Genealogy Chat

Does anybody know what is contained in the Reception Orders? Is it an admittance record or will cliical information be included (assuming the Freedom of Information criteria is met)?

Hi I have used this source of material to find out what an ancestor was doing in a mental Hospital. They were labelled as Case Notes. They contain - Date of admission. Appearance - Height weight and hair colour. Some details of their family and fate. Health prior to admission including treatment at other hospitals. Health at admission. Date of discharge or death. Photographs of the admitted person ( my ancestor was admitted in 1913 when photos were available) A post mortem record. The closure period on some documents is about 75 years. I found the record that I was after at my local county records office whose directory was on line. You will need to enquire about the records before a visit to view them. Many old hospital records are still property of the local health authority which means that you will need to send a letter to somebody in the relevent NHS district for permission to view the records along with info on how you are related and your reason for applying. This can be very long winded method to view these records but the effort can yield some suprising results. The keepers of the archive will give you the necessery info on how to gain access to these usefull records. Good luck with your search. Andrew Edge.

Hope you have better luck than I did.The assylum I wrote to said that they destroyed patients records 5 years after they die. Very very frustrating!!!