Genealogy
BLOG POSTS ABOUT GENEALOGY FROM NEWEST TO OLDEST:
PUTMAN / PUTNAM – Dutch Roots – 8.10.2012.
My 8th Great-Grandmother – The Witch of Hartford, Connecticut – 7.19.2012.
What’s In A Name? – 7.17.2011.
Here are some great genealogy websites to get you started on your search!
CLICK ON THE RED LINKS! (Page Created 8.2.2012)
New York State Vital Records – Genealogy Records & Resources
No. 1 Reviews.com – Reviews of the Best Genealogy Sites
Family Tree Magazine – 101 Best Genealogy Websites for 2012
Genealogies of the Descendants of the First Settlers of Schenectady
The People of Colonial Albany Live Here
City of Rochester Municipal Archives Historic Marriage Records Research Site
The Inmates of Willard 1870 to 1900, A Genealogy Resource
The Inmates of Willard 1870 to 1900
The Inmates of Willard 1870 to 1900 / A Genealogy Resource 
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My great aunt , Mildred Wightman, born in 1893 in Marathon, New York taught school in the Marathon area. She was never married. In 1929 she ended up in Willard State Hospital and lived there until she died in 1986. Does anybody know how to obtain records from the hospital?
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My two times great grandfather, William T Dodge, was committed to Willard in 1887 and died four months later. I went down there last week to take pictures and found out they are not allowed.
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They are only allowed during the open house in May but even then, you’re not supposed to take pics of the inmates at the correctional facility.
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I have a 3rd great grandfather who was an inmate and killed at Willard State Hospital in 1889 by another inmate. His family page can be viewed at http://www.ancestralarchives.net/family/94.html
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I have found this grave of Bessie Kaplan, record 121651398 who is buried by “Letchworth Village New York State Institution for Mental Defectives” I would like to find out more about this burial, would love to see the photo of it. There is a flower request by an Anonymous…I would love to find who left the flowers, if they were her relatives…
We are looking to reconnect with the living family. If I am at all correct, this is Bessie (Pessia) Kaplan born (1888 in Poland), mother of Aby I. Kaplan.Ex wife of Isidore Kaplan, the actor…. We are descendents of Isidore, he had one more daughter Rae, who was left in the orphanage in Novoziblov Ukraine. We are her children, we would love to find you and reconnect. This is what I think might have happend to this poor soul : I have found this very sad census record. Have a hunch this is very, very possibly her…Pessia arrived to US at the ate of 19 with a 32 year old husband. She was pregnant on the voyage from Odessa to NYC. Her husband took her son age 4 Aby I. Kaplan back to Europe with him. Divorsed her, and hid the child’s documents away from her reach with the American Relief Association. Aby I. Kaplan , her son got stuck in China for many years. He was only able to return to the US at the age of 16, in 1924… I would have lost my mind, if this was my child… I can not find Pessia anywhere in any census. The only matching record shows her as an inmate in the mental institution in 1930 at the Letchworth Village New York State Institution for Mental Defectives….
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Hi Maria, Please contact David Mack-Hardiman at THE MUSEUM OF disABILITY HISTORY: https://inmatesofwillard.com/2013/11/12/a-visit-to-the-museum-of-disability-history-11-11-2013/
Also, check out my NAMES & CENSUS INFO page: https://inmatesofwillard.com/names-census-info/
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What a wonderful job of research and help to all of us other genealogy geeks. My grandmother, Elizabeth Norton Newton, was a deaf mute from birth and married my grandfather Charles Delray Newton (also a deaf mute) in 1896. Although grandfather Charles was always employed during their marriage as a printer, Elizabeth was considered an unfit mother because of her handicap. Her three sons became inmates of the Buffalo Ophanage shortly after the birth of the youngest in 1908. She was committed to the Buffalo State Asylum shortly afterward and in 1919 sent to Willard where she remained for the rest of her life. She died at Willard in 1937 having spent 29 years locked away in her silent world inside the state mental hospital system.
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Thank you so much for sharing this heartbreaking story. It is so moving that I read it to my husband. I think I’m going to cry. It’s just so sad! Elizabeth can be found on the U.S. Federal Census of 1920 at: https://inmatesofwillard.com/names/
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That is terrible what they did to her, my parents both were deaf also and lead full lives. They both went to Indianapolis School for the deaf, my mother graduated with honors. My father was born in 1916-1975, my mother was born in 1923-1971
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