Will Beback wrote:
Matthew Brown wrote:
Is it enough to simply match name, approximate age, and state of residence in death records to prove someone is dead for BLP concerns?
- Are such lookups in SSDI legitimate sourcing for articles, or are
they original research?
Under special circumstances (highly unusual names, extremely advanced ages, very small states) the information may be presumed correct. Under normal circumstances it's impossible to be sure that one has the right entry. My opinion is that the guideline should be to exclude raw primary source material like the SSDI but that editors could plead a special case, as with any guideline.
Better still: Use common sense, and avoid yet another stupid rule that some idiot can take literally.
Ec