RootsChat.Com
General => The Common Room => Topic started by: liverpool lass on Monday 31 January 11 21:53 GMT (UK)
-
My brother just received the records of our GGrandmother from the Lancs Record Office. Excellent service! We received a death notice and detailed medical records and a photograph! However, it was harrowing reading. I had never met this person but I was nearly reduced to tears reading her notes. What a horrible time she had for the 20 years she was incarcerated. I like to think she would not have suffered so cruelly today. :'(
-
I can sympathise with that liverpool lass, I got my gt grandfather's asylum records and although he was only there for six months prior to his death I found it rather upsetting to read. Unfortunately I was reading the records at the Record Office so was trying hard to stem the tears!
-
My g.uncle went into a mental hospital in 1907 aged 27 and died there in 1964. I only have the admission page and one other page of his records, as it is not 100 years after 1964 yet and that is all the archives would send to me and that was after a lot of correspondence with them. ::)
On admission he was well nourished and fit looking, the diagnosis given was mania and delusions. However, it would seem that after his initial admission, he settled down as after 2 months, the record states "has settled down and now gives little trouble. Very demented" and the last entry one month later states - To Annexe.
I would assume that a patient being sent to the annexe meant they weren't a danger to themselves or others. As he was a butcher and had got to the age of 27 before becoming ill, I'm sure that in this day and age, he would have got treatment and been living a happy life in the community. My mum says she remembers visiting him when she was in her early teens. (He was her mother's brother). She said she was really worried before seeing him, imagining all sorts of things. In reality, he was quiet and calm and working as a gardener in the asylum grounds.
I don't know what demented meant on his notes. He was only 27, apparently hadn't been ill previously and couldn't have been suffering from general paralysis of the insane due to syphilis as he lived for another 57 years in the asylum. The only other history in the family of someone being mentally ill, was my g.g.uncle (uncle to the one above) but he was suffering from syphilis related illness and was 52 when he was admitted, and died only a short time after his admission. In his case, too, the initial diagnosis was that he was demented, but they did realise the true cause of his illness before he died.
Was demented used as a diagnosis, as they didn't know any better?
Lizzie
-
Was demented used as a diagnosis, as they didn't know any better?
Lizzie
That may well have been the case Lizzie, they seemed to have a 'one size fits' all in mental illnesses. My gt grandfather was diagnosed with acute melancholia which no doubt now have been termed as depression and treated accordingly. It really is heart rending when you think that our ancestors were committed for what are now usually easily treatable conditions.
-
I suppose g.uncle could have been schizophrenic, as when he was admitted he was hearing voices and was delusional. I have no idea what treatment, if any, my g.uncle was given as I am not allowed to see his full records. The only reason the archives would send me the admission page was because I told them a member of the family had become mentally ill and I wanted to know if it was hereditary.
In fact, this was a very small white lie as the member of the family was suffering from severe depression, not anything that would have warranted admission to a mental hospital.
What annoys me about not being allowed the records, is that there is no-one alive who knew my g.uncle. He never married, his parents are deceased, in fact his father was dead before he was admitted to the asylum, all his siblings are deceased as are his nephews and nieces, so the nearest ancestors alive are my generation, that is the g.nephews and nieces. Surely it wouldn't upset anyone to see his complete records?
Lizzie
-
Did he fight in the Boer War Lizzie? Post traumatic stress like many related conditions was not recognised at the time, and many people were hospitalized with no effective treatment for their condition.
-
Hadn't thought of that Roger, I've checked up on it. He wasn't born until 1880, so if he did it would have been right at the end of the war and on the 1901 he was at home with his widowed mother, a sister, a brother and a niece, the daughter of his eldest sister.
There was a Lance Corporal of the same name in the Mennes Scouts but on a record on Ancestry dated 15 August 1901, it states that the persons named were present at the operations named for which they claimed medals. For the person with my g.uncle's name it shows that he was present only at the Transvaal and that a medal was issued in 1905. At the end of the line of this man, where the others show "Discharged", his states to OC, DDC whatever that is.
My mum never said he'd been in any wars and as she visited him with her mother, I would have thought she might have mentioned it even if they hadn't thought it might be a cause of his mental illness.
Lizzie
ps. I have to say that from a photo of him as a child and the one on his admission sheet, he did look a little odd. I'll e-mail you the two photos.
-
So often family history turns out to be sad.
I have a distant cousin who was "labouring under mental derangement for 25 years", her illness being defined as "stupor". This was in Norfolk Lunatic Asylum 1834.
I also have a gt x 3 uncle who was sent to Broadmoor. I got his records recently. He seems to have had bouts of melancholy but I was glad to see the list of his possessions when he died. Not much, but he did have 7 books, a violin & bow, and a packet of cocoa!
-
Lizzie, Thanks for photos which you should have by now. It is by no means uncommon for men and/or their families to deny they ever took part in conflicts. It does look a possible, a relative of mine was involved in one of these irregular outfits in the Boer War, so I think it might be worth a post on the military board.
-
In fact, this was a very small white lie as the member of the family was suffering from severe depression, not anything that would have warranted admission to a mental hospital
different periods, different treatments, Lizzie, see Roobarb's post. My uncle was in a mental hospital for a third of his life because "they" couldn't cope... he was a doctor and knew he had been misdiagnosed but he could not do anything about it.
I count my blessings and refuse to worry about anything untoward.
cheers, falcybe
-
Lizzie; Roger's proven as sharp as usual there ;) PTSD.
I'm off to send ye a PM about this. I don't mind talking about it, if there's a valid reason. Just not something I feel the need to bandy about on open fora.
-
Thanks for the PMs Steve.
Lizzie
-
Steve
I notice you live in Eire, just out of interest whereabouts?
Lizzie