Hello, A member of my Boston Irish Catholic family was placed in a mental hospital in Massachusetts in the early 1900's. I did not know about it until I started researching my family lines, and after many dead-ends as to her date of death, I finally found out where, when...and with follow-up phone calls, I was told by the mental hospital and funeral home, the same information that you mentioned. It was very traumatic news for me, as I was never told about her cruel death of cancer and mental illness (I suspect her so called "mental Illness was situational depression, as I wonder if she had an abusive husband, and after the death of her supportive Irish father, who lived with the family, (the mother of 5 children a year or two apart) she could not handle the daily stress and abuse. I was told by the MA Funeral Director that all it took was ONE family member to declare a patient to be admitted to a mental hospital. Could you confirm this fact as true. I am a close relative of this person, although I was born many years later. But someone's decision left 5 beautiful little children without a mother or father, as the father deserted these children and the now orphans were placed in a Catholic orphanage to be adopted. There are more unsettling details to this story, but one wonders how the Catholic Church could allow this to happen. This family could not have been the only one to have such a sad tale. If anyone would like to discuss this further, I would welcome your comments to the list or to me. Thanks for letting me vent. Fay FayAnna711@aol.com