jmcquown wrote:

> On 4/19/2021 11:06 PM, Sqwertz wrote:
> > I guess I could also check out SS Death Index. Actually, no, you
> > can't anymore without buying an online subscrioption. And hose start
> > at $1,000/year and go up to $14.5K/year. Anybody else offerin it
> > online free or paid, has databases that only go back to 2014 at the
> > most recent. And the data is still very inaccurate. Goverment data
> > should be free, not collected with our tax dollars then sold back to
> > us.
>
> About the SS Death Index. I agree with you it should be free
> information. Years ago I got photocopies of my grandparents' (on
> both sides of the family) actual Social Security Applications via
> that site. The copies are in their handwriting and date to the
> 1930's, which is when Social Security was still a new idea.
>
> Didn't cost a thing. I was doing it for family genealogy
> information. Copies of the applications provided me with the names of
> my great grandparents, which I was never sure about. My dad's
> grandfather's name was Martin Luther McQuown. Huh. I didn't know
> that. I did know his grandmother's name was Rosa Reithmiller. We're
> mostly Scottish but a Pennsylvania dutch German woman came into the
> picture.
>
> Dad's father continued in that vein and married Lena Ruffner, whose
> father was Lewis Ruffner and her mother was Susan Catherine Weiss.
> From Indiana, Pennsylvania or thereabouts.
>
> Why should the government charge us to find out information like this?
>
> A side note: I found a copy of Lewis Ruffner's discharge papers in a
> drawer in this house. He was a Private in the 5th Regiment of the
> Pennsylvania Volunteers. Local militia. It describes him as a
> Blacksmith by trade and says he was 32 years old, 5'4", fair
> complexion, brown eyes, light hair.) He served two years and was
> discharged, Paid in full $52.97 November 7, 1898.
>
> Jill

Mothers and mothers maiden name and dates of birth.