Tim, I found my aunt and her brother in an "institution" in Philadelphia in the 1920 or 1930 census. Their parents were seperated, can't remember why but the children were listed in the census for that institution. I also found another relative in a state mental institution in the census. I knew though to look for him as it had been mentioned he was insane, never thought of finding my aunt where I did though! And I know what you mean about careing for the elderly, my father and sister are in TN and dealing with my mother who has alzheimers, the past 6 months have been really rough on them seeing her go from active to almost bed ridden as she can't remember names, who she is, where she is, what to eat and what not too. I remember her mother going through the same things. It's tough on care givers, especially when they are family, and in todays fast moving world too many push the care giving off to "outsiders" or toss them into a nursing home for the rest of their days. I think in the "old days" some families who had a lot of kids trained the youngest daughter to be the official family care giver. I found several unmarried females, always the youngest who never married but who cared for the elderly family members. One of those was my dads aunt who cared for family members since she was 20, right up to death at 89! John ----- Original Message ----- From: "Timothy Stowell" <tstowell@chattanooga.net> To: <nychenan@rootsweb.com> Sent: Monday, December 08, 2008 1:12 AM Subject: [NYCHENAN] other thoughts >I spoke with my remaining first cousin in Norwich Sunday night. I'd not > had communication with her since May, always 'intending to' get back > with her. This evening occasion brought her to mind again and having had > the > sad experience more than once of not communicating with a relative until > too > late, I picked up the phone and made that connection. > > While things are going fairly well in my core family, my parents health is > starting to fail and with that responsibility falls now to the children to > take > care of the parents. > > How different it is now than a few decades ago how the elders are cared > for. > Families took care of family members. Now with families scattered to the > winds, it seems many opt for others caring for ones loved ones. Of course > even way back when, some folks were put in institutions of one sort or > another. > > I know that in the instance of my grandmother, there came a point in time > when > my grandfather could no longer care for her, has she was a heavyset > person, > that was beyond the capacity of my grandfather to lift. > > I know that in census records that in days past, people staying in what > were > termed hotels, but were most likely boarding houses, were counted where > they > were. The poor farm also had folks listed. > > My grandmother was not in institutions around the time of a census but I > do > wonder, when there was one, how patients there or in hospital were > counted. > > Tim > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > NYCHENAN-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message >