Innocent literally means "innocent." It is a term used in older Dutch records to refer to somebody who had a mental disability or who had severe dementia. You may encounter the term in a will, for instance, if the parent wanted to provide for a child with disabilities or in a hospital record describing an elderly patient's mental condition. Read researching relatives with disabilities for more information. … [Read more...]
Researching Relatives with Disabilities
28 April 2017 by 9 Comments
A forty-four-year-old man lies buried in Winterswijk, the Netherlands. His grave has an ordinary marker, but with an unusual design: it has a toy on it. People who walk past it wonder why a grown man would have a toy depicted on his grave. They don't know that the man who rests there was my uncle, Dinant, who had severe mental disabilities. During his birth, Dinant was deprived of oxygen. He suffered severe brain damage, resulting in mental disabilities. His condition got worse as he got … [Read more...]
