This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/mAB.2ACE/2224.2 Message Board Post: Anyone may go to Western State Hospital, Medical Records Department, and request Information on Patients who have been there. They will give you a piece of paper that you have to get signed by a judge to release the records for Geneology purposes. I have never had any problem getting the judge to sign for me, and the records I have obtained are in remarkably good shape with lots of interesting data. There is no charge if the records are available and have never been requested by you before. Be sure to have as much information on the person you are trying to locate as possible so they may be able to find the records better. Western State Hospital has been around since before the Civil War, and it is likely that there are several same names in the records.