How do I find an "idiot" past the 1880 Census?

+5 votes
232 views
Hi all,

 

I recently discovered that my great-great grand aunt, Maggie Maloney, was listed as an "idiot" in the 1880 US Census. I found her in both the usual census and defected schedules. I also saw her in prior censuses in the US.

This is her in the 1880 US Census:

https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MZFY-1C7

Also, this is the family in 1875:

https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-266-11627-76413-8

I unfortunately cannot get the defective schedule anywhere but on my ancesrty,com account at the moment.

Is there anyway, I can find out what happened to her? I can't find her in the census afterward and don't believe she would have been married if she was an "idiot".

 

Any ideas?

 

Mike

 

UPDATE: I forgot that I've already found her in the 1892 New York State Census with her family:

https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-267-11397-4879-51?cc=1529100
WikiTree profile: Maggie Maloney
in Genealogy Help by Michael Hruska G2G6 Mach 5 (57.2k points)
retagged by Keith Hathaway
Decades from now when the censuses from my life are published that's probably how I'll be listed! :D
Oooh, I am sooooo excited!!!  Hi, cousin Mike!!!!!  I believe you have just found the first family connection for me on WikiTree!!!!!

If idiocy is anything like DNA then, based on what people have sometimes called me, your great-great-grand-aunt is my ancestor.

2 Answers

+5 votes
Many conditions going along with diminished mental capacities also shortened the life span of afflicted people considerably. I would concentrate on death records for the years following your 1880 census.
by Helmut Jungschaffer G2G6 Pilot (595k points)
+5 votes
New York State maintained several schools for mentally and physically handicapped children until the culture changed and foster care became more readily available.  I don't know where you would look for enrollment in them, but that is also a consideration, besides death records.
by Beulah Cramer G2G6 Pilot (565k points)
Hi Beulah,

thank you for your answer. Going this route has been very helpful. I looked into the insane asylums and whatnot and found that in 1883, Dr. Charles Hoyt conducted his annual report of the condition of the state poor houses in New York. In his summary of the conditions at the Steuben County one, he states that there was a feeble-minded girl of 16 years who had been admitted in the facility less than a year prior who was the mother of a six month old baby boy. He stated that she was getting the paperwork done to be sent to the Newark Custodial Asylum very soon. I think this could be my Maggie but I can't be sure and cannot find any more convincing information.

Having looked back at the other census records, I just realized that her parents and older siblings did not seem to know how to read or write by 1880, at least not in English. All this, I hope, should lead me to a well informed conclusion about her life.

 

Mike
Michael many women with diminished capacity were married off If there was a slight chance they could cook and clean. My Downs Syndrom aunt was pretty much written off as useless at the time she was born. They thought she wouldn't live to 20 , she was 52 when she died. Sometimes other family members took them in if they could function as an unpaid servant.

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