this sounds very strange, and the logic behind it escapes me.  But I have been told this by a Social Security employee, and I have no reason to doubt him.

Of course even if the proper notification was made to the Social Security Administration, it might take a few months before the online versions of the SSDI database are updated to include that death.
 

7. My father died in 1950 and the Social Security Administration was notified punctually, but I can't find his record.  Are the earlier records missing?

Many deaths in the 1950s are not in the SSDI because they were recorded in an old format.  However you can obtain these records by calling the Social Security Administration directly on their toll-free number at 1-800-772-1213.
 

8. Are the databases used by the different search engines the same?

In theory the answer is yes since they all get their data from the same source -- namely the Social Security Administration.  Of course there might be a different delay in the various search engines in when they update their database, so one might be more recent than another (see question 10 for more details).  But that's only temporary.  Other than the updating, the only difference between the search engines is the parameters that they search on.
 

9. Once I find the record, how do I obtain the actual document?

You can obtain the original social security application by writing to the Social Security Administration at the following address:

Social Security Administration
OEO FOIA Workgroup
300 N. Greene Street
P.O. Box 33022
Baltimore, Maryland 21290-3022

10 How frequently is this data updated and how recent is it?

The Social Security Administration generates updates monthly.  Of course it's up to the individual search engine as to how frequently they chose to update their database.  To get an idea of how frequently each one does it, here is some empirical results based on searching for SMITH at the date of this writing (May 19, 2005).  The most recent entries that I found for each search engine are as follows:
 
 

Ancestry	April 2005
Family Search	January 2005
Family Tree Legends	September 2003
Genealogy	November 1997
Lineages	-- no longer online --
NE Ancestors	April 2005
RootsWeb	April 2005

11. What is RootsWeb Plus?

As discussed in questions 2 and 3, no search engine is perfect.  Each has a different flaw.  RootsWeb Plus is my attempt to generate one search engine that combines the desirable features of all the others.

I used the RootsWeb search engine as my starting point.  However RootsWeb has the following failings:

Requires at least three characters for a partial first name or partial last name
Does not allow you to search on a range of birth years or a range of death years
Does not allow you to search on age at death
Does not allow you to specify a foreign last residence
Does not allow you to specify the day of month for the death (does allow it for birth)
Does not allow you specify how many hits you want displayed per page
Does not display the age as part of the results

However a caveat is in order.  The way my software searches on birth and death ranges is to do repeated searches for each year in the range.  Same for partial first and last names of less than three characters.  If you use too many of these features together, the number of repeated searches can get quite large and the time taken might get prohibitive.  So use these combinations prudently.
 

-- Steve Morse