Today I got back some information from Social Security. I sent away for my great-grandmother’s SS-5 form. Prior to today, we did not know her parents’ names. We had a suspicion based on census records, but it turned out our suspicion was incorrect. So, we now know their names for certainty! This was very encouraging and I am definitely going to order more SS-5 forms in the future. They are expensive though at $27 apiece, so I’ll have to ration it out.
Over the past few weeks, I have continued to receive more death and birth certificates that I wrote away for. Over the past couple of months, I have accumulated approximately 100 of them! Each one continues to add new information that I can add to the website. If only all states were as easy as NC though — for example, in AL, you can only request certified copies of them, so the cost is much more than NC’s uncertified copies. Also, Alabama has restrictions on what years can be ordered (no death certificates younger than 25 years and no birth certificates younger than 100 years). That sucks.
Over the next few weeks, I plan to start seriously drafting a plan for indexing the newspaper of a county in NC where my maternal grandmother is from. At first, I was all gung-ho and thought I would index the whole paper. But then I realized, it would probably be more beneficial to genealogists if I first did the obituaries, and then went back and did other parts of the paper. My model for this is the online index of Evansville, IN area deaths. I love this site and I found quite a bit of information on my husband’s family by using it.
Only 5 years ago the SS applications were just $9.00 each. I went ‘hog wild’ with my orders before the deadline change.
It was great getting my father’s SS application because I thought for years that my grandmother’s surname was TAYLOR. According to the information that I had received, it was KENNARD to my surprise. I was finally able to find her on the census files.
Like you, I must get busy with the death certificates again.
There’s so much to do!
Continued success Taneya!