Episode 3 - The Plath Family and The Bell Jar

Independent genealogy researcher Phyllis Zegers uncovers a startling connection among the thousands of unclaimed ashes at the old psychiatric facility Oregon State Hospital. With the help of Ancestry genealogists, the remains of a forgotten patient, Ernestine Plath, are identified as those of the paternal grandmother of famed poet Sylvia Plath, whose novel The Bell Jar chronicles a young woman’s struggle with mental illness and her commitment to a mental institution. This episode of Unclaimed dives deep into the discovery and confirmation of this hidden chapter of mental illness in an otherwise well-documented American literary family's story. We also hear from curators at the OSH Museum of Mental Health, who talk about commitment laws affecting women deemed “mentally ill” in this era—how a woman could be committed by her husband or family on the grounds that she struggled with “domestic disagreement,” or “disappointment in love." So many of these cremains have yet to be researched and connected to the present day. What other discoveries are still to be made? What other stories are on the brink of being forgotten forever?