In a message dated 3/22/2006 6:00:34 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, [email protected] writes: Wow! That's the first time I've heard it called that! Its actual (original) name was "The New Lisbon State Colony for Boys" - but it is now known as the New Lisbon Developmental Center, and is located on Route 72 in Woodland Township. No longer just for men, there are about 72 female residents as well. "Feeble-minded" later became "mentally retarded" but is now the more politically-correct "developmentally disabled". I can give you information about the Center but because HIPAA laws apply retroactively, you won't be able to access any information about residents even that far back in time. I'd like to offer a comment on the applicability of HIPAA to old records. While I'm not an expert on the issue, I have had experience with HIPAA regarding a family health issue, when a hospital declined to provide our physician with records he requested. In dealing with that, I had to go to the published regulations, and read the entire section of the Code of Federal Regulations on HIPAA (45 CFR 164, if you want the exact reference). While it is true that nothing in the regulations refers to exempting records created before a specific date, I suspect that a lawyer would support a position that the regulations could not be applied to records created before HIPAA was passed. As a practical matter, however, I have found that the affected organizations (hospitals, physicians, etc.) often cite HIPAA just to avoid going to the effort of searching their records. That seems to me to be a bluff with little legal support. Certainly, it's unlikely that 75-year-old records would invade the privacy of any living individual. Of course, there might be other reasons not to release such information, such as sealed court records. It's too bad that we're seeing so many laws passed in so many states that make records like that unavailable for legitimate research. Wilson DeCamp Leesburg, VA