How to prove someone was in a mental hospital

Question

I'm researching a woman (no profile on WT yet) who was, according to her FAG memorial, institutionalized in 1868 at Dorthea Dix Mental Hospital in Raleigh, NC. I have no other source for her death date than FAG.

For her mental illness, I have one additional source. Her husband's probate records state, in a lawyer's filing with the court, that she was "adjudged lunatic". (I take this to mean she was legally declared insane.)

I doubt seriously that, even if the records existed, I could find evidence that she was a patient there. I wondering if there is some other way I could obtain primary source evidence of her admittance to the hospital. Or of her having been legally declared insane.

Comments

Have you looked for an obituary (I realize that's unlikely if she was institutionalized)?  According to NCPedia all the hospital records were transferred to the State Archives when it closed, and if it's been more than 100 years the records are supposed to be public, so you could try writing there.   If she was a patient during a decennial census, she would be enumerated there.  If she was committed in a court proceeding there would be a record, but it might not be publicly available.  At that time women were still not legally able to act on their own behalf, but you might find something if there are any property records, sale of the family home or the like, where her signature would be expected.

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I have searched both newspapers.com and genealogybank.com without success. No marriage records. No death records. No records of being admitted to Dorothea Dix Hospital.

I've searched for Census records, to no avail, but it occurs to me that I've not looked for Census records for Dix Hill.

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I finally found Census records for Margaret for 1870 and 1880, and she was in Raleigh in a long list of names that are obviously institutionalized people. So, thank you for that tip.

I had to make an extremely narrow search to find her, including searching only in Raleigh and only for the last name Page.

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At the top of the previous page on the 1880 census  it says "Patients Insane Asylum"

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Nice catch. I had to look thrice to see that.

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I just noticed that in the 1870 Census North Carolina Insane Asylum is written vertically down the left side of the page.

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Not sure how they listed her, but often I've found it a clue when they list someone as "inmate" on the Census, and then I'm hunting up things like why they were listed that way instead of the typical "lodger" or other relatively normal ones.

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I went back and looked at the 1870 and 1880 Census more closely. The 1870 Census has a column labeled "Whether deaf and dumb, blind, insane, or idiotic". The 1880 Census has a column labeled "Is the person (on the day of the Enumeration Visit) sick or temporarily disabled, so as to be unable to attend to ordinary business or duties? Is so, what is the sickness or disability?"

The major column is labeled "Health" (in the 1880 Census). Then there are several subcolumns labeled, in order, "Blind, Deaf and Dumb (I guess you couldn't only be one or the other), Idiotic, Insane, maimed, crippled, bedridden or otherwise disabled."

Does anyone have any idea what idiotic would mean in that time? Does it refer to mental retardation?

I'm amazed by how calloused people were in those days in their labeling of people.

And, to answer your question, the first person in the insane asylum is listed as Insane (in the 1870 Census). The rest just have ditto marks. In the 1880 Census, the insane box is ticked for each individual.

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I swear, it's amazing what you can learn if you just pay attention. When I look at Census records, I've always focused on the names and ages. I never before noticed that the 1850 and 1860 Census forms have a column labeled "Whether deaf and dumb, blind, insane, idiotic, pauper or convict."

The 1840 Census asked "The number of White persons who were insane and idiots (at public and private charge)

The 1890 Census asked "Is the person defective of mind, sight, hearing, or speech? Is the person crippled, maimed, or deformed? Is the person a prisoner, convict, homeless child, or pauper?

Amazing what you can learn when you focus on a particular issue. So, for 50 years the national government kept track of the numbers of insane, blind, deaf, and mentally defective people in the country.

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I think idiotic covered a lot of ground, but most likely what we call developmentally delayed today.  That being said, when I got married in 1969 my husband-to-be and I had to swear to the Court Clerk that we weren’t idiots….  I’ve always wondered how we would have known.  I don’t know if that was to prevent someone being taken advantage of or for some eugenic reason.

Answer 1

https://endeavors.unc.edu/decoding-dorothea-dix-hospital/

This page tells how they are digitizing the ledgers. Perhaps there's some information which could help you.

I found a page which may have some of the digitized records, but without a name, I can't search, but maybe you will have success....

https://dataverse.unc.edu/dataverse/asylumarchive/

Comments

This may be fruitful. Thanks for the tip.

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I sent an email to the professor in charge of the project asking for his assistance. I was not able to find the digitized records online.