I would be interested also in any early sources about the Eastern Kentucky Lunatic Asylum (it's real name, I think)in Lexington. Several of my relatives who emigrated from Ireland apparently got their start by working as "attendants" at the asylum, beginning around 1846. The 1850 census lists the whole staff, and most likely the 1840 one does too (I didn't check because my relatives weren't there yet). For the in-between years, some of them were also listed in the Lexington City Directory with the occupation as "attendant" at the asylum. Does anyone know if any records of the asylum's early years have survived, particularly those that might have information about the staff or how so many people from Ireland happened to end up working there? Were they directly recruited? Thanks Julie Hu [email protected]