Tag: research

Accessing Social Security Records: A Guide for Genealogy Research

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Without knowing how to access a deceased individual’s Social Security Application and Claims Index record, you won’t be able to verify an ancestor’s place of birth, location of residence or parent names.  Instead, you’ll continue to wonder if that record can answer a genealogy research question or get you unstuck from a genealogy brick wall dilemma.

Here’s how you can get access to the record through a request known as a FOIA or Freedom of Information Act request.  It is ideal to have the deceased individual’s Social Security Number.  If you don’t, you still can go ahead with the request.

Step 1.  Online Go To https://www.ssa.gov/foia/ 

Step 2.  Click on Make A FOIA Request.

Step 3.  Click on Request a copy of Deceased Person’s Original Application for a Social Security Card (SS-5) or Numident Record.

This will bring up more information about the process.  The top paragraphs give options of getting what you need either online or by mail.  There is a fee for receiving a copy.

Step 4. Complete the request form and submit along with fee payment.  

That’s all you need to do.

If you need more information about the Freedom of Information Act, visit https://www.foia.gov/faq.html 

ForeverⓇ Family Research Review:  An Expert-Based Research Solution

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This post expands further on how ForeverⓇ Family Research helped me when I needed professional genealogy help.  From my post When You Need To Hire A Pro Genealogist , I mentioned that the Coaching Project Plan was ideal for the type of genealogy research I was working on.  I wanted to do the research myself while having professional genealogy guidance.

Here’s how the ForeverⓇ Family Research 3-Month Coaching Project Plan worked for me:

  • The professional genealogist reached out to me by email to schedule a time to discuss where I was at with my brick wall project.  By email I summarized what the project was, what I did accomplish and what I was stuck on.  
  • We then met via Zoom face-to-face for an hour.  This involved screen sharing and discussion.  This counted as my first month’s coaching session.  By the time the session ended, we figured out how we could approach it.  
  • I was given “homework” with detailed instructions provided during and after the session. I already had a Forever storage account and was able to access that month’s coaching  session summary.  The summary included what we discussed and my homework that was due by next month’s coaching session.
  • The next month’s hour-long Zoom coaching session focused on what I accomplished with the homework that was given.  We examined the results I got from obtaining a digital document that helped answer a research question.  We also went over other documents found since we last met.  
  • Again, I was given homework based on new goals set during the coaching session.  That session’s coaching summary was then loaded into my Forever storage account to access later.  
  • By the third and last month’s hour-long Zoom coaching session, a lot more about my ancestor was revealed than I anticipated.  It amazed me that I was able to uncover more than my initial research goal with the ForeverⓇ professional genealogist’s coaching.  I was curious as to how much more could be revealed.
  • Rather than get a ForeverⓇ Coaching Project Plan extension, to save me time I proceeded with the Research Project Plan for 3 months.  I was able to keep working with the same trained professional genealogist.  
  • Rather than me working on the project, the professional genealogist created a plan to carry out the project, looking into other records further and even translating them into English.  
  • Each month we met for a 2-hour Zoom session, which covered what was found and next month’s research plan.  
  • I received a monthly written report with that and research findings saved directly into my ForeverⓇ storage account for me to access at any time.  

How Easy Was This Service To Use?

Working with a ForeverⓇ professional genealogist for both types of project plans was easy.  The coaching project plan homework assigned was realistic, and the step-by-step guidance was straightforward.  I was able to learn hands-on skills that I can carry forward into future projects on my own. 

What About Support?

The ForeverⓇ professional genealogist was responsive and helpful with providing the research assistance I needed during Zoom sessions and brief emails between the sessions that I needed to send from time to time.  Monthly summaries were well written, making it easy to understand what was accomplished and what goals were set during the Zoom sessions.

Value For Money Spent

The project plan pricing is not that unrealistic were you to pursue hiring a professional genealogist and taking into consideration how much time and money you could waste trying to figure out brick wall issues alone.  Personally, I got a lot more than I expected out of both the coaching project plan and research project plan at just the 3-month increment for each.  

