Indiana Commission on Public Records is now in warehouse on East side of Indianapolis.
This is very assessable site with free parking, they moved several years ago from the old
downtown site near the state capital building. Here is the site web page with a map.
http://www.in.gov/icpr/2436.htm
ICPR: Hours, Location, and Contact Information
I'm not clear on the the Almshouse organization or authority. There was a "Board
of State Charities" that was the central authority that orphanages, poor farms &
prisons reported to and I know there are many annual reports on file at ICPR. A ICPR
pamphlet that I have list "County Asylums/Poor Farms - Limited and varied reports for
County Poor Farms, including some family information , Microfilm only"
Pre 1930 info should be available to public, but they do follow the 70 year rule and you
would have to prove family relationship to view more recent files but they are friendly to
genealogist.
Joe Weiss
gkeusch(a)psci.net wrote:
I am not that familiar with the setups in Vanderburgh CO
regarding the poor, but do know in my county, almshouse and county farm/poor farm were
one and the same. Besides a county farm, I think Henderson CO also had a pest house for
poor people with a disease.
I think the county farm in Vanderburgh CO was located out where the Hamilton Golf
Course was. There may have been more than one location for the county farm at certain
time periods. Many even had their own cemeteries and the county paid for the burial.
My county's poor farm had its own tiny cemetery of unmarked graves. Many Catholic
families would get the body of an family "inmate" member and have that person
buried in a Catholic graveyard.
Regarding the term "inmate", I have seen monasteries and convents that
had the term "inmate" after the nun or priest's names. So I think during
the 1800-first part of the 1900's, anyone living in an institution (mental, poor
house, convent, actual prison, etc.) was listed as an inmate.
Regarding the state hospital-- where can records be obtained for a person who was
there in the early 1920's? A few years ago I was at a place in Indianapolis and
asked to see the records, and my relative was not listed. What is the ruling on
getting any records from the Evansville hospital or Our Lady of Peace at Louisville?
Thanks. Helen Zuber Keusch