Grandma was born in a foreign country and has no birth certificate. She doesn't know where she was born. She came here as a small child and doesn't know for sure if her parent's were naturalized. To be honest, we are not sure how old she really is. She might have been adopted informally - brought over with relatives. She doesn't drive. She doesn't vote. Grandpa had his own business. We don't know if he paid taxes or what. None of this was a problem until, reckoning she's 65, we decided to help her apply for Social Security. How can we document Grandma?
Answer: If Grandpa had his own cash business and never paid into Social Security or didn't pay into the program long enough, Grandma may not be eligible! Have you asked Social Security? Does Grandpa or Grandma have a Social Security number? If so there must be some record of him and her, so my guess is she does not. I would check on grandpa and a legal marriage first.
OK. I would try using church or temple records, some evidence of her having a child who was born and baptized long ago, her wedding record, something like that. Social Security used to accept this kind of evidence that a person was old enough to mother or father, but these days who knows just how old is considered old enough! Pull up census records and anything else you can to BUILD A TIME LINE full of evidence of Grandma's life.
