Veteran ISBA member Paul Meints has a great tip for anyone looking for the social security number of someone who has been dead for a number of years. "[Y]ou might start by looking at ancestry.com," where you can do an SSN search, he writes in the latest ISBA Trusts and Estates newsletter, which is available to all section members.

"You will have to subscribe to ancestry.com to obtain the SSN and related information of a decedent," he writes. "This site does have limitations regarding obtaining a SSN and you cannot obtain a SSN from this site for a person who died within the last 10 years." But he says, it's a place to start. You'll find it here.