Disabled people - Airbrushed out?

[Jomot]

As has been said, disabilities are not often declared anywhere. 

I have a 14 year old who died of chronic hydrocephalus, but it was never stated on a census that he was in any way disabled.  I only knew from his death certificate that he was admitted to an asylum at 13, and those records list a multitude of problems from infancy including being blind, partially deaf, non-verbal, deformed leg, deformed arm, and 'an idiot'.  Despite this he was 'not under any care or treatment'.

Another I only discovered via a newspaper article.  He was trying to shoot rats in a privvy but struggled to stand up because he was lame and accidentally shot himself in the head.  This was in 1854, and it was "necessary to cut a portion of the skull away which lodged upon the brain, and to remove some splintered pieces".  Remarkably he lived a further 26 years, although he also died in an asylum. 

I haven't obtained his asylum records so don't yet know the cause of his lameness, nor the extent of the subsequent damage to his brain, but it all sounds pretty horrific.

I certainly haven't 'airbrushed' either of them, although the struggles they faced do haunt me a little at times.

[Erato]

I'm just guessing, but I expect that our disabled ancestors [at least the ones in small villages] were not airbrushed out of life in their communities.  I base that on years spent in a small third world village [pop. 550] whose population included people with just about every kind of mental and physical disability  -  blind, deaf, crippled, insane, etc.  They were not totally marginalized; they fit in as best they could and their limitations were simply acknowledged and accepted.  To the extent possible, a place was made for them in village life.  I only ever knew of one individual who was hidden away and shunned  -  a young boy with a hideous skin disease that was thought to be caused by witchcraft.  [Eventually, we were able to arrange for him to be treated in the territorial capital and to convince the family to do so.  He went out with his father and came back two or three months later 100% cured].

[stanmapstone]

As far as I am aware, the only census that includes disability is in 1911.

The 1851 & 1861 censuses had a column for Blind, Deaf or Dumb. 1871 to 1901 Imbecile or Idiot & Lunatic were added. This was the same as in 1911 except it was expanded.

[PrawnCocktail]

You can sometimes see them in a Will, although not stated as such. But when one adult child is left an annuity, with someone named as guardian, it's fairly obvious why that might be the case, although the specific cause will not be mentioned.

[River Tyne Lass]

I also think that a lot of the disabilities that we recognise these days were unknown about many years ago.  For example, autism, ADHD, dyslexia to name but a few.  I think people with these disabilities would have suffered a very hard time as they would have likely just  been expected to fit in with little or no support.

[CarolA3]

Why do disabled people not appear in people's family trees.

Are disabled people deliberately excluded from some people's family history?

I have never seen a thread on this site which has a reference to a disabled person.

What makes you think this is happening?  How would you know?  Are you claiming to have read every thread on every board in RootsChat

Try this one for a start; there are many others on similar lines:  www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=514360.msg3703390 (my reply #10)

Carol

[medpat]

I have found one adult and 2 children. The man was a deaf lock maker who married and had a family. The children - one labelled an imbecile since birth, when his mother died he was sent to an asylum, another down as crippled since birth on 2 censuses, she died in her late teens not long after the census.

[loobylooayr]

I have a sister of my 3xgreat grandfather who is recorded as Deaf and Dumb on Census. She is on my tree.
There may be other disabled ancestors in my family - however I've not found evidence.
 I do know my great-grandmother who died in 1950s was crippled with rheumatoid arthritis and what would be diagnosed today as osteoporosis. This caused her to have very poor mobility for several years. However I only know this via word of mouth from my mother, I can find no documented evidence to support it. Not even photographs. Her death certificate records a cerebral stroke as cause of death.

Looby

[zetlander]

In our family trees we note the occupation relationships of our forebears - we note where they lived where they moved to and describe the lives they lead.
 But the lives disabled people lived or the relationships they had with other family members are rarely chronicled.  The censuses label them e.g. as 'idiot, or 'imbecile' etc. and that is the end of their story.
Many lived long lives - sometimes in institutions - what was their daily life - where did they 'fit in?'

Too many are simply labelled and forgotten about - is that because they're not as interesting as the able-bodied relatives?