Idiots, Imbeciles, Lunatics .....

[toni*]

I have a relation, my great great aunts son, who was an idiot.

i am just researching about him now.

he was in an asylum in 1901 and died in 1903 at his parents home, (from the burial records) a few months before he died he was christened - adult christened 20 years old

i was thinking that maybe they knew he was going to die and thus took him home to die and had him christened before he did.

i think its all rather sad.

[Rena]

How I wish my ancestors had had the courage to declare one of their sons on a census under whatever word was commonly in use at the time.    He was named in favour of his maternal grandfather and that knowledge would have broken down a brick wall and saved me years of fruitless research.   I can't even find a birth record for him in on SP and the NHS archives don't have a record of him being cared for away from home.   I found him when the family headstone was eventually discovered.

[Parmesan]

Just had another look at the 1871 census and Imbecile has actually been scored through so the enumerator got it wrong - imbecile! 

[Steve G]

Well,that's cool, Parmesan. Only I'm still gagging to get to the bottom of that weird word above. I'm still not happy with it and would like more opinion.

 Maybe it's just me? But, I can't manage to see " Deformed " in there. Nor can I put my finger on anything else. It's doing my head in! 

[Parmesan]

I did as you advised and posted in the 'decipher' board and had 3 replies all thinking it says 'deformed', like you, I'm not convinced although it seems the most likely word.

[angusg]

for what its worth I blew it up yo the max on my screen
line reads "Crippled from birth Deformed".

This suggests more than just not being able to walk,
maybe a twisted spine or similar.

[Steve G]

 Looks like we'll have to accept the majority verdict on this one then, Cheeser.

Bit of an abstraction from all this but; I was thinking to myself how " Crippled and " rather automatically leads the mind to " Deformed ". And that's when my own mind did a lateral shift and showed me what I suspect was hovering in my own subconscious .....

 All this reading I've been doing, about Idiots, Imbeciles, Lunatics and Maniacs? I wonder if I was trying to think of " Deranged " ?

 Doesn't fit at all, of course. Not suggesting that for a moment. But, I do wonder if that's where my mind was going. Off the bloody rails, I suppose! 

[Parmesan]

Aye G-ster I guess so.

Actually looks like Defursel to  me, but I'm an idiot ....

[Steve G]

Defursel

 Ye've just made that up, haven't ye? Look at Google. This thread's the only place they mention it! 


 If you're an idiot, what's that make me? They want me on chorophacinone, for life! Apparently, that stuff's for people who've " Lost touch with reality "! 

 Bloody nerve! 

Sorted it out myself though. Came over here and hide myself away in this bog. Now I while away my time conversing with pizza toppings who make up words .......... Perhaps I should take the drugs?