52 Ancestors: Institutionalized: The Tragic Story of Jay "Jaybird" Roe

Some relatives leave behind stories of triumph and success. Others, like my 2x great grand uncle Jay "Jaybird" Roe, leave stories that reflect the harsh realities of a different era ā stories that remind us how far we've come in understanding and treating medical conditions, yet how far we still have to go. Born around 1900 in Kansas, Jay first appears in the 1910 census as a 7-year-old boy living with his father Jerry Rae in Otoe, Noble County, Oklahoma. The family, though they attempted to claim Native American heritage on census records, were actually Romani Travelers. Like many nomadic peoples throughout history, they faced prejudice and struggled to find acceptance in mainstream American society. Jay's life would be marked by his epilepsy ā a condition deeply misunderstood in early 20th century America. During the 1920s and 1930s, epilepsy was heavily stigmatized and often conflated with mental illness or intellectual disability, even though many people with ep...