Rainhill Mental Asylum Records Help

[sarah-litherland]

Hi,
I only joined the site today and am very new to it i was wondering if anyone can help me my grandad was admitted to rainhill asylum and died there in 1967
i believe it was due to the fact he was suffering from huntingtons disease
and i desperatley want some information on him like records from the asylum, does anyone know if this is possible and how to go about getting this imformation
my dad now has the same disease and as a result he is unable to communicate the imformation i need,
Thankyou Sarah

[MaryA]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

I think it is unlikely that they will release such recent medical records to you for genealogy purposes, but in the circumstances you have described perhaps you should apply direct to the NHS who may be sympathetic to your enquiry.

[sarah-litherland]

Thankyou for your reply i shall try applying to the nhs, i also have one more question i don't know where my grandad is buried i so much want to visit the grave but don't have a clue where it is.
do you know where i can obtain this imformation??

Thankyou
Sarah

[MaryA]

It's possible he might have been buried in St Helens, you can do a search here although if the family took charge of the burial it may have been nearer to either their home or where grandad lived previously.

Again if the hospital took charge of the burial you may get some information from there, although if there is anybody in the family at all to ask that would be your first stop as it's not too long ago, still within people's memory.

[m.downey]

Hi,
Try Liverpool Library for hospital records, also Lancashire Record Office.There are rules about disclosure of content of records but I think either of these could help or at least steer you in the right direction.
Did you have any success with the cemetery records web site?
Good luck
md

[Hilary]

If you look at

www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/hospitalrecords you will find a database of were hospital records are. If you put Rainhill in and search you will find were the records are. You will then need to contact the relevant repository and ask if they will look for the information you wish. As someone else has said there is usually a 100 years closure BUT due to the circumstances it may be allowed. It's worth a try.

You'll need to go via the Record Offices as the hospital is now closed but may then have to apply to soemwhere that the record office will give you.

Good luck

Hilary
Ed Officer

[sarah-litherland]

Thankyou for your help, i have not had any luck with the St Helens burial site. My Grandad was origanally from the St Helens area and at that time my family lived there so i also presume that he is buried somewhere around the Knowsley area and as i moved away with my family when i was two i am not really familiar with the cemetrys in that area.
Unfortunatly i am not able to ask family members either as my Dad is my only surviving relative. The little i do know about my Grandad is just bits of imformation my Mum told me before she died and all she told me was that he was put in Rainhill in the last years of his life.
I will contact all the people you have suggested and see if they will give me some imformation and i will go to the records office aswell and hopefully i will get somewhere.

Thankyou Kindly
Sarah

[AJ]

Hi Sarah
Write to the NHS department which holds the records for Rainhill, and explain the situation about your father, and tell them that you need access to the records to see if they can shed any light on the condition which your dad and grandfather have. I did this in relation to my grandmother and I was allowed access to what remained of her hospital records. But bear in mind that only a selection of records have been saved apparently. Good luck. AJ