Overall, the ForeverⓇ Family Research genealogy plans are worthwhile purchasing to resolve genealogy research problems with professional guidance, quickly and effectively.  The results I received from the genealogy plans I purchased were beyond my expectations for each. 

When You Need To Hire A Pro Genealogist

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After I did as much as I could at the intermediate genealogist level with my great-grandfather’s parent brick wall, I realized it was time to make an important decision.  Should I hire a professional genealogist?  Or, should I just be satisfied that I ruled out who was not his parents?

It wasn’t that easy for me to just simply be satisfied and let this brick wall remain.  I simply had to do something about it!  Especially when a cousin pointed out to me that there was a record worth looking into that was listed in the Social Security Application and Claims Index.  I was aware of it, but we both didn’t know how to pursue it further.

What I Really Needed

What I really needed was a coach at the professional genealogist level.  I had a strong desire to still “do the genealogy” but with a guiding hand and fresh eyes looking at this brick wall.  

This need was met through a company I’m affiliated with through their service, ForeverⓇ Family Research.  The service helps genealogy buffs or family historians with full-service research support, coaching or a one-time consultation.  

Here are the genealogy plans that ForeverⓇ Family Research offers:

  • Research Project Plans
    • A trained professional genealogist creates a full-service plan customized based on your specific needs.
      • The professional genealogist works with you to clearly outline your goals.
      • You begin your personalized research plan looking into records while working out family details.
      • You get help with brick walls, DNA interpretation or foreign language research to get needed answers.
      • You get a monthly written report and a virtual face-to-face meeting with the professional genealogist to guide you through the research and documents located each month. 
      • Findings are saved directly into a ForeverⓇ storage account for you to access at any time.  
      • You may wish to have a personal private ForeverⓇ Family Tree or invite the professional genealogist to have access to a tree you already have created to review with you and add to as the research project progresses.
    • Research Project Plans are available at 12-month, 6-month and 3-month increments.
  • Coaching Project Plans
    • If you just need some guidance and want to do your own genealogy research, a trained professional genealogist can help. Your guidance includes training and resource recommendations to provide you with skills and resources to design and implement your own research journey.
      • The professional genealogist picks up on where you are with your research to provide you with monthly customized coaching sessions.  
      • You are assisted with staying on task and prioritizing your goals while you learn hands-on skills as you progress.
      • Coaching sessions are monthly for one hour face-to-face virtually to discuss research goals, provide you with guidance through research approaches and available resources and recommended next steps to meet goals.
      • You get a monthly coaching report outlining what was discussed and resource recommendations plus your research task assignments.  This is added to a ForeverⓇ storage account for you to access at any time.  
      • You use new skills and resources to finish research task assignments while you do your own genealogy research on your own time before the next coaching session.
    • Coaching Projects are available at 12-month, 6-month and 3-month increments.
  • One-Time Consultation
    • If you aren’t ready to pursue a research or coaching project but have questions related to genealogy research or need some direction to get started, you can book a 1-hour consultation with one of the ForeverⓇ trained professional genealogists.
      • The consultation is done via online video chat.  
      • Topics for discussion:
        • Specific genealogy records
        • Recommended research approaches to make progress on your own
        • Understanding the basics of DNA
        • Strategizing solutions for your own genealogy research needs

What I Opted For

The ForeverⓇ Coaching Plan was perfect for me.  I opted for the 3-month increment plan, which was just right.  Within that timeframe I was educated about the Social Security Application and Claims Index record my cousin and I wanted to explore further.  

Following the steps the ForeverⓇ professional genealogist provided me, I was able to access a digital copy of the document, which answered a brick wall question.  This indeed was a genealogy research victory that was not that hard to achieve once I knew what to do.

Want To Know More?

If you would like to know more about how ForeverⓇ Family Research can help you, go to Forever.com.

If you would like to know more about my own personal experience with ForeverⓇ Family Research, click here.

