Lunacy Patients Admission Registers on Ancestry

[helxx]

Hello,

I don't have a current subscription, only to find my past. I am wondering if the above records on ancestry give much information or not?

I'm researching a Harriet Bostock born 1841 in Tean, Staffs.
In 1881, she is with her father Joseph and sister Catherine Warren. I've possibly found her in 1891, in Stafford County Lunatic asylum. It's a long shot though as it only gives her initials, HB. Her occupation is listed as tape weaver though which fits.

I can see on Ancestry that there are 2 possible entries in the asylum, for a Harriet Bostock, one which gives date of death of 1895, which again fits with an age of 54yrs. I can't find a burial record though.

I was just wondering if the info these records show is worth another subscription or not, especially if she turns out to be the wrong lady?

Many Thanks
Helen x

[Jomot]

These records give very little information, only admission & discharge / death dates.

There may be some more detailed information at the records office, although the catalogue doesn't indicate that any individual files are held.

[helxx]

Hi Jamot,

I had a feeling the records would give very little information. Thanks very much for your help though.  Much appreciated!

Helen 

[hurworth]

It depends on how important Harriet is for your genealogy research.

One of my direct ancestors was admitted to and died in an asylum.  ANYTHING I can find out about her is very helpful to me.   But I started from a different angle, and had purchased her details from the GRO of a death that could be her and until then I had not been aware that she'd been admitted to an asylum.

Currently I access Ancestry through my local library.  Can you do the same?

[helxx]

Hi Hurworth,

Thanks for the reply. Harriet isn't a direct ancestor but if she was, like your situation, I'd want to find out as much as possible.

When I next go to the records office I shall see if I can find out anything from there. I just didn't want to take out an ancestry sub unnecessarily.

[Ellenmai]

I have found an admission to Stafford Asylum 3rd August 1870, date of discharge 3rd November 1870 and it states she has recovered. So she does have a record for being admitted to Stafford Asylum, so the other admission you found could very well be her. Had her father died around the time of the 1891 Census and perhaps the family couldn't cope?

[momo22]

Just to say I recently found an ancestor in Burntwood Asylum. Stafford records office were very helpful. I found his name on the lunacy register and emailed the office asking about documentation. They were happy to email me with date of admission and (in my case) his death. They gave me the index to the records and when I booked an appointment they found out what I wanted and had it ready when I turned up
There was an admission book which gave basic info of name, age, address, why admitted and next of kin or person of contact. The patient book was my ancestor's case note-very interesting and worth a visit.

[Conchita]

I have been researching a very distant relative of mine and he was in 3 Lunatic Asylums, he was released from the first one, only to be Admitted into the second one, then released from the second one to only to get admitted into a third one.(2/11/1905 to 17/11/1921) due to only records going up to 1912 i'm not sure if he ended up in a fourth one, i do know he died in 1931 (that's why i have ordered his death certificate to hopefully end the mystery).

So in all this research i know how frustrating it can be to only have certain records on certain sites, luckily i have an account on both Findmypast and Ancestry, so i did a quick search for you and found out all i could see on Ancestry from the "UK, Lunacy Patients Admission Registers, 1846-1912" and just Edited the Documents to ONLY show the parts that would be of interest to you, so hopefully i haven't broken any Copyright Laws or Forum Rules by doing it this way.

Hope this Information is of some help Helen.

NOTE:  I don't research by request, it was only that i was doing this particular research at this time and in researching things, this Forum Post came up in a search.
for those that might be interested HOW i came to here, i typed
"lunacy patient records can i find out more information"
 in Google and it was the 3rd on the list

[glen11]

My husbands great grandmother died in Stafford asylum.She was buried where she used to live.The books are at Stafford archives with the details of the condition of the patients and whether they were tied down or restrained.They will look them up for you ,but will charge a fee.We also got a copy that the asylum wrote down of the cause of death,we had to pay a couple of pounds for that.It was fascinating,but sad.The asylum is now being turned into luxury apartments!!!Glen