Illegitemate child born 1894

[Yorkshire Rose]

Her name was Mary Jane Harrison she gave birth on 17 November 1894 to Herbert Harrison, in the Leeds Union Infirmary. Punative father James H Hartley. On his birth cert she was down as being a Domestic Servant at 20 Canendish Road. Herbert's baptism record (WYL1540/1/2) baptized 9th December 1894
Family folklaw said that she was sent to a lunatic Asymum because she wasn't married but the Leeds Union Infirmary was also a workhouse, so I'm putting two and two together and asumming they meant the same thing

[DJH]

Don't assume the same for the lunatic asylum. Workhouses were not asylums. Keep looking because, if she did end up there you will find some excellent records AND  photographs of her hopefully. I did.
David

[DJH]

There were three Asylums in your area:

West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum
Wakefield Asylum (later Stanley Royds)
Wadsley Asylum (later Middlewood Hospital)

They are well worth looking into for information.
David

[stanmapstone]

Unmarried mothers could be certified as ‘morally defective’ and locked away in mental handicap institutions for life.

Stan

[DJH]

Hi Voltor.
There is no reference to a Mary Jane Harrison in the 1901 Census for Wakefield Asylum but there is a possible reference at the West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum for 1901. Unfortunately they only give initials of the inmates but -

MJH  Pauper lunatic   Married aged 40.   Housework.

Do you know her date of birth or age?

There is no reference to Herbert or HH.
David

[Yorkshire Rose]

No I don't know her date of birth I am guessing about 1875 which would have made her 19 at the time of my grandfathers birt. Can you tell me how to get into the Asylum census records. I have been trying and couldn't work out how to do it.

[DJH]

I have to say I did it the hard way. I looked in Google for the address of the asylums. Then I went to the appropriate Ancestry.co.uk 1901 census for that area and looked at the enumeration data until I found the asylum. Then I waded through the pages of inmates. For instance:
http://content.ancestry.co.uk/Browse/list.aspx?dbid=7814&path=Yorkshire.Menston

and

http://content.ancestry.co.uk/Browse/view.aspx?dbid=7814&path=Yorkshire.Wakefield.Stanley.Wakefield+Union+Workhouse+and+Infirmary+Hospital.16

Hope it works.
David

[Yorkshire Rose]

Hi David  Thanks for the hard work. I have followed the links and I have to say I don't think the one in Menston is the right one as my Mary Jane wasn't married.
Herbert her son, I have found with his adoptive parents

Any more ideas??

[DJH]

You should really try to find her death date and date of birth to give you a better idea of what might have occurred. You should also check the other 'local' asylums for that time. There were also a number of 'private' care homes for such people and these should be checked too. The local authority will give you information about these which could then be checked on the census.
Keep looking. David