I had a great aunt who had been in Tokanui Mental Hospital. I wrote to The Waikato Hospital Board requesting her records. This was in 2007. I had to prove my relationship to her and get from her nearest living relative permission to access her records. This I was able to do and I received all her clinical notes from 1936 up until her death in 1965. I discovered she was first admitted to the "Auckland Mental Hospital" It was heart breaking reading. No one in the family had ever spoken about her. Annette -----Original Message----- From: Tracy Pilet Sent: 12 March 2014 9:06 AM To: NEW-ZEALAND@rootsweb.com Subject: [nz] Kingseat Hospital: Ease of Research? Good morning listers, I have recently discovered that my great grand-aunt<http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~onmymothersside/huntley/huntleypaulhillfrances.shtml>was committed to Kingseat Hospital in 1945, and I am keen to find out why and for how long. She was committed at age 45 and I know that she passed away in a rest home in Auckland 43 years later in 1988, aged 88. Has anyone had any experience (good, bad or otherwise) obtaining records of past inmates? I'm assuming that records will not be easily available, but am wondering whether they will be downright impossible. Many thanks. p.s. the charmingly named Mental Defectives Act 1911, under which she was committed, makes for interesting reading. It lists six 'classes' of mentally defective persons: 1. Persons of unsound mind 2. Persons mentally infirm 3. Idiots 4. Imbeciles 5. Feeble-minded 6. Epileptics Regards Tracy Pilet The List Guidelines http://new-zealand-l.blogspot.com/ ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to NEW-ZEALAND-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message