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Files to Massachusetts State Hospitals with Records to Almshouses Asylums and Overseers of the Poor including Abandoned Children Foster and Adoption

Updated: Aug 4


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

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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