Janice wrote:
>> Just out of curiosity, if you had not known of your great-grandmother's
condition through family sources, is there anything in census records that
would  have led you to her?

CG replied:
>Only on the 1880 Census did they actually ask that question. On some of the
other census they could be listed as inmates of a mental facility.
 

Actually, the 1880 census did not merely "ask a question" and inmates of
mental facilities were definitely listed in those facilities that year. What
was unique in 1880 is that the census had a special schedule for those who
were inmates of mental institutions and infirmaries, orphanage and poor
houses, and jails and prisons.

If you have access to back issues of the _National Genealogical Society
Quarterly_, see Ruth Land Hatten, "The 'Forgotten' Census of 1880:
Defective, Dependent, and Delinquent Classes," NGSQ 80 (March 1992): 57-69.
That article gives contextual background, reproduces all the numerous
questions asked on the schedule, and identifies both the whereabouts of the
originals (for each state) and the i.d. of existing microfilm. For Virginia,
the manuscript should be at the Library of Virginia and the schedules have
been filmed as part of National Archives microfilm publication T1132. 

Elizabeth

-----------------------------------------------------------
Elizabeth Shown Mills, CG, CGL, FASG
Advanced Research Methodology & Evidence Analysis
Samford University Institute of Genealogy & Historical Research

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