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Amateur Psychiatry Lurks In Census

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By SHARON TATE MOODY

Tribune correspondent

Published: February 1, 2009

Caring for family members with emotional or psychiatric problems can be difficult. That was especially true when neither society nor the medical community understood the human brain and its complexities; the result was that such people were shunned.

On Jan. 18 and 25, this column explored families who institutionalized the mentally or emotionally challenged, often abandoning them.

However, some chose to keep their families intact. The best way to find these people is through the population schedules of censuses. Beginning with the 1850 census, the government asked the profession or occupation of each male member of the household. Some census takers found another use for that space and wrote "insane" by a name.

In 1870, the government inquired directly about the status of citizens with certain mental and physical conditions. Column 18 was to identify whether each resident was "deaf and dumb, blind, insane, idiotic, pauper or convict."

By their own rules, census officials didn't expect a professional assessment. Written instructions told the census takers that a "fact of idiocy will be better determined by the common consent of the neighborhood than by attempting to apply any scientific measure to the weakness of the mind or will."

Instructions to 1880 enumerators reveal social attitudes toward the mentally challenged. They were cautioned that "it not infrequently happens that fathers and mothers, especially the latter, are disposed to conceal, or even deny, the existence of such infirmities on the part of children."

So in 1870 and 1880, if the enumerator knew or thought any person in the household was "insane" or an "idiot," but the household informant denied it, he was to approach neighbors for confirmation of his suspicions and enter it as "if obtained from the head of the family."

I wonder how many of us would survive the vengeance of a disgruntled neighbor, pleased at an opportunity to tell a census taker of any idiotic behavior some of us occasionally display.

This example serves to show us why as researchers we must use caution in accepting official information used to describe ancestors.

If you find your ancestor tagged with such a label, you can get more information from 1880 Defective, Dependent and Delinquent Classes supplement to the population census. The census taker had to complete the form for each person he classified as insane or idiotic in the population schedule.

It asked whether the insane person had to be kept in a cell under lock and key, either by day or night.

To get a full list of questions in this supplement, go to www.slcl.org/sc/pdfs/census _ddd_quest.pdf.

Unlike the population schedules, these supplements are not available through the popular online Ancestry or Heritage Quest databases.

In fact, they did not survive in every county in the United States. To find out if one is available for your area, go to the National Archives site, www.archives.gov/genealogy /census/nonpopulation/index .html#mpubs.

Once at the site, click on the hyperlink "Part 3: NARA Nonpopulation Census Microfilm List by State" and then select your state of interest. You can then use the online microfilm catalog to see where to view the film or order it.

Researching ancestors who were classified as insane or idiotic is important to producing a full and accurate family history. As researchers it is incumbent upon us to put the records that we find into perspective and to analyze biases that existed in their creation.

One researcher obtained her ancestor's medical files from the institution in which he was committed at the turn of the 20th century. She hired a mental health expert to assess the records for her, at which point she learned that in today's society her relative probably would have been treated with medications and lived what we could consider a "normal" life.

Daughters To Meet

The United Daughters of the Confederacy, Tampa Chapter 113, will meet at 10:45 a.m. Feb. 14 at Perkins Restaurant, 12650 N. Dale Mabry Highway, Tampa. Anyone interested in joining can attend.

Chapter member Gail Crosby will present a program in character as Janet Randolph Ayers, granddaughter of Mrs. Norman V. Randolph of Virginia, giving details about benevolent works of Randolph and how she became known as "Mother Richmond."

Call chapter president June Bolen at (813) 685-4026 for lunch reservations and information. The deadline for reservations is Feb. 9.

Sharon Tate Moody is past president of the Association of Professional Genealogists. Send your genealogy questions and event announcements to her in care of Getaway, The Tampa Tribune, 200 S. Parker St., Tampa, FL 33606 or stmoody0720@mac.com.

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