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Anyone know about Lunatic Asylums?

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  • #21
    Welll I've checked the death records up until he was 105, and the only feasible one is in the reg. area where he lived, so that has to be it.

    So he either died at home after all, or possibly his wife registered the death in her area. I will find out!

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    • #22
      His wife can't have registered the death in her area unless he died there. You can go to your local register office and make a registration "by declaration" but it will be sent to the register office where the event occurred and appear as a correct entry in the indexes.
      ~ with love from Little Nell~
      Chowns, Dunt, Emms, Mealing, Purvey & Smoothy

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      • #23
        My 5 x great grandad and his wifes uncle both died in Bethnal Green Asylum, in 1839 and 1840, in both cases the deaths were registered by the attendant medic of the Asylum a Mr Horace Weston. In both cases the info given was extremelly sparse, no age even recorded, just name and cause of death, which were 'lung inflammation' for 5x g grandfather and 'palsy' for his uncle in law. Nether really sheds much light as to why either had been commited and sadly since the records no longer appear to exist doesn't seem I will ever know. Hope you have more luck.

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        • #24
          Originally posted by Little Nell View Post
          His wife can't have registered the death in her area unless he died there. You can go to your local register office and make a registration "by declaration" but it will be sent to the register office where the event occurred and appear as a correct entry in the indexes.
          Course she couldn't ...... I'm having a bad brain spell.
          Not that I've ever had occasion to think about it - this is first ancestor that has died away from where he lived.

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          • #25
            Hi Bev,

            I have 2 ancestor's labeled 'lunatic'. My g/grandmother & her son.
            In Birmingham Archives I was able to view Ellen's medical notes from 2 of the asylum's she was in. When I read the notes it said she was suffering from 'Purperal'. Today that's Post Natal Depression.
            With her son I wrote to the Dept. of Health saying who I was & why I wanted to see his medical records, & they wrote back to B'ham Archives saying they could release his records for that asylum. The other asylum I had to write to the Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust & again I was given written premission to view his records. These covered the years 1939/48. Harry's problem, he was paralysed down one side.

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            • #26
              Shirley - Puerperal fever is a nasty childbirth illness, nothing to do with PND.
              Uncle John - Passed away March 2020

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              • #27
                Hi Bev,

                I had 2 ancestor's labeled 'Lunatic'. My g/grandmother & her son.
                in B'ham Archives I was able to view & copy her medical notes. When reading them it said she was suffering from 'Perpural' today that's Post Natal Depression. For her son I had to write to Dept. of Health saying who I was & why I wanted to see his records. Dated 1903/12. They wrote back to B'ham Archives saying they could release them to me to view & copy. For his next Asylum I had to write to the Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust Worcester. Again I was given written permission to read his records & have photocopies. These covered the years 1939/48. Harry's problem he was paralysed down one side.
                Both these death's were registered by the Depty Superintendant of the Lunatic Asylum.

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                • #28
                  Now why has that been posted twice???

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                  • #29
                    Hi Uncle John,

                    Puerperal... Fever caused by an infection of the uterus following childbirth.

                    I know that I spoke to a Doc. at Queen Elizabeth Hospital. It also causes a hormone imbalance leading to bout's of depression. On Ellen's records it say's she was smahing up the ward one minute the next cowering up a corner saying Birmingham was burning & her children sent to America. Another occasion a month after giving birth it say's 'She became insane last Tues (14th inst) suddenly I'm told'.

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                    • #30
                      The word puerpural refers to childbirth and the period afterwards. You can have puerperal fever or puerperal-related insanity. Puerpural in itself doesn't indicate what kind of illness, other than that it is related in someway to childbirth.
                      ~ with love from Little Nell~
                      Chowns, Dunt, Emms, Mealing, Purvey & Smoothy

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                      • #31
                        Puerperal PSYCHOSIS is a mental illness related to childbirth.

                        (No chance the record could have read PURPURA, the "Royal" disease associated with the blood? George 3rd suffered from this. It causes episodic periods of insanity)

                        OC

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                        • #32
                          Porphyria is the illness George IV had and I don't know if it was diagnosed then. Purpura a "rash" caused by bleeding into the skin.
                          Last edited by Little Nell; 05-04-08, 20:55.
                          ~ with love from Little Nell~
                          Chowns, Dunt, Emms, Mealing, Purvey & Smoothy

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                          • #33
                            DOH! Of course - sorry.

                            Put it down to whimpering hysteria brought on by not being able to get in here for seven hours.

                            OC

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                            • #34
                              "whimpering hysteria" whilst unpleasant, is not a reason for admittance to a lunatic asylum OC! Get back to the General board and have another tankard of sherry!
                              ~ with love from Little Nell~
                              Chowns, Dunt, Emms, Mealing, Purvey & Smoothy

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                              • #35
                                Hi O.C.
                                I have my all my g/grandmoter's medical records (spent hours copying from register's) from her first admission into an Asylum in 1882 through all her other admissions until her death in 1917 in Barnsley Hall Bromsgrove. Reasons given 'Form of Mental Disorder : Mania. Cause 'Puerpural' !896: Form of Mental Disorder: Melancholia (Severe Depression) Suicidal: Yes. !901: Dull, Stupid & Demented (they'd never get away with that today). Chronic Manic. !912 Barnsley Hall. Died 1917.
                                Reading her records & treatment makes me feel so sorry for her. And also her son Harry, his on & off incarceration from the age of 27 until 71, sent him out of his tree. His records make you laugh & cry. According to him I'm related to the King of Great Britian from Newcastle to Snow Hill Station.
                                A life wasted & all because he was disabled: Paresis of right arm & leg & resultive deformity of hand & foot.

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                                • #36
                                  Shirleymay

                                  Yes, these records always make depressing reading.

                                  A week before I married, in the 1960s, my father told me he had something very important to tell me - there was "insanity" in the family and I might want to consider whether I should risk having children.

                                  When I got to the bottom of all this, it was a great great uncle who had returned from WW1 with what we would now call Post Traumatic Stress Disorder I suppose. He was admitted to an asylum in 1919 and remained there for 43 years until he died.

                                  His wife pretended to be a widow, and her four children were told their father had died.

                                  Such a sad life and so unnecessary, and so illustrative of people's misunderstanding and misconceptions about mental illness.

                                  OC

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                                  • #37
                                    It is sad, but I can't see how someone can be both "dull" and "demented" as they seem ot be completely opposite!

                                    OC
                                    My father's uncle was in a lunatic asylum. I'm not sure what it was all about, but he became convinced that German soldiers were on the roof opposite his home trying to machine-gun him. What was probably a delayed reaction to the war ended with him being in an asylum for the rest of his life and I am sure that he'd just become institutionalised and unfit for life in the outside world, whereas with a bit more understanding and appropriate treatment, he might have been OK.

                                    I have a letter he wrote from the asylum and he sounds perfectly sane and rational to me.
                                    ~ with love from Little Nell~
                                    Chowns, Dunt, Emms, Mealing, Purvey & Smoothy

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