Interesting SSN Records Trivia
The history of the social security number (SSN) in the US is quite interesting. No kidding! SSN records became a necessity when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law on August 14, 1935, which created the social insurance program designed to give continuing income for retired workers over the age of 65. To keep track of the beneficiaries of the program, the federal government mandated the issuance of SS cards with unique SSNs for all eligible employees so it’s easy to run a people search by SSN service.
First?
However, the first SSN records did not put in an appearance until some time in November 1936 when the first batch of SSNs were circulated in 45,000 post offices all over the US. During that time, the Social Security Board did not have field offices, so local post offices were deputized as distribution centers for application forms as well as typing centers for the cards.
It would seem reasonable that the first SSN records would have the lowest numbers, but in fact, the first of the official SSN records were taken from New York with the designation 055-09-0001 and even used for SSN trace. It belonged to the 23-year-old John D. Sweeney, Jr., son of a wealthy factory owner, whose card happened to be on the top of the first batch of 1,000 cards issued and brought to Baltimore, Maryland for entry into the SSN records master file of SSN database. So technically, it was not the first SS card issued, just the first to be chosen to be in the SSN records. Sweeney’s wife drew SS benefits after his death in 1974 until she died in 1982
Lowest of the low
The card with the lowest possible SSN in the SSN records was issued to a New Hampshire woman from Concorde named Grace D. Owen. Her SSN was 001-01-0001, and this was originally reserved first for former governor John G. Winant, who was at the time Social Security Board Chairman, who declined. It was next offered to John Campbell, who was Federal Bureau of Old Age Benefits’ Regional Representative of the Boston Region. He also declined, and the number as entered into SSN records was finally awarded to Owen, who was the first applicant from New Hampshire in November 1936.
You too??!
The most used and abused number in the SSN records, however, is what is referred to as the “Woolworth” number, 078-05-1120. It was an actual SSN given to Mrs. Hilda Schrader, which was used as a sample card in Woolworth wallets in 1938. All told, about 40,000 people appropriated the number as their own until 1977, although it was voided from SSN records in 1943.
For more mundane reasons such as checking the validity of an employee’s SSN, legitimate search companies such as GovernmentRegistry.org can search the SSN records.