How do you access the Social Security Death Index?

The Social Security Death Index is available for public access on a number of genealogy websites, such as Ancestry and Family Search. To search through it, go to the Ancestry website and navigate to the "Birth, Marriage, and Death" tab, then click on the "U.S. Social Security Death Index 1935-2014" link.

The Social Security Death Index is a database of individuals whose death was reported to the Social Security Administration. The Social Security Administration allows users of a number of genealogy sites to search through the database for free. Use the following steps to access the Social Security Death Index.

1. Go to the Ancestry website.

Open up the Ancestry site in a Web browser.

2. Click on the "Support Center" link.

Click on the link entitled "Support Center" at the bottom-left of the page.

3. Hover over the "Search" tab, then click on "Birth, Marriage, and Death".

Hover the cursor over the "Search" tab across the top menu. Click on the "Birth, Marriage, and Death" link that appears in the drop-down menu.

4. Click on "U.S., Social Security Death Index 1935-2014" under the "Featured Data Collections" headline.

On the right-hand side of the screen, click on the first link under "Featured Data Collections". From here, search for keywords and use filters to navigate through the Social Security Death Index database.