As I am working on a family tree I was wondering if people here have found family histories of mental illness.

If so, what did you find? How far back have you gone? Where you able to find any specific information?

I am bipolar type 2, but my father is most certainly an undiagnosed bipolar type 1, and his birth mother (he was adopted) seems to possibly have been commited to a mental hospital (maybe Graystone in New Jersey) around 1940. Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of info other than she died in 1943. Possibly while still there.

Has anyone tried doing research in this area?

To add to the fun, I recently obtained a copy of my mother's father's adoption paperwork, and it stated that his mother was "insane" and that the father was unable to care for him due to being an alcoholic. I'm not quite sure what qualified as "insane" in 1906. From what I can tell she seems to have later remarried and lived a fair amount of time after.