Genealogy Chat

Hi all,

Just wondering if anyone could please help me navigate the National Archives. the link I have been given is http://www.pro.gov.uk/

I’m in Australia and the site keeps crashing so I can’t determine if the records I need are on file there or not.

I’m trying to locate any records of a patient held at the Hartwood Asylum in Shotts, Lanark (or the Lanark District Asylum as I have also seen it described).

I’m trying to locate the record of my great grandmother, Catherine Smith nee Bingham and previous married name Marshall), who died there on 5 November 1913 or even where the records for this disused hospital may be! I have her birth, marriage, divorce and death certificates, it’s this record whuch is testing my patience!

I have looked on the net and found an old thread which told me to search the archives with the term hosprec and then key in the name of the hospital but it crashes so I am not sure if I am doing something incorrectly or not.

Any help would be hugely appreciated; I’d really like to know a bit more about her. There must be something somewhere as a record even after all this time.

Thank you

I managed to get onto the site and do as you asked and I came up with these results -

Results:
You ran a search on "Hartwood Asylum" restricted to reference(s): "HO 8"
There are no results within The Catalogue.

You ran a search on "lanark district asylum" restricted to reference(s): "MH"
There are no results within The Catalogue.

You ran a search on "catherine, AND, smith" restricted to reference(s): "C 211"
There are no results within The Catalogue.

Also, when I went to the help page regarding asylum inmates it states this -

Most records of inmates of lunatic asylums, prisons and houses of correction are held by local archives. The records held by The National Archives relate mainly to the administration of the institutions. Some of these records have been catalogued and the catalogue entries might include the names of inmates. Records of lunatic asylums are not held in any one place, and not all records have survived.

There are no records of asylum inmates available to see online

Looking for records of patients, doctors or nurses

This is a brief guide to help you find records of patients, doctors or nurses. There are many sources of information about medical staff, although not all records survive. Most surviving records from hospitals are in local archives. The National Archives is not the best place to find information about patients, doctors or nurses. The records that we do hold mostly relate to the administration and policy of health services.

I have found this website (you may have too?) for someone who actually works there.

I wonder if he would know how to search for old records?

He does have a link to Email so it might be worth writing to him????

Thanks Lynski, which website rae you talking about?

Sorry, brain in gear now -

http://www.bobbysimpson.org.uk/

I looked at that but it only goes up to 1995 and there was no way to contact him, or the group that wrote a book about teh asylum.

I'll keep hunting, thank you for your help!

Try this it is much easier

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/news/561.htm

scroll down to
Try the new system and give us your feedback.

There is an email tab on Bobby Simpsons home page on the lefthand side?

Have you found Catherine in the 1911 Scottish census? Was she in the assylum then?
I found what I think is her death record which means she would have been born about 1850 and there are 2 Catherine Smith's in Shotts/Lanarkshire in the 1911 census but none of the right age?

Hi Cathy, I have her death cert she died at the age of 63 years, and I have not been able to locate her in the 1911 census either unfortunately!