I tried recently to get records from a sanitarium for a friends g.grandfather in Arizona (obviously passed many years ago). The sanitarium told me that they only kept limited records (because of space) and that when the doctor and the patient were both deceased, the records were destroyed. That might be only that one sanitarium though. The sanitarium did tell me that if I wanted a copy of what they had, they required a letter from a judge in the district telling them to release the records. I've written letters to judges before, asking them to release information and there has never been a problem with it. You might try writing the judge in the district and ask that he ask the hospital to release what information they possess. Couldn't hurt. bj "sam.west" <sam.west@ncmail.net> wrote: Hi, I know that the Federal Government will not release censuses until 72 years after the census was taken in order to guard the personal and medical information which it contains, i.e. diagnoses like "lunatic", "idiot", etc.... My question is what about the records of state hospitals like Doretha Dix which dates back to the 1800s. I work in the Public Health field and have seen some older "social evaluations" of some patients. These Social Evaluations go into great detail, i.e. giving names of parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings, etc... giving social economical information and telling about the environment in which they lived [a pot of gold for genealogist]. Now I know that these mental health records are under a protected class of records due to their sensitive nature, but what I would like to know is will they ever age out as the census records does and then become available for research??? I have been told that one of my early relatives was admitted to Doretha Dix Hospital back in the middle 1800s, and if I could at least get hold of copies of the social evaluations, then maybe some of my unanswered questions could be answered. Also, I am sure that they would have information on those inmates who died on the Hill back in the 1800s as well. Who knows, maybe it will help me understand why I am a Genealogy Nut! Think about, help if you can! Sam West Lumberton, Robeson Co NC ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to NCROBESO-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message "A person should think with his heart". Sun Bear 1890 --------------------------------- Looking for earth-friendly autos? Browse Top Cars by "Green Rating" at Yahoo! Autos' Green Center.