If the State of Louisiana paid Old Age Assistance, what department wrote the che

Question:In the late 1930's and until 1964 my grandfather received a pension check from the state of Louisiana. What would the name of the State Department that issued the checks be. Example the State of Texas called it The Department of Public Welfare. I found a dairy online from a man in Simsboro, written from 1927 till 1944, it was a daily record of who died, was born, the weather and what he did for each day. In that diary he mentioned "went to town to Ruston (Parish Seat) to pick up my $60.00 "Government Check". There is not a record, to be found, of a Social Security number for grand father. He was born somewhere around 1865 to 1870, no birth records have been found. On his death Certificate there is not a SS number. All of our family records were accidently destroyed in 1983 and recently, while tracing our family tree, it was discovered that no one knows our Great Grand Fathers name.
If anyone can remember the State agency or anyone I could contact in Louisiana , Thanks

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: In the late 1930's and until 1964 my grandfather received a pension check from the state of Louisiana. What would the name of the State Department that issued the checks be. Example the State of Texas called it The Department of Public Welfare. I found a dairy online from a man in Simsboro, written from 1927 till 1944, it was a daily record of who died, was born, the weather and what he did for each day. In that diary he mentioned "went to town to Ruston (Parish Seat) to pick up my $60.00 "Government Check". There is not a record, to be found, of a Social Security number for grand father. He was born somewhere around 1865 to 1870, no birth records have been found. On his death Certificate there is not a SS number. All of our family records were accidently destroyed in 1983 and recently, while tracing our family tree, it was discovered that no one knows our Great Grand Fathers name.
If anyone can remember the State agency or anyone I could contact in Louisiana , Thanks

Jimmy, on the chance that someone comes up with info for you, after your question closes... your profile does not allow email, and they may not be able to reach you.
the death certificate should have a date of birth, which can be compared to earlier census records. If you use the birthplace(s) of the children, to narrow down what county he lived in, just prior to ww1... you may be able to locate a draft registration, with his place of birth.
Just for the record.. social security started in the late 1930s, not 1960s. A ss # may not have been required on a death cert in 1964, which does NOT prove he didn't have one.
There are numerous avenues that you can search for info.

Hi Jimmy. If your father was drawing social security at the time of his death and on his own social security number, you will probably find him on the Social Security Death Index. FamilySearch.org and Rootsweb(2 free sites) has it. All you need is his name as it was on social security OR his number. You don't need both even though there is a place for both. Once you find him on Rootsweb, there is a place to the left you can probe and a letter will come up which will enable you to order a copy of his social security number application. That usually gives the names of both parents, including mother's maiden name and the ones I have seen has their places of birth.

Just put your address and your relationship on the letter, attach a $27 check and mail it.

>>In the late 1930's and until 1964 my grandfather received a pension check ... He was born somewhere around 1865 to 1870 <<

Did grandfather really live into his 90s or did you mistype? You didn't give his name, so we helpful people can't look around for you.

>>On his death Certificate there is not a SS number. <<
Since the Social Security system was new in 1964 and the money he was receiving was not from the Social Security system, it's understandable that he's not listed/doesn't have a number.

I have two guesses: There were several farm relief bills during this time period as the midwest dust bowl spread and the depression hit. Or, if he worked for the railroad, he could have been getting a pension check.

It would have been a Social Security check from the federal government. The state didn't release their own separate check unless he was a retired state employee. You're not finding grandpa in the Social Security Death Index because he died a little early in the recording process. If grandpa was a retired State employee, then you can contact the Louisiana State Archives to find out what information they have on him from his old personnel files. The agency issuing the checks doesn't keep all those old records themselves, they send all of their records to the State Archives for safekeeping after the person in question is dead.

If your purpose is to find your great-grandfather's name, then start with your grandfather's marriage certificate. It's the one time in that era that you HAD to list both parents. There weren't birth certificates required back then and death certificates are notoriously unreliable because a lot of guessing and nickname reporting was done.

If your purpose is to find out more about your grandfather's "government check", it's a dead end. If you had the number or enough information to identify him, which it doesn't appear that you have, the best you could get is a copy of the Social Security application. Because of his age, the application would have been way back in the 30s and there was almost no useful information.

I would personally start with the Clerk's office in the Parish where your grandpa lived and find that marriage license. If he was Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist or Episcopalian, you could also check with the church that he belonged to and see if they have family records for you. Finding the church where he was baptized would give you a whole lot of wonderful family information, as long as he was baptized as an infant. Doesn't work as well for Baptists.