I have a great aunt Fannie TURPIN, who was said to have been born retarded circa 1875 and said to have been taken as a child to Partlow to live out her life. She was never a secret in the family, but no one now living knows anything but the information I gave above. I called Partlow, and asked how to go about getting information on her. The lady I talked to said they would not even tell me if she had been a patient until I proved that I was the surviving responsible party. Now we are talking about some one who has been dead for close to a hundred years! The woman I talked to wanted me to send everybody's birth certificates, death certificates, everything. When I mentioned there were no birth certificates when this person was born, she just repeated that I needed to send these things or they wouldn't talk to me. I asked again, I thought politely, if she could just tell me if they had ever had a patient by that name in the late 1800s before I went to all this trouble. No way! I had to prove I was the responsible party. Now, my question. Did I just get a dyspeptic receptionist on a bad morning? Or is this really the law in Alabama? I'd really like to know before I start hauling my files out to the Xerox machine. Thanks, Alice Campbell