Or, Subtitled: Those Darned Census Entries That Name Folks by Initials
This is the second in a series of postings discussing the children of William Lindsey (1760/1770 – 1840) and wife Rachel Earnest of Spartanburg County, South Carolina. In a previous posting, I discussed this couple’s first three children, Cassandra, John, and Nicy Malinda. These postings about the children of William Lindsey and Rachel Earnest follow two postings in which I discussed William and Rachel in detail — here and here. The following posting begins with the fourth child of William Lindsey and Rachel Earnest, their daughter Elizabeth.
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Begats and Bequeathals 
“Terms like “idiot” and “lunatic” were, one suspects, fairly elastic terms at this period.” I don’t know if you have heard this, or if it can be independently verified, but I understand that these terms originally had distinct meanings. That information was presented in a talk I attended many years ago at a summer workshop of the SC Genealogical Society; I do not recall who the speaker was. My recollection is that “idiot” was the term applied to a person who had mental challenges from birth, while “lunatic” referred to someone who lost mental capacity later in life. Enjoying your posts. — John
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That’s generally my understanding of those two terms, too, John, though I wonder — given what seems to be perhaps a generational issue in this group of families — if there might have been some genetic issue that was being tagged as either “idiocy” or “lunacy.” I probably did not make myself clear in saying that, perhaps because I feel tentative about treading on this ground, given that I may be offering offense to my own family members. That’s surely not my intent, of course.
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