Debbie, A suggestion: Since you know the approximate death year (1911), look for his death on the Calif State Death Index. It will not only give you the exact date of death, but will give you a coded number which matches up to a county. Sorry, but I don't know what the code number is for Santa Clara County. When I was researching a pioneer family of San Mateo Co., I found that an elderly member was placed in Agnews State Hospital by his family because he was "senile", which could have been for what we know is alzheimers today. Another tip: Contact the Santa Clara Co. Genealogical and Historical Society for help in finding records for Agnews State Hospital and for burial/cemetery records for their county. They also probably have the CA State Death Index in their collection. They have their society holdings at the Santa Clara City Library. -- Helen (who used to live in San Mateo Co., Calif, next door to Santa Clara Co.) "Mary Helen E. Chrisman" wrote: > Hi Debbie, > The only California asylum that I know of off hand was Agnews State Asylum > for the Insane near San Jose in Santa Clara County. You might try tracking > your gr-grandfather in the 1910 census. My gr-gr-uncle turned up as an > "inmate" at Agnews in the 1920 census (Agnews was listed as its own > district). I haven't followed up with the info so I'm not any help on the > next step yet. Good luck. - Mary Helen > > -----Original Message----- > > I am interested in this topic also. I have a gr-grandfather, who, > according to family stories, died in an insane asylum in California in > 1911. I don't have a clue WHERE in California, and he had a very common > name. > > ==== PACHESTE Mailing List ==== > Stop by our associated website for Chester County Genealogy at > http://www.rootsweb.com/~pacheste/chester.htm