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Tewksbury State Hospital Credit: Public Health Museum
Below are some resources to finding material on your ancestors and check out the video at the end.
Records Digitized Tewksbury Almshouse Records Family Search Medical Records and Weekly returns of admission and discharge, 1894-1918 Familysearch.com
Link to Massachusetts Archives
Massachusetts Genealogical Council Institute Records
Massachusetts Historical Society Overseers Of the Poor Records
Get Access to Adoption Records Mass.Gov
PDF City of Boston Archives and Records Management Division Guide to the Temporary Home for Women and Children records
PDF Health & Human Services Guide to All State Hospitals and Almshouses
Patient records created by state institutions were sent to the Board of State Charities from its 1863 creation, primarily to track how patients were supported financially. Link Massachusetts Archives.
The board kept records of commitment of all patients in institutions under their supervision, although this practice was not specifically mandated by law until 1898 (St 1898, c 433, s 8)
Series consists of microfilmed admission and discharge forms returned weekly to the board's successors by state, federal, and private facilities in Massachusetts. St 1945, c 291 allowed the microfilming of records and destruction of the originals, as was done with this series, which was microfilmed in 1947. Series includes a small sample of original forms
Admissions information includes patient name, number of previous commitments, inpatient registration no., by whose authority admitted, from where admitted, date, how supported, age, sex, marital status, birthplace, residence, occupation, and classification. Discharge information is similar: it also includes how dismissed, condition upon dismissal, and remarks (generally to whose care discharged). Also included on weekly returns is aggregate data including number of male and female patients, total number charged and admitted
Institutions include Belchertown State School, Boston Psychopathic Hospital (later Massachusetts Mental Health Center), Boston State Hospital, Bridgewater State Hospital, Danvers State Hospital, Walter E. Fernald State School, Foxborough State Hospital, Gardner State Hospital, Grafton State Hospital, Medfield State Hospital, Metropolitan State Hospital, Monson State Hospital, Norfolk State Hospital, Northampton State Hospital, Taunton State Hospital, Tewksbury State Hospital and Infirmary (later Tewksbury Hospital), Westborough State Hospital, Worcester State Hospital, and Wrentham State School; also U.S. Veterans Administration facilities in Bedford and Northampton and McLean Hospital and other private mental health and retardation facilities in Massachusetts
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