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?
Interesting to whom?
Your questions are valid but to whom are they directed? Are you addressing societal attitudes of the past or the personal interest levels of today's genealogy buffs?
Surely you are not suggesting that Rootschatters are not interested in ancestors or relatives who had disabilities?
Even if you have spent very little time perusing the threads here, you cannot have missed the fact that most of us are practically obsessed over the tiniest detail we can scrounge on our ancestors and their relatives.
I think it's safe to say that, when genealogy keeners like us come across information about illness or disability, it expands not only our knowledge of those individuals but also our empathy and understanding of what life might have been like for them and their family members.
One of my ancestors was "quite deaf" but I only learned of it when I purchased copies of court documents related to charges that were made against him. First, we knew nothing of the criminal charges or the time he spent in prison and, second, we had no knowledge of his deafness. I was astounded and fascinated. What was the first thing I did? I researched the prisons where I knew he stayed. The second? I researched education for the deaf in his country and lifetime.
As others have noted, it is hard to find those details. We could blame it on attitudes that people held about disabilities and differences in years past or we could blame the fact that the record sources that are available to us now simply weren't intended for that purpose.
This is true even for today, I think. Using myself as an example, I had a couple of birth defects and also have more than one chronic health condition, but none of those will cause or contribute to my death. Unless I record it somewhere, and that information is preserved by family, how will the descendants of my niece and nephew ever learn of it? And if they don't, will it be because they just don't care, or because they have no way of knowing?
Regards,
Josephine
