Has anyone encountered an ancestor with 2 social security numbers
I have "met" a cousin through a posting of a picture. He claims his great grandfather and my great grandfather are brothers. I or my family have never heard of this cousin or the fact that our great grand had this 3rd brother. The middle brother that my family is familiar with has verifiable connections to my great grand and coming to the US, the name of this middle brother added an O, added an A so possibility exists that there are 2 men with the same name, same town and same birthdate???. I tried to check signatures on various docs. Sent away for cousin's great grandfather's birth certificate in Italy but just wondered if anyone had encountered a relative with 2 social security numbers?
Answers
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whether its common or not is one thing - but virtually anything in this world is POSSIBLE.
Are there people out there with two social secuirtty numbers - - I dont know of any - but Im sure there are people out there - yes.
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Yes, back in the mid 1900's it was fairly easy to falsify birth records & drivers license to obtain a new Social Security number. My uncle had multiple identities. Does DNA confirm the connection?
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. . . but Im still a bit confused as to the "connection" between the story of the 2 (possibly 3) brothers - and the point of the possible two SSN's for one person.
seems to me you just have a case of 3 brothers - so I dont understand the comments about the double SSN. and even if there were really just 2 - I stil am not sure I understand the scenario.
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My "new" cousin is saying he is related to me though our great grandfathers. His great is a brother that my family never knew existed. He claims he knew of my great grandfather and the tie in shows up through this 3rd brother, who my family is very familiar with that had the 2 SS#.
So if it is possible that people in the 1930's and 40's had 2 SS# then these 3 men could be related. If it not possible then I am somehow looking at 2 men who had the same name, one related to me, the other not and my "new" cousin is not my cousin at all.
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I guess if I saw the two SSN doucments you allude to I would understanhd better . . .
can you point us at the PID's in FamilySearch?
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Anything is possible, even with 2 SSNs. Social Security was started in the early 1930's and record keeping at SSA was rudimentary, i.e., early computing machinery with punched cards, etc., and massive paper file cabinets. Someone who had a SSN card, but, didn't have it for a job interview and couldn't remember the number or find it would need the job now, and the payroll clerk sends in another SSN application for the new employee creating 2 SSNs for the same person if there was no cross check. If the person with 2 SSNs used the two SSN cards interchangeably from job to job thinking everything is okay, and would have payroll SS taxes associated with both numbers. Even now we as employees are requested by SSA to check our SS records yearly, especially before age 62 if retiring early or later.
Not everyone had a SSN in the first place, i.e., farmers and U.S. government employees didn't have SSNs up until 40/50 or so years ago. When farmers found out they could receive SS benefits in the late 1950s and 1960s without paying in any payroll taxes, they jumped on the easy money only to find out they needed to prove that they were age 62 or older. Most didn't have government issued birth certificates and this is why we see duplicate birth certificates when we do birth searches. They had to be signed off by someone aware of their birth, i.e., sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, parents, etc., and some kind of proof, which tended to be Bible birth entries, school records, whatever that showed their birth date.
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