Ancestry Magazine

Institutionalized. The term alone brings a host of images to mind. Poorhouses, asylums, orphanages, mental hospitals, reformatories, jails, penitentiaries, veterans homes, hospitals—learning that an ancestor spent time in any of these can lead to a seeming deadend in your family history research, unless you know how and where to look.

 

Where Institutions Originated

Institutions haven’t been around forever. Check early county or town records and you’ll find that in the 17th and 18th centuries, family and neighbors took care of people who would have, in later times, been institutionalized, a fact that is often substantiated by records of financial assistance. It wasn’t until the late 18th to mid 19th century that town and county records began to show community care by family and neighbors giving way to the establishment of institutions.

 

Poorhouses

One of the earliest institutions was the poorhouse, where a wide range of people—unmarried mothers, disabled persons, parentless children, people with severe mental disorders—were housed. Poorhouses were run by counties and towns. To find information on an ancestor who may have spent time in a poorhouse, check county and city records, although surviving lists of poorhouse residents are uncommon. Even rarer is finding the occasional noted deviation in an overseer’s report.

 

Specialized Institutions

During the 1830s and 1840s, multipurpose facilities were dropped in favor of more specialized institutions including orphanages, mental hospitals, juvenile reformatories, and incarceration facilities.

 

Commitment records for people placed in orphanages and mental hospitals may be located through the probate office at a person’s county of residence. To find an incarceration record, start in criminal courts, where testimony, evidence, and orders for sentencing will be found along with the nature of the crime and the names of people involved, including witnesses.

 

Once you find an official record, look through local newspapers for a news story that may reveal more personal information, perhaps the “inside” scoop of crime or corruption. If the official record does not identify where the person was sent—a key clue to additional records—a newspaper article might.

 

Census Records

Institution residents, whether in a Catholic orphanage, a county mental hospital, or a state prison, were recorded in each census in their “place of abode.”

 

The 1880 Special Census of Defective, Dependent, and Delinquent collected information using the following schedules: Insane Inhabitants; Idiots; Deaf-Mutes; Blind Inhabitants; Homeless Children (in institutions); Inhabitants in Prison; and Pauper and Indigent Inhabitants. These supplemental schedules, which include certain details about the condition of the disabled person, exist for some states among the non-population schedules.

 

If you know a person was institutionalized, try an every name search of census records at Ancestry.com. If his or her name does not show up, scan census pages for the institute in which the person lived—realize that admission information may have been scanty or a surname or given name may not have been properly recorded.

 

Finding the Institution

Once you have the specific name and location of an institution, you can examine its history—how it was managed and funded provides clues to the location of its records. If an institution fell under religious leadership, records may be at a denominational repository. If county or state government was the overseer, that government’s auditor’s office may know their whereabouts today. If you learn that the facility still exists, even under a different name, their website may state their research policy. Additionally, by searching online for the institution, you may discover databases or indexes created by USGenWeb volunteers or staff at a state archive or historical society.

 

Closed Institutions

Institutions that have closed may be identified in a published county history that covers the time period in question. Consult the National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC) for paper trails in repositories. The Library of Congress website at www.loc.gov/coll/nucmc offers online searches of manuscript collections submitted between 1986 and the present. Print volumes cover earlier years as does ArchivesUSA, accessible through some print libraries (see http://archives.chadwyck.com for more information).

 

The following websites may also provide information on specified topics:

 

Orphanages, mid-1800s-early 1900s:

www.usgennet.org/usa/topic/orphanages

Poorhouses:

www.poorhousestory.com

Historic asylums:

www.rootsweb.com/~asylums/mainpage.html

 

Making Contact

Once you find a contact for either the current institution or respository, send a letter or e-mail giving the full name of the institutionalized individual, approximate dates of habitation in the institute, and any other identifying information available to you. State your reason for seeking the information and your relationship, if any.

 

Hospital and Insurance Records

Hospital records are problematic. Seldom preserved beyond a few decades, records that exist may be restricted unless requested by the patient or next of kin. A contact with the administration office may, however, net something of interest to you.

 

Insurance records tend to be less restricted, provided the insured is deceased. Evidence of insurance coverage is rarely found in public documents, so check personal records of the deceased for insurance information. Although insurance companies are commercial enterprises and under no obligation to produce their records, many will do so once the insured is deceased, particularly when the request is from a direct descendant.

 

Prisons

Registers of Prisoners Committed were maintained by jails and penitentiaries. Among prison records that have been published are those from the Yuma Territorial Prison, California’s San Quentin (from 1851) and Folsom (1881–1942).

 

The Washington Secretary of State’s Digital Archives program offers a database of more than 500 inmates at the Seatco Prison, 1877–88, and nearly 10,000 inmates housed in the Walla Walla State Penitentiary from 1887–1922. Files usually include the names of nearest relatives, birthplace of parents, inmate’s marital status, number of children, religion, military service, education, physical description, and a photograph. Court records are often found within the inmate’s file as well.

 

School Records

Education became formalized in the 19th century. Schools were managed by a board of superintendents, who maintained minutes of their activities, lists of teachers, and sometimes censuses that give the name, age, and guardian of each student. If a school still exists, a letter to the current principal or the district superintendent may yield results.

 

Accessing more recent school records may be difficult, due to privacy restrictions and the fact that records of closed schools tend to be discarded. Check local libraries and archives for collections of yearbooks or check sites including Ancestry.com (search the card catalog for “yearbooks”) or the old yearbooks site www.old-yearbooks.com.

 

Veterans Homes

Veterans homes were generally funded by federal or state governments. Records of National Homes for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers were established by Congress in 1866. Records from 1866 to 1938 are in Veterans Administration, Record Group 14 at the National Archives. Admissions, called historical registers, include information on birthplace, age, physical description, religion, occupation, residence, marital status, and name and address of nearest relative. General remarks may include a note about money and personal effects if the member died while in residence at the branch.

 

Additionally, in 1922 there were more than 30 state-managed homes operating in the country. Check state or local historical societies to learn more. Also, the National Association of State Veterans Homes www.nasvh.com gives links to homes still operating.

 

 

Sandra H. Luebking, FUGA is the editor of the FGS FORUM magazine and coeditor of The Source: A Guidebook to American Genealogy, 3rd ed., published by Ancestry.