Judith- I want to reassure you that some mental illnesses are passed down through generation gentically while others are more of a learned behavior(that is learned from parents) and others we simply do not know. The vast majority of people with mental illness I see have suffered trauma in their lives, ie. abuse. some believe even if you have the genetic makeup there must be a trigger that sets of the illness, like abuse. Chances are that your husband's ancestor didn't suffer from mental illness anyhow. We discussed awhile ago that people were put into such places for many reasons, such as dementia, alcoholism, epilepsy, even being a litle odd could get you in. Faith