From Glasgow to Newmachar, Aberdeenshire.

[elizaga]

I have submitted my first post (rather lengthy) in the "Institution" Topic but I see the last posts there were August this year, and then a long gap. Perhaps I should have put it in "General Discussion"....

Since it is so long I'll copy the last part here and anyone interested can refer to the original under "Institutions".. I hope that is OK.....

This concerns my grandmother's younger sister, Helen Gilmour, known to the family as Nellie. I have been searching for her death registration for some years, presuming it was in Glasgow where she was born and lived until her early twenties. Then I found her death in Aberdeenshire.

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Nellie died in 1917 three weeks before her 32nd birthday. She died in Kingseat Asylum, Newmachar, Aberdeenshire. Cause of death: Exhaustion from acute resistive Melancholia over 7 years.

I am wondering if there is a way of accessing the records from Kingseat Asylum in Aberdeenshire. Who I would contact. I live in the Central Belt, over 100 miles from Aberdeenshire and with health and mobility problems would be unable to travel there to access archives.

I had a quick look through the online Aberdeenshire MI names but no Gilmour. I doubt if Nellie had a headstone, but wonder if there was a graveyard at Newmachar, or where the nearest one would have been. Also what records there might be pertaining to the burial.

If anyone can offer guidance I would be most grateful.

Late last night I subscribed to the Rootsweb Aberdeen mailing list but have not yet been there.

Thanks for listening.

elizaga

[nelmit]

Hello and welcome to Talking Scot.

You could try contacting NHS Grampian Archives who hold the records but unfortunately there appears to be a 100 year closure on them.

http://www.scan.org.uk/catalogue/ Click on Search then insert GB1150 in the Archive Reference Box.

Regards,
Annette

[elizaga]

Thanks, Annette, for your welcome and for the information. Also your note to my other post. I shall go to those two websites.

But how disappointing that there is a 100 year closure. I wonder if they take the age of the deceased into consideration. My great-aunt Nellie would have been 125 years old this year....

Best wishes
Eliza

[Currie]

Hello Eliza,

The closure period may be 75 years except for minors? But regardless, write to them and explain your circumstances, you have no less right to access than someone living next-door to the Archives. There may be a sympathetic soul there who knows how to use a photocopy machine.
http://www.nhsgrampian.org/nhsgrampian/ ... rchers.pdf

Kingseat has been mentioned on this forum at least once before. The information in that thread is old and may be outdated.
viewtopic.php?f=36&t=1745

There’s mention in Parliamentary Papers “1914-16 [Cd. 7944] First annual report of the General Board of Control for Scotland” that Aberdeen District Asylum at Kingseat, Superintendent Dr. Alexander, had one female private patient, 257 male pauper patients, and 236 female pauper patients.

There’s some interesting pictorial stuff here – also see “similar threads” right at the bottom of the page http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/sho ... hp?t=24852

All the best,
Alan

[joette]

I know I was kindly given information re my Great-Grandmother's hospital admission around 1913 from the Greater Glasgow Health Board archive.I had found reference to a hospital admission in a Poor Law Application & wanted to know why
1-She was making an application when she was married to a fairly well paid tradesman.
2-What had caused the "total debilitation" that made her application succesful.
It was all very illuminating & with a bit of digging in the newspaper archives at the Mitchell I was able to answer a lot of family mysteries & to clear the slight question mark which had hung over my Great-Grandfather's conduct.
He also suffered from "melancholia" this was as a result of a familial physical illness-Pernicious Aneamia which he & my paternal&maternal but from the paternal side have passed onto me.He finally succumbed to it & it's sad that something which now can be cured by a three monthly injection was the cause of his death & contributed to the death of two of his siblings.
I hope somebody will be willing to give you some answers & off course I am several hundred miles away from Glasgow(sadly) so distance should not make a difference to your search.

[nelmit]

I received my mum's gran's medical record a few years ago by emailing NHS Glasgow Archives. She died at Woodilee Asylum in 1923 age 38. I really just wanted the photograph they had but they sent a copy of the whole record.

From a family history point of view it was really informative as it gave great details on her parents, siblings and children but reading about her illness was very harrowing.

Regards,
Annette

[elizaga]

Hello Alan

Thanks for your response and the links. I hope the closure period is reasonable, it is 125 years since my great-aunt Nellie's birth and 93 years since her death so I'm hoping this is not a problem. Here's hoping there is a sympathetic soul there!

Interesting about the one private patient in Kingseat, might it have been my Nellie.... she was not local and I've no reason to believe she was a pauper. Could be her...

I'll have a look at the 28dayslater website. Also the older post about Kingseat.

Many thanks.

All the best
Elliza

[elizaga]

Hello Joette

A most interesting post from you. I would not have thought Nellie would have had need for a Poor Law Application either, but who knows... Her family were working class but not at the lowest end.

What a sad story. You have me wondering about Pernicious Aneamia and a link to melancholy. I have wondered how Nellie could have died from chronic melancholia, unless she lost all interest in eating and physically wasted away.

Also my mother, Nellie's niece, had P. A. and had three monthly injections. She had bad bouts of depression, and when as a teenager I stayed with my Grandma she always asked anxiously if my mother was "still the same". Perhaps she was concerned my mother might go the same way as her young sister.

Such problems were so poorly understood in the past, tragic. Thanks for what you wrote.

Best wishes
eliza

[elizaga]

I hope I am as fortunate as you Annette, and Joette, I would be delighted to get any information. Glasgow seems to have kept good records, I hope Aberdeenshire did and that there are no problems. A photo would be an added bonus. But, yes, reading of your great-grandmother's illness would be harrowing.

The responses to my post have given me hope of discovering more and I thank all of you.

Best wishes

Eliza

[elizaga]

Hello Eliza,

There’s some interesting pictorial stuff here – also see “similar threads” right at the bottom of the page http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/sho ... hp?t=24852

All the best,
Alan

Thanks for this Alan. Poignant. The bedroom dormitory photos got to me. Fittings, decor would have been relatively modern compared with back in 1909-17. What a pity the photographers didn't get there before so much was destroyed. But I am glad I have seen these photos.

Eliza