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?
2) 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