13 November 2011

How Soon Is the SSDI Updated on the Web?

Genealogists frequently use the Social Security Death Index in their research. It is compiled by the Social Security Administration and used by different businesses for a variety of purposes. I decided to see how up-to-date the versions used by genealogists are on various websites.

My great-aunt, Mildred Trautvetter, passed away on 1 November 2011. I decided to see what versions of the Social Security Death Index contained her entry as of 4:00 pm (more or less) central time today. Here are the results:

SSDI at GenealogyBank--yes.
RootsWeb SSDI--no.
Ancestry.com--no.
FamilySearch--no.
Fold3--no

Searching the SSDI is free at all these sites. I have memberships at GenealogyBankAncestry.com, and Fold3, but just wanted to see which was updated earliest.