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Archiver > GenMassachusetts > 1998-10 > 0908327329


From: Dora Smith <>
Subject: Northampton State Hospital records policy
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1998 21:08:49 -0400 (EDT)


I called Massachusetts Archives this morning, about records of Northampton
Psychiatric Hospital; they said they have them to l950 or something but I
would have to call a specific person at the number they gave me at a
branch of the State Department of Mental Health and follow a procedure
they would explain to me to get access to my great grandparents' records.
I called that individual, and she was extremely helpful, except that I
really need to check on other peoples' knowledge and experience about what
she told me.

She told me that because of some new law, I have to follow a lengthy
procedure to obtain a court order for each individual whose records I want
to see. She said that isn't a difficult or expensive process, the filing
fee is small, but I'm not sure about whether one has to go there to file
the papers, and the court deliberately balks at processing them, so the
process does go through but takes many months. Her opinion is that the
procedure was instituted to discourage people from trying to get those
records. I also have to prove my relationship to my great grandparents,
which according to her is not all that hard. For instance, according to
her, since New York State doesn't let one have one's parents' birth
certificates without a court order, and neither the local nor state vital
records office wanted to tell me the procedure to get THAT, she told me a
newspaper announcement of my parents' wedding, for instance, that lists my
mother and her parents, would work. According to her. I sent for the
wedding announcement, my grandmother's death announcement, my mother's
baptism certificate, and my grandmother's will, which names each of her
children and grandchildren, states their exact relationship to her, and I
got half of her estate, because she was estranged from her daughters.

But that was sure different from the perception of, for instance, Dave,
who does this sort of research professionally. The person I talked to at
the dept of Mental Health said something about Massachusetts ARchives
interpreting the law a little differently; but they referred me to her, so
I didn't call and talk to the person she mentioned.

Yours,
Dora Smit

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