You can call (Anna State Hospital) Choate Mental Health and ask for medical records(Human Information Services) at: 618-833-5161. They will be able to tell you what you can or cannot do. You can check at the Union County Court House for a death record. It may give you some information, at least cause of death. Best of luck to all in your search for thses types of records. One can only try........Kay James ----- Original Message ----- From: <GDETTLEFF@aol.com> To: <ilrandol@rootsweb.com> Sent: Wednesday, June 13, 2007 10:53 PM Subject: Re: [ILRANDOL] Chester Asylum > > In a message dated 6/13/2007 9:49:12 P.M. Central Daylight Time, > riseling@insightbb.com writes: > > So if I understand all this correctly, access to these records, even if > they > died over 100 years ago, are not allowed? I have a distant relative that > died in the Anna hospital (and is buried there) and I was, at some point, > going to try and access those files. > > > > ====== > No, it is not impossible. It depends on your approach as to why you want > the records. If you say you want them for genealogy, you probably won't > get > them. If you can get a form to get the records released and then get a > doctor > to sign this form you may be able to secure the records. Then again > records > that are over 100 years old may be released without a doctor's signature. > I > am not sure about those. You would need to contact the facility and ask > for > their procedures. > One example I know of in the St. Louis area deals with a family history > of > depression and children being adopted by an aunt and uncle. The > biological > mother was institutionalized by the biological father but the children > didn't > know what was wrong with her. The older children seemed to know more but > didn't tell the younger ones until later after the mother died. She had > been in > and out of the hospital several times. Now the youngest daughter has > children with medical problems and she does too. She is getting her > doctor to sign > a form to get her mother's medical records released. I don't know the > status > of the request. These records date to the 1940s-1950s. > Gloria > > > > ************************************** See what's free at > http://www.aol.com. > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > ILRANDOL-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message > >