Hello,

Has anyone found any reliable web sources to use to locate names of classmates who are deceased? We've used the Social Security index, but lost the name of the free site that some wonderful CC admin put up on here. Can't relocate.

Confirmation of "supposed" deceased classmates is a sensitive area that needs 100% accuracy as you already know!

Thanks!
Donna

The SSDI part of this one is free and it's always current within a week or two:
http://www.genealogybank.com/gbnk/ssdi/

And this one lets you narrow down the dates or guess at the last name:
http://ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/ssdi.cgi

We check this one for obits; free if recent:
http://www.legacy.com/ns/obitfinder/obituary-search.aspx?landing=1

Google alerts will do regular searches for any phrases and let you know when something pops up. We have it searching for "graduated from [high school]" and "graduate of [high school]" to catch other recent obits: http://www.google.com/alerts

Thanks Mary--such a quick response. This will help a great deal!

Donna

Also when using
http://ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/ssdi.cgi

if you put in your state under issued by it helps narrow it down as most classmates got their SS number when they turned 16

Don't forget your hometown library. By searching local newspaper archives we located dates and full obituaries for most. Often, by locating notices about family members who remained in town, we found classmate married names and locations for those that moved away.

We found the library search was faster than online, for many.

Check with the County Clerk's office in your county seat to search through marriage records (to locate married names of missing female class members.) Make a note of the town where the groom was from -- it will help later to search for that surname on whitepages.com in the groom's city and state. You might run across a sibling or other relative who knows the whereabouts of the couple.

Search through the County Clerk's death records to locate dates and causes of deaths. Then with the date of death you can search the microfilm records of the local newspaper to find obituaries.

Of course to be found in the County Clerk's records, the marriage or death must have occurred within the county.

Most funeral homes have a nation wide directory of funeral homes across the country, and sometimes foreign countries.

A free site that I have had limited success with is

findagrave.com

Also, I was able to fine one classmate by simply doing a google search, but her name was rather unusual, and it appeared in an obituary on a newspaper site.

While on the topic of searches, I'll add this little note - when trying to find classmates who are PROBABLY still alive, a pay site that I still subscribe to [a carry over from my private inbvestigator days - LOL] is publicdata.com

Steve

I use Americas deaths and obituaries. It is available through libaries that have permium resources. If you find the libary has it available, get a libary card and you can search from home. I had to get mine from a larger city libary that is 1 1/2 hours away. So you might have to do some searching to see what libary has it available. It will have to be in the state you live to get the card. But well worth the search. I also use Reference USA through the library to find lost classmates.

To all who responded--your input has been spot on. Very helpful. Thank you very much.

Donna & Cathy