The Social Security Number (SSN) Trace associates a given name and SSN number against databases assembled from private sector sources and serves primarily as a locater tool to establish likely jurisdictions to search for public records. The inclusion of information from the SSN Trace is only provided to confirm that the service was performed.

ESR’s SSN Trace uses a private sector database compiled from hundreds of sources that include credit headers, U.S. Postal Service address forwarding, utility bill records, and voter registration records. The SSN Trace checks the provided Social Security number for names and addresses that have been used in conjunction with a given SSN.

On numbers issued before SSN Randomization*, this search also returns the year and state of issue, if the SSN is a validly issued number and conducts a scan of the Social Security Administration (SSA) Death Master Index File of deceased persons.

*The SSA implemented randomization methodology on June 25, 2011. Social Security Numbers issued from that date forward have no correlation to state or date of issue. As a result, when an SSN trace is run on those numbers no state or date of issue data can be provided.