GENEALOGY CHALLENGE 2021 - Record Not Found Online

Danville Asylum, Montour County, Pennsylvania

GENEALOGY CHALLENGE 2021

Record Not Found Online - January 21st entry of a 31-day challenge to post a document, photo or artifact on social media every day in January.  

by Nancy Gilbride Casey

 

Genealogy and family history research has exploded as a hobby in the past decade or so, spurred by DNA tests and their online family tree counterparts on Ancestry, 23andMe and other sites. At-home genealogists can hop online 24/7 to research in vast databases filled with records and images of censuses, birth and death records, newspaper clippings, photos, church records, military draft cards, and thousands of other records, each recording a snapshot in time of our ancestors.

Back in the day, however, anyone trying to find out more about their roots would have to write letters to courthouses, tramp in cemeteries, or travel to libraries and archives to find the records of their family's past. They did not have an online option. Today, these repositories are sometimes overlooked by researchers who believe that "everything is online," when in reality, online collections barely scratch the surface of what is available.

One of the most poignant and valuable records I have obtained "offline" is the patient record for my 2x great grandmother Catherine Ryan Gilbride. After a stillbirth of her second child in 1877, Catherine was diagnosed with "puerperal mania" and committed to Danville Asylum in Montour County, Pennsylvania, where she remained until her death at age 26 in 1881. 

The old Danville patient records had been sent to the Pennsylvania State Archives. My research request in 2018 resulted in two full ledger pages taken from case books kept by the hospital staff. It weaves a tragic tale of her admission, her mercurial moods and habits, and even some precious physical descriptions of her. It answered many questions regarding her disappearance from the family in census records, and the lack of documents recording her life. It explains why on her son John Joseph Gilbride's death certificate, the informant wrote in the space for his mother's name, "don't know."

The pages below are the record of Catherine's time at Danville and her death.¹ (A transcription follow.) It offers a glimpse into one woman's experience of post-partum mental illness, at a time when it was little understood.

Below is a transcription of the record.

1877
April 14th	Catharine Gilbride, No 676
	Laborers wife, aged 22, native of Ireland and resident of Luzerne Co. Penna. Youngest child three weeks old, next 14 mos. Cause of insanity parturition. Duration 3 weeks.
	On admission is a woman of less than medium size, of florid complextion & auburn hair. Some loss of flesh evident owing to recent accouchement. The child was stillborn. State of physical organs normal. Mammars secrete very scantily. Diagnosis: Mania.
15th	Did not sleep well, is noisy during day – sighing and crying. No definite delusions manifest. Appetite good. Ordered Rx (.......unreadable........)
22nd	Is noise and troublesome, but not violent. Has required temporary seclusion on several occasions. Treatment continued.
May 9th	Improved. Moved her to a better ward to-day. Physical health also improved. Tmt Contin.
June 15th	Has gone back somewhat. Is not noisy though, but sits around on floor moping.
Sept. 15th	Quite a change for the worse. Very noisy. Required canvas jacket habitually to prevent destruction of clothing.
Nov. 15th	No improvement.
1878
Feb. 1st	No improvement.
May 1st	Patient can get along at times without jacket but seldom for a week at a time. Is noisy at night notwithstanding chlorl.
Aug. 1st	No change.
Nov. 20th	Exaggerated symptoms of mania at time – very excitable, violent. Threw a medicine cup at the supervisoress & inflicted a scalp wound. Health remains good.
Dec. 16th	No improvement – is very destructive, violent, filthy, requires constant seclusion.
1879
March 17th	No improvement
April 9th	Being allowed in the ward with restraint (cuffs). There seems signs of improvement.
July 22nd	Restraints seldom used – improvement slight.
Sept. 13th	No improvement – Filthy, destructive, violent
Nov. 7th	Stationary
Dec. 10th	Stationary
1880
March 10th	Stationary
May 17th	Stationary
July 13th	No change. Health good.
Sept. 6th	Health remains good. Patient has periods of excitement coming at irregular times and lasting for various periods of time. – In the interim she is tractable & reasonably quiet, needing no restraint & aiding in some portions for the ward work.
Dec 20th	Health good – varies from week to week restraint needed at times to prevent her injuring persons & again she is quiet and orderly attending chapel & aiding in ward work.
1881
Jan. 5th	Failure in health.
Jan 17th	Death this date. Pneumonia – lower lobe of right lung intensely congested.

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¹ Catharine Gilbride patient record, 1887-1881, Record Group 23, Records of the Department of Public Welfare, Danville State Hospital, Female Case Books, Book A, pages 81, noting date of admission; photocopies supplied by Pennsylvania State Archives, Harrisburg, PA to Nancy Gilbride Casey, Tioga, Texas.