In message <BAY104-F13616C21B7BEB4ED4F76F48A280@phx.gbl>, Family History <genealogy101@hotmail.com> writes >Hi > >In the 1871 census, > >Source information: RG10/1412 >Registration district: Aylesbury >Sub-registration district: Aylesbury >ED, institution, or vessel: County Pauper Lunatic Asylum >Folio: 101 >Page: 7 >Household schedule number: 1 > >i found an entry for a Hannah MARKHAM who could possibly be related to me... > >She is shown as being a 'lunatic' - How in 1871 did you get catagorised as a >lunatic as oposed to an idiot or an imbecile??? How were the catagories >defined??? The perception was generally in the eyes of the family and/or the enumerator. (There is a percebntage level of intelligence to help now) A lunatic was at least intermittemntly dangerous/potential so to himself or others. The condition could be the result of being hit on the head or some chemical disturbance in the brain or condition acquired as an dult. > an imbecile (normally from birth) was not ninepence in the shilling, unable to function well independently but usually able to dress himself, feed himself, even do very simple repetitive work like the lowest level of farm work/ An idiot (usually from birth) was ineducable, usually unable to manage even simple toilet functions, speech, feeding etc. (Sometimes the cause was starvation of oxygen during birth to an elderly mother, sometimes the more sinister attempt to 'purge' an unwanted pregnancy, which damaged the foetus rather than expelling it.) >if it is the same person then in 1851 she living in Hardwick with hubby and >children... What a way to end up! puerperal fever could get you classified as mad - even despair from having too many children and too little food or money. You could imagine she might just have snapped. -- Eve McLaughlin Author of the McLaughlin Guides for family historians Secretary Bucks Genealogical Society