Help Needed!

[Beckylenton]

Hi there,

Completely new to this site, so first and foremost I want to apologise if I am posting this in the wrong area completely, I was uncertain as to where it should go.

I have been compiling my mum and dad's family trees, and it so happens I came across an intriguing piece of information on my mum's side. It transpires that an ancestor by the name of William Meredith who was born on 28 Oct 1859 in Upper Gornal, Staffordshire, died on the 6th Mar 1910 in Stafford County Asylum. As you can all imagine I was more than a little intrigued by this bit of information.

Unfortunately I cannot locate any information relating to when he was admitted, why he was admitted, or what his cause of death was! He was 50 years of age when he died (young in comparison to his relatives), had a large family, a steady income, and was married too.

I was hoping someone on here might be able to help me dig a bit deeper to solve this mystery? I have looked on ancestry, the national archives among a few other sites, but whether I am entering the wrong information I don't know, as nothing is linking up to this. Any help would be much appreciated.

All the very best,

Becky 

[Rattus]

Hi, welcome to Rootschat!

A PDF copy of his death certificate (showing cause of death) will cost you £7, which seems a reasonable price for such a quick and definitive win.

MEREDITH, WILLIAM        50 
GRO Reference: 1910  M Quarter in STAFFORD  Volume 06B  Page 13

Order from https://www.gro.gov.uk/

My own experience of further research into an asylum death of 1903 was that the hospital records are still restricted for a few more years.

[Beckylenton]

Hi, welcome to Rootschat!

A PDF copy of his death certificate (showing cause of death) will cost you £7, which seems a reasonable price for such a quick and definitive win.

MEREDITH, WILLIAM        50 
GRO Reference: 1910  M Quarter in STAFFORD  Volume 06B  Page 13

Order from https://www.gro.gov.uk/

My own experience of further research into an asylum death of 1903 was that the hospital records are still restricted for a few more years.

Thank you so much for your welcome and help! I have just ordered it. Funnily enough I've just found an English Census referring to his employment. He's described as being a: "thick" coal miner. Makes you wonder! Poor lad

Thanks again

[ciderdrinker]

Hello
You may be in luck with the Asylum records.
Staffordshire  county Asylum was at Burntwood,now flats.
The records are at Stafford archives and you have to book in advance and warn them of what you want to look at.
I got to see patient records for 1876 and 1916 ,Grandfather and grandson.
The grandson had a photo so worth the trip.
A photo permit to copy them is £5 but all in all well worth it.

Graves for the the lunatic asylum are at a little graveyard at the road junction up to the asylum as you go from the Star pub at Burntwood.  There is a plaque and heritage  info on the railings. Quite overgrown but a few gravestones. It's not the local parish church or new site by the Asylum.

Ciderdrinker

[Beckylenton]

Hello
You may be in luck with the Asylum records.
Staffordshire  county Asylum was at Burntwood,now flats.
The records are at Stafford archives and you have to book in advance and warn them of what you want to look at.
I got to see patient records for 1876 and 1916 ,Grandfather and grandson.
The grandson had a photo so worth the trip.
A photo permit to copy them is £5 but all in all well worth it.

Graves for the the lunatic asylum are at a little graveyard at the road junction up to the asylum as you go from the Star pub at Burntwood.  There is a plaque and heritage  info on the railings. Quite overgrown but a few gravestones. It's not the local parish church or new site by the Asylum.

Ciderdrinker

Perfect! Thank you so much, I'll be sure to make a note of that. Just informed my dad of it, so we pay take a drive by there at some point in the future and try and figure a few things out.

All the very best,

Becky

[HeatherLynne]

Hi and welcome! 
I was similarly surprised when I found one of my ancestors had died in a lunatic asylum. 

After research and obtaining his death certificate I found that the poor man had died from a brain tumour after spending about a week in the asylum.  I can only imagine that either pressure or pain from this changed his behaviour, or maybe the asylum was just the most appropriate place for treatment or pain relief.  He died aged 66 but prior to this he had been a successful businessman, a Master Butcher.

Hope the death certificate gives you some helpful information.
Heather

[Rattus]

He's described as being a: "thick" coal miner.

Not a term I've come across, despite a couple of mining branches in my own tree. But this extract from an 1886 'Handbook of Birmingham' sheds some light on it:

"The most remarkable seam of the South Staffordshire
coalfield is that known as the Ten yard or Thick coal, a
continuous bed of workable coal from 25 to 30 feet in
thickness. This underlies all the south central part of the
field in the area enclosed by Smethwick, Oldbury, Dudley,
Walsall and Bilston. To the southward near Halesowen it
thins out and becomes mixed with shaly material. It is
in reality composed of 13 or 14 superimposed coal seams,
which form an apparently unbroken mass, but are easily dis-
tinguished individually by the practised Thick coal miner."

https://archive.org/stream/handbookbirming00unkngoog/handbookbirming00unkngoog_djvu.txt