How can someone disappear off the face of the earth?

My great-grandmother Rule did just that. This has been one of my greatest genealogy mysteries of my family. I know where she was. I now know when she died. But I don't know much else. And most of her life is a mystery.

It was never that my dad had a lot of tales of his family, mainly because his father was 49 when he was born and died when my dad was 16. And there were a lot of things hidden from my father, including anything about his grandmother. All he ever said was that we would never be able to find anything about her as she was an orphan. I don't think that was true.

I had a few things, but they are all in conflict, unlike those of her husband, Charles Johnson Ruhl. Being a Civil War veteran, I have some details about his life. His census data is always in line. Born 1831 in Rockingham County, Virginia; died Oct. 1, 1890, in Harrison County, West Virginia, of paralysis. He had blue eyes, light hair and was "dark complected." He was, as many were then, a farmer. I even have several good photos of him, including one tintype.

As for his wife, Mary Ann, I have one photo. And even less reliable information.

According to their marriage certificate, they were married March 25, 1858, in Harrison County, Virginia. Unusual for that time, except in cases of orphans, which would support my father's story. But listed are the names of her parents, John and Sarah Biggs. Not highly unusual names. Her age was listed as 20, therefore would have been born in 1838. Birthplace is listed as Jefferson County, Virginia.

When I go back in the censuses, I found a John and Sarah Biggs, not in Rockingham County, but Ohio County, which could impact on the reality of the situation. In the 1850 census, they do have a daughter, Mary, but Mary S., not Mary A. This, however, could be a transcription error.

There are a couple of links that make this tenuous link more reliable. This Mary Biggs' sister, Amelia, married a cousin of the Rule family in an adjoining county. Ohio County, where the Biggs family was from, is not just a 'hoot and a holler' from Harrison County. Visiting a sister and meeting an eligible young man would not be unheard of. Just randomly showing up might be. Also, Charles and Mary Ann Ruhl's first son was David Henry Ruhl. The David would have been obvious, named for Charles' father. The Henry is less so. There aren't any Henrys around in that Rule family. It could have been after a close friend, but John of John and Sarah Biggs of Ohio County also has the middle name of Henry.

The 1870 census for Harrison County, West Virginia, has her birth around 1841 in Ohio; the 1880 census lists her birth around 1840 in Pennsylvania. Ohio County, West Virginia, is in the panhandle between Ohio and Pennsylvania, so it could be an easy mistake to make. To add to the confusion, her children have listed Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia as the birthplace of their mother.

When Charles died, my grandfather, Austin B. Ruhl (later Rule) filed for widow's benefits for her, using the birthdate of 1842. Actually this might be the real date. It would make sense, as Mary Ann was "signed for" by her guardian, which may have been a ruse as she may not have been of the legal age of consent and may not have had parental permission. It may be that they were married without her parents knowing.

Details of her death are even sketchier. According to the Civil War widow's pension file, she must have died on June 20, 1899, as that is when the pension stopped paying. My grandfather is listed in all these documents as the committee. It actually made little sense until I realized I was thinking it was something else: committee is not referring to a group of people; it is an archaic term referring to someone who has committed someone to a hospital. In this case, the Weston State Hospital in Lewis County, West Virginia.

Weston was at that time a hospital for the insane. But it was also a hospital for tuberculosis patients. In any case, I will probably not find out why she was there.

As absurd as it seems, under the law those hospital records are sealed forever. I could understand if it affected someone currently living, like the patient or the immediate family. She died 108 years ago. She is dead, her husband is dead, and all of her children are dead as are her grandchildren. I was born over half a century after she died. Yet I cannot access these records. Frustrating, especially when you know where they should be. So close, yet so far away.

While trying to find out anything (Lewis County does not maintain most death records for most Weston patients nor does the state), I was able to have a discussion with a very helpful woman in the records office. She had, several years earlier, worked with old Weston records when the hospital was building the new hospital and they were being moved. She said that in some cases, sadly, women, especially those who were older and poor, were committed to Weston because of depression or even the side effects of menopause. I could well imagine Mary Ann being depressed, as her husband had died and her father-in-law had died earlier the same year. I could imagine that Mary Ann was going through menopause (being anywhere from 45-52 years old). The two in combination could have been enough to have her children have her committed: they just didn't have those medicines then that we do now.

I can understand a bit why much hadn't been said to my father about his grandmother. Mental illness at that time was a great social stigma. Actually, as enlightened as we pretend to be, it still is, but it shouldn't be. So the only story that my father had was "she was an orphan." In the minds of my grandparents, it was probably better than "she died in an insane asylum."

While in some states, I might be able to file in court for those records, my grandfather being the committee, my father being the last of his children and I being the only son. But I was told that Lewis County courts will not grant permission to release records, if they can be found, for just the general knowledge of the next of kin. There has to be a medical reason. Honestly, I really don't have a valid medical reason, nor do any of my cousins. We could lie and say we do, but is it really worth that? And even if they released the records, it would only be those portions of the records that we would deem necessary to have access to.

I have her picture and look at it from time to time. She seems older than she should be. She seems somber, but that could have just been the style of the times. I wonder what secrets are hidden there. I wonder who this Mary Ann Biggs actually was.