Poorhouses, Asylums, Prisons and Hospitals: Institutional Records
Ancestors who spent time in a poorhouse, asylum, prison, hospital or soldiers' home left records most researchers never look for. Where to find them, and the privacy rules that govern them.
Many families have an ancestor who seems to vanish for a time, or who never appears with the family in the census. Sometimes the answer is an institution: a county poorhouse, a state hospital, a prison, a tuberculosis sanatorium, a soldiers' home. These places kept detailed records, often with information found nowhere else. Some are restricted by privacy laws, but many are open to researchers, especially to descendants.
Finding an ancestor in an institution
- The census enumerated institutions like households, listing each resident (often called an "inmate," a standard term for residents of any institution). Search the census by name and approximate age without a place, or browse the pages for the institution itself.
- Family stories about an ancestor who "went away" or "was sent to the county farm."
- Death certificates listing an institution as the place of death.
- Cemeteries: many institutions had their own cemeteries, often with numbered markers. Some states and volunteer projects have worked to identify those buried in them.
Poorhouses and poor farms
Most counties ran a poorhouse or "poor farm" for people who couldn't support themselves: the elderly, the disabled, widows and children, and the unemployed. Earlier, communities provided "outdoor relief" (aid at home) or auctioned the care of poor residents to the lowest bidder. Records may include:
- Admission and discharge registers, sometimes with age, birthplace and family details
- Overseers of the poor records and county commissioners' minutes
- Accounts paid to people caring for the poor
These are usually county records, held by the county or the state archives.
Asylums and state hospitals
State hospitals for the mentally ill (once called "lunatic asylums") admitted people for conditions from severe mental illness to epilepsy, dementia, postpartum depression and alcoholism. Records can include admission registers, case files describing the patient and family history, and burial records.
Patient records are usually restricted by state law for long periods, often 75 years or more, but many states allow access to descendants or next of kin, or release older records through the state archives. Contact the state archives or the agency that succeeded the hospital.
The 1880 "DDD" schedules
The 1880 census included special supplemental schedules of "Defective, Dependent and Delinquent Classes," listing people who were blind, deaf, "insane," "idiotic," homeless children, paupers and prisoners, with details about their condition and institution. Where they survive, they're a valuable source. Check Ancestry, FamilySearch and state archives.
Prisons and jails
- State prisons: registers and inmate files often include a physical description, birthplace, family, occupation, crime and sentence, and sometimes a photograph. Most are at state archives.
- Federal prisons: inmate case files from early federal penitentiaries, such as Leavenworth, Atlanta and McNeil Island, are at National Archives facilities.
- County jails and courts: criminal case files and jail registers. See Planning an Archive or Courthouse Research Trip.
- Newspapers covered trials, often in detail.
Hospitals and sanatoriums
Records of general hospitals rarely survive or are tightly restricted. Tuberculosis sanatoriums, leprosariums and specialized hospitals sometimes have records at state archives or university libraries. A death certificate naming a hospital can lead you to a burial or a cemetery register.
Soldiers' homes
Veterans who were disabled or poor often lived in soldiers' homes. The National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, founded after the Civil War with branches in several states, kept registers giving each veteran's military service, birthplace, age, physical description, occupation, residence after discharge and nearest relative. The registers are online at Ancestry and FamilySearch. States also ran their own soldiers' homes, including homes for Confederate veterans. See Civil War Ancestors.
Approach with compassion
Institutional records can reveal painful stories: poverty, illness, crime, family abandonment. Remember the context of the times, when people with disabilities or mental illness had few other options and poverty could be a crime. Your ancestor's story deserves to be told with understanding.