The Social Security Administration (SSA) provided the Social Security Death Index to FamilySearch as a resource to help people with their genealogical research. The Freedom of Information Act requires that the information on the index be available to the public.
The Social Security Death Index was discontinued in 2014. Since 2014, public access to the updated Death Master File has been through the Limited Access Death Master File certification program instituted under Title 15 Part 1110.
FamilySearch is not responsible for the data on the index; we simply display it. As a result, data removed from government records is also removed from our site.
If you find an error in the index or if you have problems with a record, do one of the following:
- Call 1-800-772-1213
- Visit the Social Security Contact Page.
- Go to the local Social Security branch.
If you visit the local Social Security office, be sure to take documentation of the correction. They will correct the Death Master File (DMF) and distribute the changes to appropriate parties with the next set of updates. They give you a verification document of current records, which you can then use as proof of the error.
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