G2G: Saratoga County Poor House and disability descriptions

Question

Regarding Jane Schermerhorn ...

Jane Schermerhorn lived at least from 1860 to 1880 in the Saratoga County Poor House in Milton, New York. I have two questions:

1. Do we have a category for Saratoga County Poor House?

2. Should I include in the profile the nature of her disabilities? They are listed in the census as her reason for being in the poorhouse, using outdated and hurtful terms. Is it best to leave information about disabilities off the profile, change them to current nomenclature, or transcribe it directly?

Thank you,

Elizabeth

Answer 1

It is technically inaccurate to say that she was noted on the census "to have an intellectual disability" or that "the census characterized her as mentally ill and intellectually disabled."  Neither census did that. She was enumerated on those census records as "idiot" and "insane and idiot" (respectively). 

I started to write something about this, but then found Amy Johnson Crow's 2015 blog post: https://www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/the-disgusting-words-in-genealogy/ and one with a more specific and detailed focus on census records here (2017): https://www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/do-you-have-a-defective-ancestor/

Comments

Thanks for the links to the blog posts. I agree with Amy's conclusion that we should use the terms used at the time, just like we use the place names that people used at the time. Putting the words in historical context, as she did with the census instructions about how the forms should be filled out, is helpful and important to do, too, so we can tell what they meant about our ancestors. It can be discussed in the bio or research notes.

I wasn't sure what the community standard was, which is why I asked. I think it might be a good idea to offer some community guidelines about this topic in case people have these sorts of questions in the future.

Thanks again.

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hear hear!  Words are what they are, and we don't always know what their meaning was a hundred or more years ago.  

Either copy the text as is on the document being spoken of, or skip any transcription other than ''the person was in x place on y census'', and leave the reader to go look at the linked source if they so desire.

''Political correctness'' has become a modern-day disease frankly.  Trying to ''whitewash'' facts of the past under some mistaken notion that the terms are ''hurtful'', let me remind folks of the old adage:  ''Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me.''.

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As the mother of a disabled child who has been treated cruelly by others, I respectfully disagree with your last point. In the case of genealogy, though, I think it is most accurate to provide the original terms and put them in historical context.

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redone, program glitching

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Sorry for your child, but children are the cruelest little beasts sometimes.  Changing the words used doesn't really solve the problem, as meanings get changed regularly.  

Answer 2

Hi Elizabeth. Thank you for asking. I can answer your question 1. No, there wasn't an existing category. I have created the category Saratoga County Poor House, Milton, New York, adding it to the profile.

Comments

Thank you!