Genealogy Chat

At a family reunion last night I spoke to my great uncle who said that his grandfather (my gg grandfather) went to an Asylum in Nottingham for about 3 years. He very subtly called it the 'nut house', but I was just wondering, what were these places like? I saw the WDYTYA episode with Julian Clary, but without knowing about my gg grandfather, my attention waned a little. How bad did you have to get to be in one? He was in WW1, but I'm not sure how active his service was. I tried googling but I keep getting info on asylum seekers, and it's not helping! Kirsten

I expect they were like everything else - some were grim, some more enlightened. As to how bad you had to be to get into one, I suppose another way of putting it would be - how tolerant was your family? My great-uncle ended up in an asylum because he was affected by the 2nd WW and began imagining that Germans were trying to machine gun him. But he was regularly visited and wrote to his family and seemed quite well looked after, if a bit lonely at times. Website here www.mdx.ac.uk/www/study/4_13_TA.htm for a list of lunatic asylums plus much information.

Many people were in asylums with not a lot wrong with them in those days (like middleclass girls who had got themselves pregnant)........However, of course, there were also serious mental disorders which were difficult to treat or were not understood then. Might he have had shellshock? You might be able to retrieve his medical record from the hospital if you know which one it was. These records are usually closed for 100 (or 75) years, but I was able to get my g-grandmothers records. She was in an asylum for over 20 years (1920-1940ish), because she gave someone a blackeye:o(( well, there's nothing else in the notes to suggest there was anything wrong with her.................................. Merry

If you contact your records office, they will quite likely have the patients records for those years. If they are less than 100 years old, you will need to write to the local health authoirty medical records office to get persmission to see them, but if you can show a direct relationship, you will get it. I got my gggfathers, who was a patient in a lunatic asylum for over 20 years. They were a real goldmine, albeit quite distressing to read. Try google on workhouses and institutions. Ian

Thank you everyone. I hate the word lunatic asylums. I don't know if it was shell shock. My g.uncle simpled said he'd been in an asylum for about 3/4 years suffering a breakdown. Having gone through something similiar myself (the breakdown bit) I feel quite sad that this isn't an isolated incident in my family. I can only hope he was the only one, but I know his sister was sent to Essex to a workhouse at 15, which is strange because all of her family are still in Nottingham. I had no idea, so it was a shock, and I'd be surprised to know if anyone else knew this in my family. Now I don't know what hospital it was, but I'll try looking for it.

I don't have a main branch on my tree that hadn't had someone in one of those places.......Have had two in the infamous Bethlam (Bedlam) Hospital :o(( Merry

Yes, it's horrible seeing them described as a lunatic asylum. Sadly, thats what they were called then. Wriiten on my gggfathers cert is - place of death - ***** Lunatic Asylum. Mind, theres no denying that he was suffering from a severe condition, having read the notes. Not pleasant at all. Ian

Kirsten, I agree with you - an unfortunate terminology. I have an aunt who I believe was in one of these institutions for most of her life - I am trying to find out the details but I believe there was some sort of problem with childbirth - a possible stillbirth and probably following that some sort of post natal depression. Nowadays it would be treatable but going back 60 or 70 years things were very different. Dea x

Merry I am so sorry! It's such a disgrace how they treated people back then. I'm going to get in contact with my local records office and see what they can do for me. It seems that being in an asylum wasn't as umcommon as I thought.

Thousands upon thousands of men came back from WW1 with what we now call shellshock. It was considered very unmanly of course, and many men just got on with their lives, living in a private hell and/or giving their families a hard time. My Grandfather's cousin returned from WW1 without a scratch, but he was a gibbering wreck, totally incapable of functioning. Before the War, he had been a gentle, dreamy man who worked as a piano teacher. He spent the rest of his life (47 years) in a closed ward, often in a strait-jacket. His loyal wife visited once a fortnight (that is all that was allowed) and of course, her life was over too - no question of divorce then. His condition improved slightly when medication improved. He had a frontal lobotomy, which stopped his extreme distress and turned him into a grinning idiot - sorry, but that's the truth of it. He was by no means the only one. Olde Crone