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England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => England => London and Middlesex => Topic started by: Kaybron on Thursday 19 October 17 13:17 BST (UK)
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I have been researching a Martha Strevens. She was baptized as Mary Bell May 6, 1860 and lived with her grandparents Joseph and Maria Bell for over 10 years in Durham. In the 1881 Census she had moved to London where she was living with a step-sister Elizabeth Maria Hammond. In 1882 she married a Henry Harry Harrold in St Saviour's Church, Upper Chelsea. They had 2 children but sadly they died. Henry died in 1887. On November 28, 1897 Martha married a George Strevens, a 50 year old Piano Maker. In the 1901 Census George and Martha are living in the St Pancras Parish, London. Martha's step sister Rosa is also living with them.
In the 1911 Census Martha is not with George but is an inmate in the London County Lunatic Asylum Hanwell. She is listed as married. George in the meantime has remarried, a Charlotte Ryzewski (in 1908). In the 1911 Census he is with Charlotte living in Islington, London.
There is also an entry in Ancestry on the UK, Lunacy Patients Admission Registers, 1846-1912 for a Martha Strevens with a release date in 1913. Although there is an asylum mentioned I am not able to work out what is written.
I have been trying to find a death for Martha and have just received a certificate for a Martha Strivens. Her death was registered 11 March 1917 in Watford. The certificate states that she died in the Leavesden Asylum, Watford. Her age is 53 years and it also mentions St Pancras Parish and that she is married.
Have I the correct death record for Martha?
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I think the register states discharge in 1913 to 'Hanwell'.
The St Pancras Workhouse register 1912 - 1914 give a Martha Strivens M b 1863 husband Geo u/k [whereabouts unknown?] admitted from Cardiff Mental Hospital. If she & George were living in St Pancras in the 1901, this is may be her.
You may only be able to say it is LIKELY the death certificate is hers. Have you tried to locate the records of Leavesden Asylum?
http://www.workhouses.org.uk/MAB-Leavesden/
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As a by the way, if she died at Hanwell, her death would have been recorded as either Brentford or Uxbridge district, can never remember which one ::) .
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Think it's Brentford Dawn. My g grandfather's death [who had an umbrella shop in Hanwell] is registered in Brentford.
So would need to find a transfer from Hanwell to Leavensden.
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but Hanwell Asylum was considered to be at Norwood which is Uxbridge :-\
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just throwing this into the mix, Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum, also in the geographical area, is recorded as Barnet district.
I've got a patient there from St Marylebone parish in the 1850's.
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Ohh, complicated then ::).
Will wait till Kaybron comes back before researching further.
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Thank you for all the replies. Josey I sent an email last night re locating the records for Leavesden and they are at the LMA. I will post a more detailed response later as I'm off to work in about 20 minutes.
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I have managed to find Martha's records in the London, England, Poor Law and Board of Guardian Records on Ancestry. I looked at the Camden, St Pancras Register of Lunatics and found that there are records for Martha and that she was transferred to the County Asylum Hanwell on 29 August 1901. The records state her husband's name as George and that he is a piano maker. In the 1911 Census Martha was in this Asylum.
I feel as if I am making some progress. My next step would be to find out where the County Asylum Hanwell records are kept and inquire about Martha.
If Martha Strivens death certificate mentions St Pancras does this strengthen the possibility that I have the correct certificate?
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A little added info
Hanwell Asylum was later re named ST Bernards when the old wooden wards where knocked down the original outer wall was kept & a housing estate built inside the keeping of the walls where for police to keep control in the event of anymore riots .
The old part from 1911 era is now part of the Ealing hospital grounds with some of the original buildings entrance gate , Church, Dorms & markings where the marina was where the boatmen delivered coal & took away the products grown by the inmates still at the moment standing but under threat in the new building program. A new high security unit looking more like a prison has been built there as well. My Grandad who was a Canal Boatman used to tell of the inmates shouting at them through the bared windows as they delivered & unloaded the boats .
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That's interesting; thanks, Jane.
Kaybron - all heading in the right direction ;). Easy to mishear or misread Screvens to Scrivens. The Hanwell records should add enough confirmatory evidence.
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Thank you Jane and Josey for your replies.
Are the Hanwell Asylum records at the LMA?
Hopefully I will be able to have the Hanwell records and the Leavesden records accessed at the same time.
I live in Australia and hire a private researcher to find records for me. I just contact him when I need records with the relevant details and he finds this for me.
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The LMA holds the records for Hanwell.
This is the link for the records on the Ntional Archives website as the LMA catalogue links expire.
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/64bbd4e5-0c07-448c-879c-e02ccc016b0d
This is the link for Leavesden,
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/hospitalrecords/details.asp?id=76&hospital=leavesden&town=&searchdatabase.x=0&searchdatabase.y=0
I've done look-ups in the past for people here.
The records are quite harrowing to read once you've established what was wrong with the patient.
Just looking at your earlier posts, the date of death is 1917, records are usually closed for 100 years, not just from the date of death but also the last entry in the book you are looking at. You may have to provide your researcher with the death cert to get access which might also have to be supervised because of the dates.
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Thank you dawnsh. I was aware the records were closed for 100 years but assumed this was from the date of death. I can now understand why there would be supervision when personally looking through the records as there would be patient material that did not fit within the 100 years.
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have a look at the Hanwell catalogue pdf in the LMA search facility, click on the catalogue tab when you have the search results.
The catalogue shows which books are open and closed.
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Unfortunately, there is no ‘supervised access’ at LMA. Either the records are open and there is full public access, or the records are closed and the archive staff may agree to extract the information for you (or for your researcher). For doing this they normally charge their standard fee of £80/hr pro rata.