Before that parents could apply for a social security number for their children. These parents didn’t. I still have a card my parents got for me when I was still in grade school.
I did not have a SSAN issued to me until I was 16 and starting my first job. Very unusual for a child to have a SSAN back then.
I was born in 1954 and we did not apply for SS card until we were 16 at that time we were allowed to start working at 16!,,
“Before that parents could apply for a social security number for their children.”
They could, but at that time, most people didn’t apply for one until they needed to get a job, so probably not until around high school age.
I don’t think I got a social security card until I started working.
Many parents didn’t bother, until IRS decided that no dependents could be claimed on a return without a social security number for each. This must have been by the late 1970s?
I just came across mine from 1967. I was just learning “cursive.” You could tell my parents had impressed upon me how important the signature was. It appears like the most carefully written signature I’ve ever done in my life.
These days it’s a scrawl.