Update on Ben's Identification Problem

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After posting Ben needs help, can you suggest a solution? yesterday, many readers commented or emailed me offering suggestions and help. 

After finding his mother's Social Security Death Index information indicating an Ohio last residence, I checked the online Ohio death indexes to try to pin down the death date.  She wasn't in the Ohio death index.  Hmmm. 

I tried the Ancestry.com global search, and found that she died in Deschutes County, Oregon in 1987, from the Oregon State Deaths, 1903-1998 database.  I also found her son's death record in Deschutes County, Oregon.  The Oregon Death Index provides name, age, birth date, death date, death county, spouse's name and the certificate number.

How to obtain a death record from Oregon?  After thrashing through the seemingly useless www.VitalRec.com website (the links for Oregon, and other states don't work!), I used the Oregon Vital Records website (http://public.health.oregon.gov/BirthDeathCertificates/GetVitalRecords/Pages/index.aspx) to download the requirements and the death certificate form. 

It costs $20 by mail, and requires official identification, or alternative identification (three documents such as a utility bill, a medical or insurance statement, a paycheck stub, court or parole document, work ID, unemployment statement, food stamp or other benefit card, a permit for firearms, fishing, hunting, or a vehicle registration, title or insurance statement; all dated within the last 30 days! 

Those requirements may be a problem for Ben, who is indigent, is living at a downtown hotel, and has only an expired New Mexico license.  All he needs is the mother's maiden name on the death certificate or some other record.

It may be easier, and faster, to order the Social Security Application for his mother for $27 from the Social Security Administration. 

Thank you to everyone that tried to help Ben.