How I Manage Digital Source Citations

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Keeping track of genealogy research sources can be daunting if you don’t decide from the start of a project how you’re going to cite them.  Waiting until later to catch up on source citations can become a tedious task, especially when you’d rather spend your time “doing the genealogy.” 

Just like managing genealogy research, there are many ways to manage genealogy source citations.  There are also different ways to actually write out the source citation.  Trust me, I’ve explored this thoroughly.

But, rather than spend a lot of time going genealogy geek mode with this task, I figured out a way that would take care of keeping track of sources and digital documents in one file–a Google Sheets spreadsheet.  Initially I tried using Airtable, but that really messed me up.  So, I settled for sticking with what I know best.  

Here’s how I manage digital source citations:

  • In Google Drive, create a new Google Sheets document in a folder or subfolder that contains contents relevant to a research project you’re working on.  Doing so will eliminate the step of having to move it to the right folder later.
  • Name it:  [Surname] Index to Documents.
    • Example:  Smith Index to Documents.  
  • Create titles for each column on line 1 in bold and adding in a different fill color for each column as follows:
    • Column A:  FILE NAME
    • Column B:  TYPE
    • Column C:  SURNAME
    • Column D:  GIVEN NAME
    • Column E:  DIRECT/INDIRECT
    • Column F:  DATE ACCESSED
    • Column G:  LOCATION
    • Column H:  FOLDER/ALBUM
    • Column I:  COMMENTS
  • Rename the tab using surname of one ancestor only or surnames of a grandparent couple.
    • Example:  Smith or Smith/Jones 
  • If you want to include in this document source citations for parents, grandparents, 2x grandparents and so forth:
    • Add a tab for each, renaming the tab with the surnames.
      • Example:  Smith/Jones, Smith/Doe, Smith/Buck
    • Copy line 1 column titles and paste to line 1, column A to each tab.

Ideally, you should have this spreadsheet open as part of your digital research workflow.  As you add digital files like documents and photos to where you keep them on your computer, you should be adding information to the spreadsheet.

Here’s how you add spreadsheet information:

  • Type in or copy/paste the title of the document or photo under FILE NAME in column A.   For example:  Smith, John & Jane Headstone.jpg
  • Under Type, column B, type in what file or category it would be in where you have it stored.  For example:  Death
  • Type in the surname associated with it under column C.  Example:  Smith
  • For Column D, Given Name, type in the first name.  Example:  John
  • Type in either Direct or Indirect under column E to identify if the person is directly or indirectly related to you.  For example, a spouse from a second marriage or partner of a biological relative.
  • Type in the date you accessed the source under column F, Date Accessed, as MM/DD/YYYY.
  • For Column G, Location, type in where you have the document or photo kept digitally or if you really want to get fancy like me, you can create a drop-down list (check out this YouTube tutorial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INNrCTtXjkE ).
    • For example, if I have it in my ForeverⓇ storage only, I select Forever.  
    • If I have it in both ForeverⓇ storage and my HP computer, I select HP & Forever.
  • Under column H, Folder/Album, type in the name of the folder you have it stored in (example:  Death).  In my case, it could be both a computer folder and a ForeverⓇ storage album, so I would type in Death/Album Name.
  • It is under column I, Comments, where you make your source citation.  Oftentimes, a website like Ancestry will provide you with the source citation that you can copy/paste into this column.  If not, I go by the simple advice given in this blog post by Devon Noel Lee, https://www.familyhistoryfanatics.com/citing-sources-simplified :  Your source citation should at least include:
    • Who created the source originally
    • The name or title of the source
    • When it was created or published
    • Where it can be found in a book or collection (page number, for example)
    • Where the source is located (archive, website)

That’s all there is to how I manage digital source citations for my genealogy research project.  I’m not saying it’s THE way to cite your sources, but it’s one way of doing it.  If you do a Google search, you’ll see how many options there are.  It’s just a matter of finding what works right for you.