One of the most difficult searches for genealogists is to find a family member who has been placed in an institution for reasons other than criminal.
Each state, county or institution has its own rules for disclosing the names or circumstances of inmates / patients / clients. Some documents may have previously been public, but have since been destroyed.
Perhaps you see in a census that the wife is missing – the husband and children are listed but the wife is not. You are looking for a death certificate or a grave. Nothing. There are several scenarios: they could have divorced and she remarried and can no longer be searched under her old name; she could have moved; she may not have been in the household at the time of the enumerator’s visit (possibly with a relative). Or could it have been institutionalized? Tragically, some institutions have buried deceased residents in mass graves, with no markers and no record of their deaths.
Who is institutionalized? My membership in the Indiana Genealogical Society has state and county databases. I chose my county, Wayne, and the Index to Defective, Dependent & Delinquent Census for Wayne County, Indiana (1880), which is a special program from the 1880 US Census. It includes first and last name, town , age, institution, and category – deaf and dumb, destitute, homeless, blind, fool and mad. It’s only for one year, but it gives an idea of what people might be institutionalized for.
According to Family Search (www.HYPERLINK “http://familysearch.org” familysearch.org), population census schedules for prisons, hospitals, poor homes or farms and insane asylums were often placed towards the end of the rest of the ordinary population. county schedules. The same goes for the records of American Indians, forts and military bases.
If you are looking for a female ancestor, the reasons for her institutionalization may have been more devious, though legal at the time. Between 1850 and 1900, a husband could put his wife in jail if she did not agree with him, practiced a religion he did not like, suffered from postpartum depression, had inherited “madness”, had problems. epileptic seizures, had suffered an accident in ways opposite to him. Another symptom of admission was the suppression of menstruation, or anything to do with female organs.
In most cases, engagement in a public institution or hospital begins in the county or estates court, where records may be easier to access than from the asylum or hospital. Check guardianship and look at the estate court record – this is a table of contents of the case proceedings and lists the type of case and where it is registered. Sometimes a newspaper publishes the court proceedings.
An interesting online article is “Lunacy in the 19th Century: Women’s Admission to Asylums in United States of America,” Katherine Pouba and Ashley Tianen, co-authors. Dr Susan McFadden, Psychology, Educational Consultant.
“Genealogy doesn’t stop when you type The End. There is always more to the story.
Becky McCreary is a member of the Southern Arizona Genealogy Society and teaches Storytellers: Writing family stories. Genealogy Today articles are archived at HYPERLINK “http://www.azsags.org” www.azsags.org. Articles may not be reprinted without written permission from the author, [email protected]
