In a message dated 6/9/2005 9:30:08 AM Eastern Standard Time, [email protected] writes: > (Note: When Mrs. "Molly" DEXTER died in 1899, her body was returned to > Killingly to be buried. When John DEXTER died in 1905, his body was > buried on the grounds of the Tewksbury State Hospital. We don't know > why.) > I recently attended the NGS "Tennessee Crossroads" conference in Nashville, and one of the speakers, Paul Milner, addressed the role of the almshouse or workhouse in Colonial New England for the poor, ill, aged, and indigent. The workhouses changed as time passed was to become asylums, and then hospitals, but institutions were present at all periods. They were where the elderly who were incapable of caring for themselves went, and that would include Alzheimers Disease patients, the mentally ill, and others. If someone had severe rheumatoid arthritis, or had suffered a broken hip and lost his mobility, he might be a candidate for the Tweksbury State Hospital by 1900. It might be of help to you to contact the state historical society or similar group, and learn the mission of the hospital at that period of time, then look at his death certificate to determine his state of mobility, and see if he qualified for the population served by the institution at that time. It might provide you with more information, but also give you needed facts which would be highly relevant in your family health history as you compile it, which we should all certainly do. It sounds like an interesting problem, good luck. Carol Hubbell Boggs