A good start can be made on the history of Blackwell's, now Roosevelt, Island by this link to Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roosevelt_Island There used to be an excellent piece on Blackwell's posted by the Department of Corrections of the City of New York, but it is now compromised by hackers. There are films which list dates of entry, condition and disposition of inmates and/or patients at Family Search. Using the older FHL catalogue, if you go to the records for New York City and then, under the index, for Poorhouse Records you will find a long list of films which include dates. These films can be ordered for review at your nearest FHL library. The same films are at the New York City Archives, but to order a copy of a record you would need a name and date. Don't know how much searching they are willing or able to do. Worth a phone call. Browsing could only happen if you visited the Archive in person. I found a brother of my great grandmother who was the unidentifiied man in the grave with the rest of her family. I found that he came to New York in the 1830s. He was admitted to Bellevue Hospital 1847 with "sickness" and was transferred to Blackwell's Almshouse, dying there in 1859 of what was described in the records as "sickness." His death certificate indicated that he died of pulmonary TB. Sheila Santa Barbara