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England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => Cheshire => England => Cheshire Lookup Requests => Topic started by: Rebaby on Monday 29 October 18 15:20 GMT (UK)
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Hello. Just wondering if anyone might be able to help me find one of my ancestors, Elizabeth Holland who was a patient at Cheshire Lunatic Asylum between 1865 and 1867. I've found her on the UK Lunacy Patients Admission Register so I know she was admitted on 15/02/1865 and died 09/03/1867 and is buried in Overleigh Cemetery. What I haven't been able to find out so far is why she was admitted, or her cause of death or any other details of her time at the asylum. If anyone could shed any light, or point me in the right direction, I'd be incredibly grateful.
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Her death should be on the gro index from whence you could order a pdf of the certificate to find out the cause. Age would also be given so would give some idea of year of birth.
https://www.gro.gov.uk Free to use but you need to register.
Pheno
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In my family a young man in his late teens was admitted to a Hampshire lunatic asylum in abt 1880 ( can’t remember exactly) Hampshire Archives had the admission registers and there were several pages of information including the admitting doctors report.
The detail was sufficient that a psychiatrist was able to tell us he was probably psychizophrenic. His mother told of him standing in corners talking to himself and other details while his father said he had been “queer from birth”.
So...worth seeing if there are more Cheshire asylum records anywhere.
http://www.cheshirearchives.org.uk/what-we-hold/what-we-hold.aspx
There seems to be a never ending loop between Cheshire archives and national archives but someone might be able to break through!
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Thank you both for your replies :) I have dates (birth, admission, death etc), but was hoping to find out a bit more around the circumstances. It looks as though I'm going to need to contact Cheshire Archives directly. They do have some medical records from the asylum *around* that time, so it just depends if hers have survived!
Thanks again.
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In my family a young man in his late teens was admitted to a Hampshire lunatic asylum in abt 1880 ( can’t remember exactly) Hampshire Archives had the admission registers and there were several pages of information including the admitting doctors report.
The detail was sufficient that a psychiatrist was able to tell us he was probably psychizophrenic. His mother told of him standing in corners talking to himself and other details while his father said he had been “queer from birth”. So...worth seeing if there are more Cheshire asylum records anywhere.
http://www.cheshirearchives.org.uk/what-we-hold/what-we-hold.aspx
Having been privileged to examine the admissions records of the Exeter Digby Hospital records, I would urge you to check options with the Cheshire archives as recommended already.
There is so much information in those records, but be prepared to find, as I did, that the most telling columns for your relative, remain blank!!
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Hi, Rebaby. As advised by others Cheshire Archives and Local Studies are your best option in finding any records of your ancestor. Have a look at their online catalogue. I had an ancestor who was a patient (inmate - I hate that word), for some 20 +years. She died just before the 1911 census. Many of the admission registers still exist and are held at the archives. I found a record of her in one of these. Unfortunately it didn’t tell me very much about her condition. Others on the same page had more detail, so you may be lucky. What I did ascertain was her general health (poor health and unkempt). She lived with a sister and I can only surmise that her unkempt state was due to her health. The sisters were milliners and I would suspect that her unkempt state would not bring customers to the door. The other point to note is that the admission record gave the name of the persons who authorised her admission. On census data I found one was the local doctor and the second a ‘local councillor’. Of note is that I also found the niece of this ancestor was also admitted to the same asylum. The death certificate for her was very interesting. She was noted as having delusions but was diabetic. This was before insulin was introduced. Poor lady was possibly admitted for having uncontrolled diabetes. Be prepared that if you find any information on this ancestor it might be upsetting. Good luck in your searches. Regards Kathb