Ancestry.com Minnesota Death Index vs. Social Security Death Index?

You're probably confusing the place where the card was issued with the place of birth. If the person you're researching lived in Michigan when he applied for his card, nothing would stop him from later moving to Minnesota. But he still got the card in Michigan, so that's the info that the SSDI lists.

The way that you find if they're the same person is to pull the death certificate for the deceased person and to write to the Social Security Administration for information on the person listed in the SSDI. The other way is to find the funeral home that handled the funeral as they'll have a copy of the death certificate and will know the SSN of the person they buried. They can confirm for you (without paying for a death certificate) if it's the same person. If you don't know it offhand, contact a volunteer through the Rootsweb site for the county where he last received benefits and see if they can pull the obituary for you from the local library.

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If they are in the Minnesota Death Index, then they died in Minnesota. The social security death index can be a little confusing. Like Genevieve's mom said, the number could have been issued in Michigan, but there is also a field in the Social Security Death Index called Place of last benefit. Sometimes people confuse the place of last benefit with the actual place of death. This information can prove to be extremely valuable in the search for relatives, however, as next of kin were usually the ones to receive the last benefit. So, in a nutshell. Your relative may have died in Minnesota, but the place of last benefit could have been payed to some place in Michigan, maybe to a child or surviving spouse.

The SSDI lists the place of last residence and where the SSN was issued. He could have been on vacation when he died, so that is where his death certificate would most likely be. You could try to find an obituary for him which may say where he lived and where he died.