Omagh Asylum

[Bevbyng]

Hi I am new to this site but I noticed your message about your grandmother so I was wondering if you could give some help, my grandmother was also in omagh asylum in late 1920s and I would like to find out about her and what happened to her she also died in there any information you can give me would be great.

Many thanks
Bev

[Raysgirl]

 Hi Bev,
 Sorry to hear your grandmother was also an inmate and died in the Asylum at Omagh. All you need to do is email the Proni Office from there web site.
http://proni.gov.uk

ref: Omagh District Asylum Paper ref no. MIC554
dated 1855-1931
They need her full name and the date she was in or even her death date and they will look into her records. Before these records can be open to you they have to go through a committee uusually takes about 4weeks altogether, because these records are not due to be open until 2020 ish.
But I am warning you now be prepared because it was very distressing and emotional to read my grandmothers records, I never expected to get such details from her care records.  If you want anymore help do not hesitate to ask.
Regards Anne

[Bevbyng]

Hi Anne

Thank you so much for the information I will E-mail them today.

Many thanks

Bev

[Raysgirl]

 Hope your search will be successful x

[TonyMcGartland]

I'm only getting back to this now but I discovered that my great-grandfather died in Union Hospital, Omagh Workhouse in 1921 of heart disease. I purchased a copy of his death certificate from GRONI and although quite sad, at least I no longer need to look for his grave. The general feeling is that people died there daily and were just buried without any marking whatsoever.

Several years ago there was some attempt at building on the site and quite a lot of remains were found.

[Raysgirl]

Hi Tony, I managed to get my grandmothers nursing records and it was a traumatic read sometimes you are best not knowing the full details of their life in the workhouse. It is sad that people where dying daily and no markings to acknowledge their existence. Anne

[TonyMcGartland]

Hi Tony, I managed to get my grandmothers nursing records and it was a traumatic read sometimes you are best not knowing the full details of their life in the workhouse. It is sad that people where dying daily and no markings to acknowledge their existence. Anne

Anne, I was in touch with PRONI but death records post 1895 were not available, so there was nothing to see from his stay there. I spoke to a historian recently who told me that bodies were taken out of the hospital sometimes four and five at a time in what he described as a box on wheel and like a wheelbarrow they were tipped into large graves.

What year was your grandmother in Omagh? 

[Raysgirl]

Hi Tony, sorry I have only just seen your reply and question my grandmother died in the Asylum in June 1923 which is post 1895. It sounds dreadful 4-5 bodies being put in a box and then tipped in a  big grave. I hope and pray that my grandmother didn't end up like that but I feel sure that my granddad would have come to collect her body. Anne

[TonyMcGartland]

I read the following today......

A ceremony has been held in Omagh to reinter remains which were uncovered during construction work in the town.

The 79 skeletons were found on the site of the former Omagh General Hospital.

They were unearthed during work on a new car parking area.

It is thought the remains date from the mid-19th. century when a fever hospital occupied the site, close to the town’s Workhouse.

Experts believe the remains may have been those of workhouse residents who had passed away in the nearby hospital.

No records of the burials have been found and the Western Trust organised the reinterrment in Omagh Cemetery on the Dublin Road.

The ceremony involved clergy from the Omagh Churches Forum.

I will make enquiries and visit the site of the grave this week hopefully.