Hi all, Thanks to everyone who has offered advice. Here is the story. I'll try to keep it brief. :) My gr-grandmother, Mary Ruth John was born in Chester Co in 1857 and raised a Quaker. She became engaged to Thomas Harrison in 1884. He was b in England (supposedly was raised in Bradford, Yorkshire, but I didn't find him in the IGI with the birthdate I have) and came to the US under contract with a Railroad Co as a skilled laborer. Don't know which Railroad. She then postponed the wedding (I think there was family pressure against it) and he moved to CA with his work. A year later she traveled to CA to marry him (I have their wedding cert., looks more like she ran off, her maiden surname is spelled wrong and she gave her place of residence as Minnesota!) They were married at Lower Lake ME Church, Lower Lake, CA. Nov 28, 1885. The story I was told (her daughter, my grandmother died before I was born, my mother told me the story and her 2 brothers had never heard it, 1 believed it and 1 didn't) was that he became a successful business man in Stockton, San Francisco or Sacramento and that his business rivals, in order to bring him down a few notches, spread the rumor that his wife was having an affair. He went home and found his wife and 2 daughters, aged 12 and 10 in the parlor having tea and shot and killed his wife in front of the daughters. The daughters were sent back to Chester Co to be raised by their mother's sister. That's the story. The facts that I have found through family papers and photographs is that they lived in or near Sacramento, my grandmother attended Brighton Junction School, near Sacramento, that Thomas Harrison worked at the Union Iron Works machine shop, that he received his citizenship papers in 1894 in the County of Sacramento, there is no background info on the papers and I don't know where he started the citizenship process, I don't know how long he was in the US before he went to CA or where he was except near Chester Co for a while. All the family photos were taken in Sacramento studios. Mary Ruth John Harrison (the wife) died Oct 7, 1898 and if a photo label is correct was buried in Sacramento, but the cemetary is not named. Thomas Harrison supposedly died Dec 19, 1911, though I have seen 2 other years in family papers and my mother claimed that he died when she was a young child in the 1920's. About 4 or 5 years ago I was introduced by a very reputable person to a woman in CA who did research for modest fees. I told her the story and agreed to get a check in the mail. She did find somethings out (if she was telling th truth), that the story was true, that she had found a record of Thomas Harrison in an insane asylum in central CA (I've since lost the e-mails thru a computer crash) she didn't give me any details, she was awaiting my check and then I got a message from her that she was off to a convention in Salt Lake City, that was the last I heard from her, she never responded to any of my e-mails. I dropped it there and didn't pursue it again. Now I think that I'm ready to have a go at it but don't know where to start from my isolated corner of Kentucky. Debbie "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