Exhibit 8
Third Annual Report
of the
Eugenics Survey of Vermont
February 1929
Office of the Survey
138 Church Street
Burlington, Vermont
~
Auspices of the University of Vermont
Page 4
...the Survey, the Advisory Committee went on record as favoring the passage of certain laws looking toward the improvement of the population of Vermont by some restrictive measure. The Survey was first conceived as a means of applying scientific technique to the question of the wisdom of such measures. The results have in no way lessened the faith of the Committee in such laws, but the scope of the Survey has greatly broadened so that any particular form of legislation no longer constitutes its chief concern. It became apparent early in the history of the enterprise that its scope was much broader than that.
The question has frequently and properly been raised as to why we centered our efforts upon low grade families. Since defects and delinquency had already been made a matter of record in the cases of those who found their way to the state institutions, these traits furnished the easiest and most obvious starting point.
In order to present the other side of the story it was determined as indicated in the last report to make an investigation of the recurrence, suggesting hereditary transmission, of desirable qualities in the families that had been previously studied, and also in new families.
OFFICE WORK
Cross-indexing
During the year the indexing and cross-indexing of the families on file has been continued, so that now all individuals of the main pedigrees are included, with cross references.
Clock-dial Charts
Eleven clock-dial charts have been added this year, making the total number thirteen -- one for each of the main pedigrees.
Newspaper Clippings
Clippings having to do with crime, bankruptcies, and other items of interest to the Survey, and news from the various towns, particularly those in which we are working or are likely to work, are taken daily from the Burlington Free Press, and filed for reference.
Page 05
SOME ENGLISH CORRUPTIONS OF FRENCH NAMES
During the course of our study we have come across three types of corruptions of corruptions of French names:
1. English pronunciations of the original French spelling.
2. Names in which the spelling has been changed to agree with the English pronunciation.
3. Translations of the original French.
It was not only interesting but also extremely useful to make some study of these names and their corruptions because in several cases this knowledge enabled us to connect branches of a family which in connection would not have been otherwise evident, as with Riley -- Brouillard.
The information was gathered in interviews with French Canadians, from the records of St. Joseph's Church in Burlington, and from Town Clerks' Records in which the spelling of a name is seen to change through successive generations. It is easy to see that such discrepancies might throw one off the track for a long time. It is only by accident or after a considerable amount of investigation that this relationship is brought to light.
The following are some of the English names and French equivalents which we have found:
English.....French
Barnes.....Granger
Barney.....Bernier
Bean.....Lefevre
Bell.....Labelle
Benway.....Benoit
Betters......Lemieux
Bishop......Evesque
Blanchard.....Blanchard
Brooks......Rousseau
Bushey......Boucher, Boissy, Bouisse
Burgor......Beauregard
Baker......Boulanger
Cole......Charbonneau
Drinkwine......Boisvin
Fontaine......LaFontaine
Gardner.......Desjardins
Gilbo.......Gilbeault
Gilmore......Villemaire
Hall......Houle
King.....Roise, Lerois
Kirby......Corbeille
Laduke......Leduc
Page 06
Continuation of English Corruptions of French Names
and
STUDY OF BETTER BRANCHES
THE RECTOR* FAMILY
THE RECTOR* FAMILY
English.......French
Larkyeard.....Lacaillade
Larock......Larocque
Lawrence......Lorrain
Little......Petit
Luck......LaChance
Miller......Mennier
Nichols......Niquette
Richard......Resure
Riley......Bouriller, Brouillard
Rivers......Lariviere
Root.......Racine
St. Peter.......St. Pierre
Sears.......Cyr
Seymour......Simard, St. Mars, Cinq Mars
Shequin......Chicoine
Shortsleeves.......Courtemanches
Steady.......Tranquille
Stone.......Derocher, Lapierre
Vassor.......Vasseur
Welcome.......Bienvenue
Wells......Dupuis
Wood.......Godbois
Young.......LaJeunesse, Niquette
STUDY OF BETTER BRANCHES
THE RECTOR* FAMILY
THE RECTOR* FAMILY
One of the pedigrees, that of the Rector family, which has presented a particularly unfavorable picture because of the prevalence and seriousness of its defects and delinquency, was chosen for investigation in regard to the favorable characteristics to be found in certain of its branches. This we call the study of the "better branches." We undertook to make as thorough a study as possible of several generations in a part of this family which has not previously revealed the presence of serious defects. The Field Investigator accordingly went over the information in our files, and in addition gathered new data from relatives and town officials and interviewed members of the groups located in various parts of Vermont and neighboring states.
In this study which is in effect an attempt to estimate the value of the Rector family to society, the terms social, unsocial and undetermined are used with the following meanings:
*Names fictitious
Page 07
A. Social individuals -- those who are apparently law-abiding, self-supporting and doing some useful work, of whatever intellectual or social class, from mill hands who are said to be "the only respectable members of their immediate family," to professional people who are also active in community affairs.
B. Unsocial individuals -- those showing any of a groups of defects observable in the family, as follows:
1. Those insane, mentally deficient, or who committed suicide, and those who are said to be "crazy," "low grade," or extremely peculiar.
2. Criminals, delinquents and sex offenders.
3. Those on a low subsistence level -- whose homes are dirty, children uncared for, their living meager and uncertain. etc.
4. Dependants.
C. Undetermined -- those about whom too little is known to make any judgement possible, and those who, while not definitely showing any of the defects, do not seem to show any socially desirable tendencies either.
All figures given are for the direct line, mention being made separately of the mates. Children who died under 16 years of age and about whom nothing is known were omitted.
* * *
John Rector and Rachel Stone were married late in the eighteenth century and lived somewhere in Connecticut. Although little is definitely known of either of them, Rachel is said to have been insane.
They had nine children who lived to adulthood. Of these, six come in our group called undetermined, two in the social group, and one, Asa, who was insane, in the unsocial group.
One of the most striking results of the study was the discovery that all of the defects -- not only of the insanity but also all of the unsocial traits found -- were in the descendants of the one insane son, Asa, of John and Rachel.
Both Asa and his wife Ruth were insane, tow of their five children were insane, and of their direct descendants, one in every 15.3 -- 6.5 percent -- was insane at some time. If it were possible to know very definitely the severity and type of mental illness of both Asa and Ruth, it might be possible to explain the fact that....
