Friday Find
Ordering a Social Security Application from the SSA Genealogists today are accustomed to finding records with a few clicks—census records, draft registrations, newspaper articles, and even cemetery images. But not that many years ago, obtaining some records required a different approach: identifying the record, writing a letter, mailing payment, and waiting for the response. Today’s Friday Find is a reminder of that earlier process. Recently, while sorting through my CRAWFORD files, I came across correspondence from the Social Security Administration dated 6 February 2001 . The letter enclosed a copy of the original application for a Social Security number—better known to genealogists as the SS-5 —for Percy Ernest Crawford (1893–1978) . Percy wasn’t a direct ancestor, but he was certainly family: my second cousin twice removed . Percy was the son of William M. Crawford and Katie Kreigh , grandson of James H. Crawford , and great-grand...