This page was created as a starting place for anyone who is interested in locating ancestors who were incarcerated and died at state insane asylums and hospitals during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in the United States. Our ancestors deserve dignity in death; they should be remembered as people, not social outcasts; and their final resting places should be considered sacred ground and treated with respect. Perhaps you would like to contact or join one of the volunteer groups listed below, or read my latest blog posts. I hope the links provided will help you gain insight into the importance of releasing patient names in a unified, digital, database available to the public; the need for changing state and federal law; and most important of all, in helping you find your loved one. Thank You!
(Page Created 8.12.2011)
Monument For The Forgotten – Museum of disABILITY History – Buffalo, New York
The Inmates of Willard 1870 to 1900, A Genealogy Resource
Second Edition – 218 Pages
2020:
Something That Needs To Be Said 1.5.2020.
2018:
ARRESTED John Allen, Director, Office of Mental Health, Office of Consumer Affairs 10.29.2018.
2016:
GOOD BYE! 10.12.2016.
NO TOUR at The Willard State Hospital Campus in May 2016.
2015:
THE BAD NEWS: Thousands Remain Nameless! 6.15.2015.
THE GOOD NEWS: One Man Is Remembered! 6.14.2015.
Willard Cemetery Memorial Celebration 4.14.2015.
2014:
Restoring Lost Names, Recapturing Lost Dignity by Dan Barry – The New York Times – 11.28.2014.
Finally Some Attention! – 11.2.2014.
Petition for Lawrence Mocha To Be Honored & Remembered With Dignity! – 7.14.2014.
State complication alters Willard ceremony – Finger Lakes Times: News – 7.8.2014.
5.17.2014 – Willard Tour – 5.8.2014.
The Ramblings of a Mad Woman – 4.1.2014.
2014 Roger Luther – Glass Photo Negatives Discovered in Binghamton’s Historic Asylum – 2.18.2014.
2014 St. Lawrence State Hospital Preservation Society – 2.19.2014
2013:
1948 The INVACAR – 11.13.2013.
A Visit To The Museum Of disABILITY History 11.11.2013 – 11.12.2013.
2013 Follow-Up to State Hospital Cadavers – 10.31.2013.
Psychiatric Drugs & Violence – 9.18.2013.
2013 The Hart Island Project – 9.15.2013.
Lin Stuhler’s Willard Cemetery Project – 9.4.2013.
UPDATE Craig Colony Cemetery – 6.27.2013.
Cemetery Restoration – People Inc. & The Museum of disABILITY History – 6.5.2013.
Mental Illness & Ignorance – 6.2.2013.
Mental Illness & Prisons – 5.19.2013.
Notes & Insights from Craig Williams – Willard Cemetery – 5.13.2013.
Willard Tour – May 18, 2013 – 5.11.2013.
Man With Psychosis Recalls Nevada Patient Dumping – ABC News – 5.4.2013.
“Lost Luggage, Recovered Lives” by Peter Stastny, MD, and Darby Penney, MLS – 4.29.2013.
Oregon State Hospital – Cremains – 4.1.2013.
Giving Names To Numbers – Central Louisiana State Hospital Cemetery – 3.31.2013.
The Iron Coffin – Eastern State Hospital Cemetery – 3.26.2013.
What Is The DSM? – 2.14.2013.
The Changing Face of What is Normal – Jon Crispin – Exploratorium – 2.14.2013.
2012:
Washington State – Grave Concerns Association Model of Memorialization – 12.18.2012.
Kings Park: Stories from an American Mental Institution – A Review – 8.28.2012.
2010 DSM-IV & HIPAA – 8.2.2012.
My Story by L.S. Stuhler – July 23, 2012 – 7.23.2012.
Sally Green’s Anonymous Burial, Rochester, NY – 2.24.2012.
The Inmates of Willard 1870 to 1900 / A Genealogy Resource 
To: Anonymous who posted on August 12, 2025 at 9:14 PM:
It seems that I can’t reply to an anonymous post.
Dorothy M. DeHand maybe? She died 1963 in Sodus, Wayne County, NY State file number 62070 – not in an institution. You should be able to get a death certificate – note the spelling difference. Try the town first, NYS Health Dept. is very slow. If you are a guardian, parent, spouse, adult child, or adult sibling you may be able to get patient records from the NYS Office of Mental Health, but it will be a fight.
Dorothy M. DeHond – Burial: Sodus Rural Cemetery
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/258940378/dorothy-m-dehond
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I have great great grandmother named Dorothy Carson Dehond . She was in there in 1950 and was 44 when entered the Newack State School for the mental Defectives. My question how long did she stay here . She died in 1962 . i am just wondering if she died there someone came got body . No record found when she left
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Maybe Dorothy M. DeHand? Died 1963 in Sodus, Wayne County, NY – not in an institution. State file number 62070. As a direct descendant, you should be able to get a death certificate just note the different spelling than you have. Try the town first. NYS Health Dept. is very slow. Also, as a direct descendant, the Office of Mental should give you patient records but you might have to fight them.
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Keep writing the New York State Department of Health and Hygiene and members of the New York Senate regarding record access, even if you are not a New York resident. Most representatives eventually foresee rising to a more national profile.
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I just received my great-grandfather’s death certificate that indicates that he died in the Hudson River Asylum in 1932. I thought I remembered seeing somewhere on the NYS website that I could get his medical records if I had a copy of his death certificate showing that he died in the asylum and some documentation that I was a direct descendent. Now, I can’t find the information — can you direct me? Or am I wrong about this? Thanks!
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Congratulations on finding positive proof! As far as I know, you can’t get his medical records but you can find out where he is buried if you don’t already know. If the NYS Office of Mental Health won’t help you, which they won’t, call your senator and give him/her hell! Good Luck!!!!!
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I’d like to know if anyone is researching more recent years. I’m looking for information on someone who was at Willard until about 1954.
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Just found the link to the NY bill on your site. Leave it to NY – they have a public commenting feature on that site where anyone can leave a comment. I did so and hope others will too.
I am researching in NY and have someone who was at Rockland Hospital.
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