Thanks, Elaine. I agree, it is sad looking through these records but definitely worth doing for any relatives. You can't cherry-pick all the nice bits in your family history and leave out the sad parts, can you. If the person I was looking for was my relative, I would go to the PROV for more info as you suggest, but in this case they are not my relatives. I'm looking into it as part of the local history of Sorrento (my home town). Unfortunately, this particular family, that of John Derbyshire, limeburner, is not without tragedy - his father died a convict in Hobart in 1842, his first wife seems to have died just a few months after they were married in 1853 (though I haven't found her death yet), two children from the second marriage died as babies (1855 and 1862) and possibly another daughter survived to adulthood but died in an asylum. The PROV has some of the mental health records (indexes) online, along with other records: http://prov.vic.gov.au/provguide-23 Thanks. Martin On Sunday, November 10, 2013 9:42:28 AM UTC+11, Briansk wrote: > Hi, > > I have just come in on this conversation and recently I found an ancestor of > mine being in and dying at Kew Assylum.She was admitted with "Melancolia" > which looking further she had Post Natal Depression after loosing a child.We > found some information on line but we then made a visit to the PROV and > ordered her medical records and inquest details etc.While looking through > the books on some of the patients records it was terribly sad and very > confronting but it is part of our families history and their lives are just > as important as anyone else so I believe we need to know their history.I am > so glad we live today and not then as at least for Post Natal Depression > there is a bit more known about it today than then and the treatment is > certainly better.Some of the records we went through actually had very sad > looking photo's of the patients but nevertheless a photo just the same.We > were able to photograph the original documents with out digital camera which > all came out great.I would recommend to anyone with a relative found in an > assylum to make a trip to the PROV and look up the mountain of information > available. > > Regards, > > Elaine Skehan.