Tales of family mental illnesses, substance abuse issues, and other challenges to normal daily functioning are not often passed down from one generation to another. And yet, they can explain why people disappear, certain relatives are never discussed, some relatives “won’t allow booze on the place,” etc. Newspapers, death certificates, court records, state hospital records (or committals) can be some places to potentially find some information about these conditions–for some individuals if the records are not sealed. Not all people who suffered from these conditions will leave behind records documenting what was taking place in their life. The records that are left behind may be incomplete and inaccurate. And remember that diagnosing these conditions was different in 1900 than it is today. The treatment, as well as the […]
For the most part are entertainment. Mine are never as precise as the ones in the advertisements–and I really don’t care. Concentrate more on your first, second, third, and fourth cousins and how they connect to you. That’s where the more immediate, more relevant, and (hopefully) more discoverable stories await. I’m not going to be able to document my relatives back to the first century A.D. It’s simply not going to happen. I’ll focus on the stories that I might be able to prove–and those are usually quite a bit more recent.
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