Lawrence E. Lincoln’s life was filled with American history. He and his wife Shirley were both Mayflower descendants, he served in the U.S. Navy as a radar man on the USS Huntington during WWII, he attended Brown University, and he belonged to several Masonic chapters in New England.
![An obituary for Lawrence Lincoln, Cape Cod Times newspaper article 25 October 2007](https://blog.genealogybank.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/cape-cod-times-newspaper-1025-2007-lawrence-lincoln-obituary.png)
I discovered Lawrence’s life story using GenealogyBank’s U.S. Obituary Search. This handy search tool archives obituaries from 1977 onward, and is a great resource for finding family obituaries – or, in this case, finding the stories about recent Mayflower descendants.
I began by searching GenealogyBank using the keywords “Mayflower” AND “descendant.”
![A screenshot of GenealogyBank's search page showing a search for "Mayflower" and "descendant"](https://blog.genealogybank.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/genealogybank-0915-2017-mayflower-descendant-search.png)
Lots of obituaries matched this search, but Lawrence’s caught my eye because it had so many other interesting details in the headline: he was a WWII vet, a Freemason, and a Mayflower descendant.
I did notice, however, that Lawrence’s obituary didn’t give me his exact birth and death dates, so I went back to GenealogyBank, this time to the Social Security Death Index (SSDI). There, I entered Lawrence’s information from his obituary.
![A screenshot of GenealogyBank's search page for the Social Security Death Index, showing a search for Lawrence Lincoln](https://blog.genealogybank.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/ssdi-0915-2017-lawrence-lincoln-search.png)
Sure enough, this SSDI search pulled up Lawrence’s record.
![The Social Security Death Index record for Lawrence Lincoln](https://blog.genealogybank.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/ssdi-0915-2017-lawrence-lincoln.png)
Lawrence’s obituary gave me his age and hometown, but now, thanks to the Social Security Death Index record, I now have his exact birth and death dates, as well as his last known residence.
Genealogy Tip: Using the Social Security Death Index in conjunction with the other records in GenealogyBank can be a great way to find missing information about close family members, including exact dates of birth and death.
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