Genealogy Chat

Hi, I wonder if anyone can help me please.
My uncle was a patient at a secure mental institution, the only information of why he was in there was that he assaulted someone and was placed there either by a court or his family or sectioned by the police (we don't know)? We have no other details...my question is, how could i trace how he came to be in there? I shall shortly be requesting his birth certificate to try to get more of his details at birth, but everything else is very sketchy (we know year of birth, mother and fathers name and the qtr months he was born in). I have contacted the cemetery located near the hospital to see if they can trace the burial records from the information i already know which i appreciate is sparce.
Can anyone give me some pointers to the best way of going about tracing information in this instance. I am very new to tracing my family and would greatly appreciate any help advice given.
Many thanks.

Lynda

It depends on what years you are looking for but if you get in touch with the County Records Office for the area you are interested in, they should be able to tell you which Health Authority would have the records for the institution your uncle was in. It is up to the Health Authority to decide whether or not to allow you access to his records (if they still exist).

We managed to get access to the records for my husband's grandfather who was in an institution before he died and they were quite detailed with information about medication he received, a description of him and even a very small photocopy of a photo of him (something we had never seen before).

It was well worth the effort and they didn't charge us anything for the copies.

Kath. x

Quite agree with Kathleen. Lots of these records are now held by NHS Trusts and they do have archive offices you can contact.

You say you are new to this, but you are already getting to grips with cemeteries, so you are doing pretty well it seems.

Very grateful for your help...thank you very much.

Lynda

Hi
Did your ancestor die whilst in the hospital?

I have got an ancestor who died at a Mental Institution which was many miles away fron where he lived ( about 25 miles). But my ancestor was buried at the nearest cemetery to where he was living.
Eg:-
Living at Bearwood Smethwick Nr Birmingham.
Died at hospital Nr Lichfield Staffordshire.
Buried at the Uplands Cemetery Smethwick.
I was able to access these records through the local county records office ( Stafford)

They were very helpful to me and gave me all the details on how to apply for permission to view the records.
These records are still the property of the local NHS trust.

Best regards
Andrew.

I assume that your uncle died within the last 100 years, in which case you may have to get permission from the NHS to view his records. My great grand mother died in a mental hospital and I am having to prove my relationship to the local Health trust in order to view her record
Anne

Hi Andrew & Anne

We don't know if he is dead for certain, he could theoretically still be alive, although i doubt it. I have been trying to trace his death record but at the moment have not found him.

The institution closed in 1993, so it's a case of tracking where the records are being held.

What doesn't help is I'm very new to this and learning as i go, so please excuse my ignorance. I have been in contact with the cemetery that the mental hospital had people buried in, they were very nice but couldn't help as i didn't have a date of death. I've been in contact with one of the area hospitals to find out if they held any of the records but they don't. I'm just going to keep trying, i know the records office at Kew hold some information but it may not be about patients, only things such as policy meetings etc.

Please forgive me if i'm being really dim, but how else can i find out details of date of death? Unfortunately everyone that might have known i am not able to speak to you as they have passed on and it seems that this was not talked about by many.

Many thanks to all that have replied.

Lynda

Update

I have just spoken to a lovely chap in the City of London Archive dept, he has advised that i contact the GRO in Southport and has given me the telephone number to ring.

Thank you again for such amazing help. I really want to find him as by what i understand from the family he may just have been left and forgotten about.

have you tried searching on here:

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/hospitalrecords/search.asp

Try contacting the record office where he lived or the county record office. They should be able to tell you the name of the mental hospital and where the records are kept. If the hospital attached to the institution is still in existence they might still hold his record.
Anne

I'm sure you can carry out a death record search on Ancestry using just the date of birth (somebody please correct me if I am wrong). If so, some people on this board may be able to do a lookup for you.

It would be useful if you could post the approximate dates you are searching within as the advice regarding the best way of searching for information will depend upon the time window the records may exist in.

Thank you all for the good advice.

I have now requested his birth certificate, once received i shall ask some kind soul to do a look up on Ancestry for me - many thanks Insomnia.

It will be interesting to see if he actually died in hospital or not, and why he was in there in the first place.

Evidently the records are now held in Southport GRO, and as they are closed records they will have to be transcribed for me - thank you Kathleen Bell for your helpful information.

Lynda x