When patients were committed to the Willard Asylum for the Insane in Upstate New York, they arrived with a suitcase packed with all of the possessions they thought they needed for their time inside.
Most never left. The mental hospital had an average stay of nearly 30 years. When patients died, they were buried in nameless graves across the street of the asylum. Their suitcases, with all their worldly possessions, were locked in an attic and forgotten.
In 1995, an employee of the mental hospital discovered the suitcases, 400 of them. They date from 1910 to 1960.
History of The Willard Asylum for the Insane (Willard State Hospital), Former New York State Insane Asylums (State Hospitals), Custodial Institutions, and Mental Illness of the 19th Century. Current Information on Anonymous Graves, Historical Articles, Documents, Laws, Patient Names, and Helpful Links Abound! The Blog is an Extension of My Book and Was Created for Descendants of Former Patients, Genealogy Geeks, and History Buffs. Hopefully, This Blog Will Make People Aware of the Thousands of Patients Who Were Buried in Anonymous, Unmarked Graves in New York State and Across the U.S. Book, Blog, Posts, and Pages Have Been Researched, Written, and Developed by Linda S. Stuhler
The Inmates of Willard 1870 to 1900, A Genealogy Resource, was written by a genealogy geek with genealogy geeks in mind. It is for those who want to glimpse the past and enjoy reading historical documents with little or no interpretation. I had three objectives for writing the book: to make the names of the Inmates Of The Willard Asylum For The Insane (Willard State Hospital) from the U.S. Federal Censuses available to people who are searching for an ancestor; to share the old documents that I have collected and transcribed; and to make people aware of the thousands of patients who are buried in anonymous, unmarked graves. It is my hope that the names; dates of birth and death; and location of graves, of ALL former patients who lived and died in New York State Hospitals (Insane Asylums) and Custodial Institutions are released to the public so that these forgotten ancestors can be honored and remembered with dignity. Hopefully, this bill, introduced for a second time by Senator Joseph Robach, will become a law: S2514-2013 – NY Senate Open Legislation – Relates to patients interred at state mental health hospital cemeteries – New York State Senate.
The book was never intended to be a commentary on mental illness. Although this book deals with the specifics of Willard and its inmates; the laws, rules, and regulations applied to all county poor houses, city alms houses, and public and private insane asylums in theState of New York during the nineteenth century. It outlines the struggle between the county poor house system of caring for the insane and the eventual takeover by the state hospital system. The history of the treatment of people who were labeled as insane belongs to us all and should not be shrouded in secrecy. The names of the former Inmates of Willard can be found on the internet from such sources as the U.S. Federal Censuses, genealogy websites, historical documents, and books; everywhere except where they should be, on headstones in New York State Hospital cemeteries.
My personal interpretations and transcriptions of the names from U.S. Federal Censuses for the years 1870, 1880, 1900, and 1920, including the Defective, Dependent, and Delinquent Census of 1880, are disseminated onto 199 pages located on this blog under the “Names” tab. Unfortunately, the spreadsheets did not fit into the book. The censuses do not include every person who ever walked through the doors nor do they reveal who died there.
The goal of this blog is to be a genealogy resource for people searching for ancestors who were patients at New York State Hospitals during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Brief histories of these former institutions can be found on the “Interesting Articles & Documents” page. If you have information to share, please share it here!
Willard State Hospital, Main Building, circa 1898.
Willard and many other formerNew York State Hospitals still have patient medical records and photographs dating back to 1869 but only a select few are allowed to view, study, or learn from them because of the HIPAA and the NYS Mental Hygiene Laws. Was the HIPAA Law written to protect the dead? Privacy ends at death but apparently patient confidentiality lasts forever. No one wants to violate federal law and be slapped with a lawsuit or fine. Legislation that would allow these historical medical records to be released to the public is in order. Let’s hope that one day these issues will be resolved.
Patients At Work In The Sewing Room
How To Receive Information On Your Ancestor
Form OMH 11 is what you need to obtain your ancestor’s medical record. You also need the cooperation of your family physician to fill out the paperwork. Descendants have no right to this information unless their primary care physician needs the health records to diagnose or treat a condition. But this doesn’t mean that you can’t try to obtain your ancestor’s medical record.
