UpFront with NGS: Institution

02 December 2015

Hidden Graves Uncovered

It is always great to hear about a “reveal” that involves a cemetery and tombstones!

We often hear about long-neglected cemeteries and this is the first time that I’ve read about a newly discovered large-scale cemetery (okay a bit of an exaggeration as I gather that local genealogists were aware that it existed though the headstones had long been buried). Hidden Eloise graves uncovered in Westland tells the story ...

Locals have long heard about the hidden graveyard from that time. Now, those graves have been found and those who found them have a new mission: getting Wayne County to recognize the site as a cemetery.

The history of Eloise in Wayne County is more like Michigan folklore. It originally housed the mentally ill and is nearly as old as the state, dating back to 1839. It closed in 1984.

What appears to be a lonely field alongside Henry Ruff Road in Westland is a graveyard that three months ago was unmarked. It sits several hundred yards from the old Eloise mental hospital.

The article is an interesting read and again reminds us of what just a few people can accomplish.

To learn more about Eloise, check out the Friends of Eloise FB page. There appears to be an active gofundme effort to fund the creation of an Eloise Museum.

Also recently reported was the discovery of coffins in NYC, Old Coffins From 1800s Discovered Underground.

This reminds us that cemeteries are being “unearthed” all the time and that just because you don’t find burials listed on Find A Grave, BillionGraves, Interment.net, or other cemetery records websites, it doesn’t mean that they don’t exist.

Editor’s Note: Posts on related topics

+ Cemeteries -- Should they be Quiet Places of Respect or Vibrant Places Used by the Living or What?!??! (2015)

+ FREE Cemetery Record Access from NEHGS (30 Oct - 7 Nov 2015)

+ National Cemeteries, State Veteran Cemeteries and Confederate Cemeteries all honor those who served (2014)

+ Using Radar To Do Cemetery Mapping and Find Unmarked Graves -- Fascinating! (2013)

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Unless indicated otherwise or clearly an NGS Public Relations piece, Upfront with NGS posts are written by Diane L Richard, editor, Upfront with NGS.

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10 March 2015

Ancestor's Mental Health or Any Medical Records Can Be Very Hard to Come By!

Created by darkday, https://www.flickr.com/photos/drainrat/14381555070/sizes/l. [CC-BY-ND-2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/)], via flickr

As is often the case, a newspaper article has prompted this post. This time, it was when I read Vanished mental-health archives stymie genealogists --Restrictions on accessing old mental-health records frustrate families trying to establish facts about ancestors (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette).

Not only have many mental-health facilities (also went by sanitariums, insane asylums, and numerous other names) closed making it challenging to determine where the records of these shutters institutions ended up, even if you can find where the records are archived, due to privacy laws, you may not be able to access the records.

If you have an ancestor who suddenly disappears and whom you cannot find a death for, or know is not incarcerated in a jail or prison, it might be time to consider that they were institutionalized. If institutionalized you may need to check for a local, regional or state operated facilities.

Additionally, depending on the time period and local laws, there might be a court proceeding in order to “admit” the individual as a patient or a suit by the patient to be “freed” from where they were institutionalized. For example, in North Carolina, such records up until the 1960s might be found in Judgment Dockets (for civil cases), Special Proceedings Records or in so-called Lunacy Records, to name just a few relevant collections. I tracked one person who ended up mentioned in all three of these record groups across over 15 years of records and across two counties with reference to a state-run facility, John Umstead Hospital (now called Central Regional Hospital).

Here are some resources that might give you ideas or information about learning more about your institutionalized ancestors ....

+ Researching Mental Records

+ Asylum Projects

+ Types of Family History Resources – Health and Welfare Records (Minnesota Historical Society)

+ Searching for Hospital Records (Juliana Szucs, Ancestry.com)

+ Seeking Asylum Patient? Head to Court (Sharon Tate Moody, The Tampa Tribune)

+ Researching Ancestors Who Were Committed to Asylums, Using Old Newspapers (Gena Philibert-Ortega, GenealogyBank)

As always, if you know of additional resources, please post a comment!

Was your ancestor institutionalized? Please share your experience in learning more about this ancestor.

Editor’s Note: Related Upfront with NGS posts ...

+ Hart Island – NYC’s Public Burial Ground – Over 1 Million Burials – Trying to Reveal Their Stories

+ You Can Help! Institutional Cemeteries Website Seeking Assistance -- Let's Do What We Can to Remember These Often Forgotten Individuals

+ Hospital Records -- Where Are They? What Might You Learn?

+ The Museum of Ridiculously Interesting Things -- Abandoned Suitcases of Insane Asylum Patients & other oddities

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NGS does not imply endorsement of any outside advertiser or other vendors appearing in this blog. Any opinions expressed by guest authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the view of NGS.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Think your friends, colleagues, or fellow genealogy researchers would find this blog post interesting? If so, please let them know that anyone can read past UpFront with NGS posts or subscribe!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Suggestions for topics for future UpFront with NGS posts are always welcome. Please send any suggested topics to UpfrontNGS@mosaicrpm.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Unless indicated otherwise or clearly an NGS Public Relations piece, Upfront with NGS posts are written by Diane L Richard, editor, Upfront with NGS.

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Want to learn more about interacting with the blog, please read Hyperlinks, Subscribing and Comments -- How to Interact with Upfront with NGS Blog posts!

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