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  1. #1
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    Default Bexley Aslum Patient records

    Whilst admission registers and some notes (2 different sites) for the above are available on subscription site there are no other records that are scheduled to be scanned now or in the future for the above. There are records to look at if you want to visit or pay a researcher at the London Metropolitan Archives check on line catalogue for references for what is available. What I forgot to ask was there a time line for looking at these records because I have a feeling I had to wait until my ancestor had been dead 110 years before records could be accessed. I appreciate it can be random to find an ancestor in an institution such as this but only realised that I have another ancestor from a different paternal strand in another asylum in Kent. Not quite sure what implications that might have.
    I would be interested to know what peoples experiences have been on getting access to cemeteries of relatives who have died in asylums in the UK and the site has been redeveloped. I appreciate that there are no marked graves. I had a dreadful run around with a developer for a site took 2 years to finally pin down that the cemetery was part of somebody's garden. I asked in the local newsagents (must have thought I was strange) Never did get any further but would still like to try again. It really became the principle of the thing
    Last edited by Jane Gee; 09-05-2015 at 10:25 AM. Reason: to add

  2. #2
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    You may have to wait before you can browse through a file but that doesn't mean you can't get to see your specific ancestor's records.

    The policy is set out in this information leaflet

    Access to Patients Records

    Hospital records are subject to a period of restricted access in order to protect the confidentiality of living individuals. It may therefore not be possible for you to consult all the records yourself. We are able to undertake research on behalf of an individual to provide information from hospital records but we do have to ensure that the information is only being released to either the individual concerned or in the case of a third party request that the patient concerned is deceased. We do charge for undertaking such searches within our records.

    We suggest that in the first instance you contact the enquiry team who will be able to advise you on how to proceed with your particular enquiry

  3. #3
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    thank you for that Peter I have already made tentative enquiries regarding a researcher from the organisation you suggested on a previous thread. I seem to remember being told for a previous relative it was 110 years if this is the case it would be 2023 before I could get access to patient records. The ones I had for Chartham Asylum gave details of behaviour of my relative when admitted and his state of mind it made very sad reading even though it was very very brief. It may be a few weeks before I can find out what its available but its best to take time over these things rather than rush at it. Thank you once again.

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    Hi Peter I took your advice and found an AGRA member who has informed me that she has now completed her research on my behalf sad no next of kin (brick wall still intact) but she said there is a photograph of gt grandma so am looking forward to seeing this together with medical ,post mortem etc. in the next few week so thank you.

  5. #5
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    Default Records now obtained further question

    I now have sight of the records available for my gt grandmother in Bexley Asylum she died in 1908 in the death register the last column says her body was "disposed to school" now I know I can jump to at least one conclusion but would be grateful for any thoughts that people might have on this. I did try an archivist for the London school of Medicine but they have just referred me to LMA where the records are held.

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    If a body is sent to a medical school, I believe that current regulations are that there should be eventually, when the school is finished with the body, be a funeral. Perhaps you might find a record somewhere.

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    Hi Peter my gt grandmother had a full post mortem which I have details of. I wonder if this would this account for the remark also my researcher could find no burial record at Bexley Asylum for her. If she had been sent to a medical school I wonder what the law said about this there was no next of kin to take the body but I think any family via the in laws side would have distanced themselves from her because of the shame of first being in the workhouse and the asylum. My grandmother was told her mother died when she was born. As to any family gt grandma had I have no idea. I suspect she was just left on her own and forgotten about possibly

  8. #8
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    If there was a post mortem it would be clear from the death certificate. I can't see how "disposed to school" can mean anything except sent to a medical school. If there was a subsequent burial record it would be some time later and somewhere in the vicinity of the medical school.

    Here's an article which touches on this subject and the controversy surrounding the practice:

    https://www.leeds.ac.uk/chb/lectures/anatomy1.html

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    Hallo Peter

    Thank you so much for taking the trouble to find this article. This is so interesting I have read through the article and can see that even if Annie had gone for examination she should still have been buried so I would think that the hospital would have had connections to Bexley which I have an idea is in some notes I have about Bexley. It would depend on how long a body could be "kept" before it was sent for burial so this is something else to pursue. I could not attend a post mortem but found the story of John Hunter the "Knife Man" really interesting I visited a "small local black police museum" some years ago which was quite a shock! quite a lesson and not for the faint hearted.

  10. #10
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    Bexley Asylum was run by the London County Council so London is where you should look for a medical school.

    I think you can work out which medical schools were in operation at the time from the Wikipedia article "List of medical schools in the United Kingdom"

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