Carlisle Archive Centre-Garlands Hospital Records-COMPLETED with thanks.

[JMoo]

My Great Grandfathers first wife was in Garlands Hospital in 1905 and I have contacted Carlisle record office to enquire about this after reading on here that they do have the records.

Can I ask do they allow to photocopy the records?

They've sent an email saying you can take pictures of the records for a £5 but I'm not sure they'd come out that well on your average job bloggs camera which mine is.

I also wondered if anyone if they are there anyway, would mind checking to see if my relative's admission as it were is there. It's just I'll be heading down that way en route to somewhere else and I don't want to make the detour if it's a waste of time. I have asked the archive service if they could just tell me if my relatives case is there but they want £29 per hour to do so.....

Any help would be received with thanks.

[Gan Yam]

Yes you could photocopy documents last time I was there.  There are some documents that you aren't allowed to photocopy, think they were parchment documents, but you can still take a photo of them.

Unfortunately I wont be going for a while, otherwise I would check the document for you.

[clearly]

Hi JMoo
I know there are a lot of Garlands Records at Carlisle Archive Centre, I made the boxes to house the volumes and it took months.  From memory, the time span you are talking about is particularly rich in records.
Photo copying is a sort of "rule of thumb".  If the records are robust and have not deteriorated, then there is usually no problem but if they are fragile they can only be photographed and then only in natural light
I have found that anything over 1.5 megapixels gives quite acceptable results for transcribing documents and/or printing off on your own printer.  However if you want something to frame and put on the wall, I would suggest you look at a camera with 4mp plus. The £5 daily fee lets you take as many snaps as you want so if I were you, I wouldn't try and read everything you come across, just snap it and delete what you don't want when you get home.
If you PM me with the name and dates, I will have a quick look for you tomorrow.

[JMoo]

Thank you very much for the replies and thank you for the offers of looking. Clearly I have PM'ed you.

Thanks also for the information about photographing didn't want to waste the £5 to find out they didn't come out very well.

[Geoff-E]

Thanks also for the information about photographing didn't want to waste the £5 to find out they didn't come out very well.

It might be worth having a practice at home on newspapers etc.

[Jos, Whitehaven]

Thank you very much for the replies and thank you for the offers of looking. Clearly I have PM'ed you.

Thanks also for the information about photographing didn't want to waste the £5 to find out they didn't come out very well.

Good day JMoo,

For casualty details from 1905 you would be in luck. If you took a digital camera the prints of the relevant pages should come out really well.

One of my 2 x Gt Grandmothers was admitted to Garlands Hospital, She subsequently did there (1902). A couple of years ago I visited the Carlisle Records Office with another relative and we were able to look at the very detailed medical and personal records in the Garlands Register. There was also a portrait photograph of each patient stuck into the first page of the register relating to them. The copy I took of my 2 x Gt Grandma's photograph came out really well with the digital camera. 

When you read the actual records of your own relative it may be a bit grim, but it will be accurate. Good luck.

[JMoo]

Thanks for the replies....

Thanks for that information Jos. I can imagine they will be grim reading, we believe we know what was wrong with her but it'd be what's the right word interesting to find out. 

[clearly]

Most of what you may have hoped for is in Carlisle Archives but it only amounts to 4 large pages of handwriting and I don't think she was in the hospital long enough for them to take her photograph.
For anyone else trying to research a Garlands patient, I can only say the records are a shambles. They had anything up to three admission registers on the go at any one time and appeared to change the criteria for placing entries in the register. I could not find Emily Graham's admission but eventually managed to trace her through the Post Mortem Register (which was meticulously kept) and this gave a reference to the case book.
Generally there is a 100-year bar on consulting medical records.

[JMoo]

Just wanted to publicly say a huge thank you to Clearly who has been an absolute star.