Thank you for drawing attention to this, I've found several entries relating to my ONS. I already knew of an ancestor, Caroline WITHERS (not my ONS name) who was in and out of an asylum for the second half of her life (c. 50 years). Someone else investigated her and send me lots of info., and from that I would say it is worth looking for other records. My ancestor died in the Hampshire Asylum, and I think all the info I was sent was from records in the Hampshire County Record Office. The info included details of reasons for admission, family details (children named etc.), showed why released (e.g. the family requested it a few times, though it didn't take them long to find they couldn't cope and she had to be re-admitted). Of course these records can be quite painful reading, Caroline's had me both laughing and crying. I don't know if most of these records survive, but certainly worth looking for. One of the Goathams I've just learnt of dying in the Kent Asylum is one of the few I haven't been able to attach to my tree of Kent Goathams, so I'm hoping records regarding him will clarify where he fits in. I believe there can be an issue seeing them though - they aren't generally released for 100 years after a volume ends, and some cover quite a few years, so even if you're investigating someone in the asylum more than 100 years ago you may not be able to see records regarding them. Incidentally, I found Caroline by chance - when she wasn't with her family in one census and with a married name with lots of variants that can take a bit of working through, I just entered Christian name, birthplace and dob - and she was just listed as Caroline B, they were protecting patients privacy. I did it by chance, but clearly it can be worth leaving off surnames if looking for asylum patients in the censuses. Teresa On 27/11/2014 19:57, Alan R Moorhouse via wrote: > I've not seen it previously mentioned that Ancestry added 2 days ago (just in time for the Medical and Healthcare seminar in London on February 7th 2015!) the following lunatic asylum records: > > Criminal Lunacy Warrant and Entry Books, 1882-1898 (4,332 records) > Criminal Lunatic Asylum Registers, 1820-1846 (613 records) > Lunacy Patients Admission Registers, 1846-1912 (842,355 records!) > > Most actual patient/inmate records appear to be held locally but the admission registers give name, admission date, asylum name and discharge date (which for some was the date of death!) > > Prior to 1808, asylums were privately run, and an act in 1808 provided for the funding of county asylums. Not many were built though, and many of the poor with mental illness and the criminally insane were still kept in prisons and workhouses. Those with the means made arrangements for mentally ill family members in private “madhouses.” > > In 1845, the Lunacy Act and County Asylum Act obligated counties to build county asylums for the poor and criminally insane and established the Lunacy Commission to oversee both private and public asylums. Metropolitan licensed houses were private institutions in cities, and provincial licensed houses were private institutions outside cities. County asylums and hospitals could be located in either place but were administered by the county. > > A quick web search for the institutions where the 13 Farmery "lunatics" were admitted between 1846 and 1912 make it evident that most of the institutions went under a variety of different names over the years, both before and after the creation of the NHS in 1948. > > For example, the decision was taken in 1809 to build an asylum at Lancaster and this opened in 1816 as the (First) Lancashire County Asylum; the Second and Third County Asylums opened at Rainhill and Prestwich on January 1st 1851. They all ended up, via a number if reincarnations, as Lancaster Moor Hospital, Rainhill Hospital and Prestwich Hospital. > > A good starting point for hospital names and records in the TNA website > http://apps.nationalarchives.gov.uk/hospitalrecords/searchresults.asp > > There is an Index of English and Welsh Lunatic Asylums and Mental Hospitals (a Middlesex University Resource) > http://studymore.org.uk/4_13_ta.htm > > There is another list of all known England and Wales asylums > http://thetimechamber.co.uk/beta/sites/asylums/asylum-history/the-asylums-list > > A copy of Prestwich Asylum Admissions 1851-1901 is online (Gordon, there are a number of Adsheads) but I think these may also be on Find My Past? > http://cdn.bbcmagazinesbristol.com/bbcwhodoyouthinkyouare/bonus_content/issue_58/sources/PrestwichAsylum/PrestwichAdmissions.pdf > > There is some useful background information in The Private Lunatic Asylums of the East Riding > http://www.eylhs.org.uk/asylums.pdf > > > For more details of the London seminar and on-line booking please visit the Guild website http://one-name.org/seminar_2015feb_medhealth.html > > I hope I haven't spoilt Elizabeth Finn's talk! But at least I now know what I'll be putting on my poster display board! > > Happy Thanksgiving to you from Seattle!! > > Alan Moorhouse > seminar-bookin@one-name.org > > _____________________________________________ > > RootsWeb lists - surnames, regions, software, etc http://lists.rootsweb.ancestry.com/ > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to GOONS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message -- ------------------------ Teresa Goatham Sign the petition to open historic BMD registers - http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/62779 (UK residents / British citizens only)